Copyright 2002 Saskia Sassen Originally published in "Global Civil Society 2002." Edited by Helmut Anheier et. al. GCS2002 pages [09] 2/04 19/6/02 3:40 pm Page 217 Oxford University Press

Chapter 9 GLOBAL AND DIASPORIC NETWORKS: MICROSITES IN GLOBAL CIVIL SOCIETY Saskia Sassen

lobalisation and the international human variety of organisations focused on trans-boundary rights regime have contributed to the creation issues concerning immigration, asylum, international Gof operational and legal openings for non- women’s agendas, anti-globalisation struggles, and state actors to enter international arenas that were many others. While these are not necessarily urban once the exclusive domain of national states. Various, in their orientation or genesis, they tend to converge often as yet very minor, developments signal that in cities. The new network technologies, especially the the state is no longer the exclusive subject of Internet, ironically have strengthened the urban map international law or the only actor in international of these trans-boundary networks. It does not have relations. Other actors—from NGOs and indigenous to be that way, but at this time cities and the peoples to immigrants and refugees who become networks that bind them function as an anchor and subjects of adjudication in human rights decisions— an enabler of cross-border struggles. These same are increasingly emerging as subjects of international developments and conditions also facilitate the law and actors in international relations. That is to say, internationalising of terrorist and trafficking these non-state actors can gain visibility in networks; it is not clear how these fit into global international fora as individuals and as collectivities, civil society. emerging from the invisibility of aggregate Global cities are, then, thick enabling environ- membership in a nation-state exclusively represented ments for these types of activities, even though the by the sovereign. networks themselves are not urban per se. In this One way of interpreting this is in terms of an regard, these cities help people experience themselves incipient unbundling of the exclusive authority over as part of global non-state networks as they live territory and people that we have long associated their daily lives. They enact global civil society in the with the national state. The most strategic micro-spaces of daily life rather than on some instantiation of this unbundling is probably the global putative global stage. , which operates as a partly denationalised platform for global capital and, at the same time, is The Ascendancy of Sub- and emerging as a key site for the most astounding mix of people from all over the world. The growing Transnational Spaces and Actors intensity of transactions among major cities is he key nexus in this configuration is that the creating a strategic cross-border geography that weakening of the exclusive formal authority of partly bypasses national states. The new network Tstates over national territory facilitates the Sassen Saskia technologies further strengthen these transactions, ascendancy of sub- and transnational spaces and whether they are electronic transfers of specialised actors in politico-civic processes. These are spaces services among firms or Internet-based communica- that tended to be confined to the national domain tions among the members of diasporas and interest or that have evolved as novel types in the context of groups. globalisation and digitisation. This loss of power at the Do these developments contribute to the national level produces the possibility of new forms expansion of a global civil society? These cities and of power and politics at the sub-national level and the new strategic geographies that connect them at the supra-national level. The national as container and bypass national states can be seen as constituting of social process and power is cracked (P. Taylor 2000; part of the infrastructure for global civil society. They Sachar 1990). This cracked casing opens up a do so from the ground up, through multiple geography of politics and civics that links subnational

microsites and microtransactions. Among them are a spaces. Cities are foremost in this new geography. GLOBAL CITIES AND DIASPORIC NETWORKS

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The density of political and civic cultures in large of often resource-poor organisations to pursue a cities localises global civil society in people’s lives. We variety of cross-border initiatives. All of this has can think of these as multiple localisations of civil increased the number of cities that are part of cross- society that are global in that they are part of global border networks operating on often vast geographic circuits and trans-boundary networks . scales. Under these conditions, much of what we The organisational side of the global economy experience and represent as the local level turns out materialises in a worldwide grid of strategic places, to be a micro-environment with global span. uppermost among which are major international The new urban spatiality thus produced is partial in business and financial centres. We can think of this a double sense: it accounts for only part of what global grid as constituting a new economic geography happens in cities and what cities are about, and it of centrality, one that cuts across national boundaries inhabits only part of what we might think of as the and increasingly across the old North- space of the city, whether this be South divide. It has emerged as a understood in terms as diverse as those transnational space for the formation of a city’s administrative boundaries or Global cities and the of new claims by global capital but in the sense of the public life of a city’s also by other types of actors. The most new strategic people. But it is nonetheless one way powerful of these new geographies of geographies that in which cities can become part of the centrality at the inter-urban level bind live infrastructure of global civil connect them and the major international financial and society. business centres: New York, London, bypass national states The space constituted by the , Paris, Frankfurt, Zurich, can be seen as worldwide grid of global cities, a Amsterdam, Los Angeles, Sydney, Hong space with new economic and constituting part of Kong, among others. But this geo- political potentialities, is perhaps one graphy now also includes cities such as the infrastructure for of the most strategic spaces for the Sao Paulo, Shanghai, Bangkok, Taipei, global civil society formation of transnational identities and Mexico City. The intensity of and communities. This is a space that transactions among these cities, is both place-centred in that it is particularly through the financial embedded in particular and strategic markets, transactions in services, and investment, has cities, and trans-territorial because it connects sites increased sharply, and so have the orders of magnitude that are not geographically proximate yet are involved. intensely linked to each other. It is not only the Economic globalisation and telecommunications transmigration of capital that takes place in this have contributed to produce a space for the urban global grid but also that of people, both rich—i.e., the which pivots on de-territorialised cross-border new transnational professional workforce—and poor— networks and territorial locations with massive i.e., most migrant workers; and it is a space for the concentrations of resources. This is not a completely transmigration of cultural forms, for the re- new feature. Over the centuries cities have been at territorialisation of ‘local’ subcultures. An important the intersection of processes with supra-urban and question is whether it is also a space for a new

Saskia Sassen Saskia even intercontinental scaling. Ancient Athens and politics, one going beyond the politics of culture and Rome, the cities of the Hanseatic League, Genoa, identity while likely to remain at least partly Venice, Baghdad, Cairo, Istanbul, each has been at the embedded in it. One of the most radical forms crossroads of major dynamics in their time (Braudel assumed today by the linkage of people to territory 1984). What is different today is the coexistence of is the loosening of identities from their traditional multiple networks and the intensity, complexity, and sources, such as the nation or the village. This global span of these networks. Another marking unmooring in the process of identity formation feature of the contemporary period, especially when engenders new notions of community of membership it comes to the economy, is the extent to which and of entitlement. significant portions of economies are now de- Immigration is one major process through which a materialised and digitised and hence can travel at new transnational political economy is being great speeds through these networks. Also new is constituted, one which is largely embedded in major

GLOBAL CITIES AND DIASPORIC NETWORKS the growing use of digital networks by a broad range cities in so far as most immigrants are concentrated in

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major cities. It is, on my reading, one of the constitutive Peoples’ Networks: Micro- processes of globalisation today, even though not Politics for and against Global recognised or represented as such in mainstream accounts of the global economy. It becomes, in more Civil Society and more cities, part of a massive demographic transition towards a growing presence of women, native he cross-border network of global cities is a minorities, and immigrants in the population. space where we are seeing the formation of new Global capital and immigrants are two major Ttypes of ‘global’ politics of place which contest instances of transnationalised actors that have corporate globalisation. The demonstrations by the cross-border unifying properties internally and find anti-globalisation movement signal the potential for themselves in conflict with each other inside global developing a politics centred on places understood as cities. The leading sectors of corporate capital are locations on global networks. This is a place-specific now global in their organisation and operations. politics with a global span. It is a type of political work And many of the disadvantaged workers in global deeply embedded in people’s actions and activities cities are women, immigrants, people of colour— but made possible partly by the existence of global men and women whose sense of membership is not digital linkages. These are mostly organisations necessarily adequately captured in terms of the operating through networks of cities and involving national, and indeed often evince cross-border solid- informal political actors, that is, actors who are not arities around issues of substance. Both types of necessarily engaging in politics as citizens narrowly actors find in the a defined, where voting is the most strategic site for their economic and formalised type of citizen politics. political operations. We see here an The space constituted Among such informal political actors interesting correspondence between by the worldwide grid are women who engage in political great concentrations of corporate of global cities, a struggles in their condition as power and large concentrations of mothers, anti-globalisation activists ‘others’. space with new who go to a foreign country as In brief, large cities in both the economic and political tourists but to do citizen politics, global South and the global North potentialities, is undocumented immigrants who join are the terrain where a multiplicity protests against police brutality. of globalisation processes assume perhaps one of the We can identify at least four spe- concrete, localised forms. A focus most strategic spaces cific types of these politics in terms of on cities allows us to capture, not for the formation of their objectives or focus: anti- only the upper, but also the lower capitalism, women, migrants, and anti- circuits of globalisation. These transnational trafficking. One of their characteristics, localised forms are, in good part, identities and especially of the first three types, is what globalisation is about. Further, communities that they engage in ‘non-cosmo- the thickening transactions that politan’ forms of . Partly bind cities across borders signal the enabled by the Internet, activists can

possibility of a new politics of traditionally develop global networks for circulating not only Sassen Saskia disadvantaged actors operating in this new information (about environmental, housing, political transnational economic geography. This is a politics issues, etc.) but also political work and strategies. Yet that arises out of actual participation by workers in they remain grounded in very specific issues and are the global economy, but under conditions of often focused on their localities even as they operate disadvantage and lack of recognition, whether as as part of global networks. There are many examples of factory workers in export-processing zones or as such a new type of cross-border political work. For cleaners on Wall Street. instance, the Society for Promotion of Area Resource Centres (SPARC; see Table 9.4), started by and centred on women, began as an effort to organise slum dwellers in Bombay to get housing. Now it has a network of such groups throughout Asia and some cities in Latin America

and Africa. This is one of the key forms of critical politics GLOBAL CITIES AND DIASPORIC NETWORKS

219 GCS2002 pages[09]2/0419/6/023:40pmPage220 220 GLOBAL CITIES AND DIASPORIC NETWORKS Saskia Sassen Third Position International Network Third World Enough 50 Years Is Name Table 9.1: Social justicenetworks–detaileddescription its aims. like-minded organisations, groups, andindividualswhoshare revolution. Itisorganised allovertheworld,bringingtogether widespread diffusionofproperty, andsupportsaworldwide alternative tobothsocialismandcapitalismbasedonthe banking systemandusurybyasoundmoneysystem,an preservation oftheenvironment, thereplacement ofthe own programme. Itsupportstheideaofpopularrule, greatest evilsofthemodernworld,andthushostiletoits The Third Position viewsinternationalfinanceasoneofthe so astobecomethepoliticalcreed ofthetwenty-first century. which rejects andtranscends thewisdomofmodernworld The InternationalThird Position isdefinedasaworldview the North. and Senegal.Italsocooperates withseveral organisations in Malaysia, Peru, Ethiopia,Uruguay, Mexico,Ghana,SouthAfrica, including India,thePhilippines,Thailand,Brazil, Bangladesh, affiliated organisations inseveral Third World countries, London; andAccra, Ghana.TheThird World Networkhas India; Montevideo,Uruguay(forSouthAmerica);Geneva; secretariat isbasedinPenang, Malaysia.IthasofficesinDelhi, as theUNconferences andprocesses. TheTWN’s international Southern interests andperspectives atinternationalfora such participate inseminars; andtoprovide aplatformrepresenting South; topublishbooksandmagazines;organise and economic, social,andenvironmental issuespertainingtothe South issues.Itsobjectivesare toconductresearch on in issuesrelating todevelopment,theThird World, andNorth- international networkoforganisations andindividualsinvolved The Third World Network(TWN)isanindependentnon-profit could deliverrelevant andappropriate assistance. and topromote apublicexploration ofnewstructures that aims atthesametimetolimitpoweroftheseinstitutions policy-makers ofchangeattheBretton Woods institutions.It increasing theawareness oftheUSpublic,media,and allowed tocontinue.The50Years IsEnoughNetworkaimsat that theWorld BankandtheIMFpromote shouldnotbe slogan toexpress thebeliefthattypeofdevelopment US organisations .‘50Years IsEnough’waschosenasthe anniversary oftheBretton Woods conference, byagroup of 50 Years IsEnoughwasfoundedin1994,theyearof50th Description com/third-position/ http://dspace.dial.pipex. org.sg/ http://www.twnside. http://www.50years.org/ Website address GCS2002 pages [09] 2/04 19/6/02 3:40 pm Page 221

that the Internet can make possible: a politics of the What I mean by the term ‘micro-environment local with a big difference in that these are localities with global span’ is that technical connectivity links connected with each other across a region, a country, even resource-poor organisations with other similar or the world. Although the network is global, this does local entities in neighbourhoods and cities in other not mean that it all has to happen at the global level. countries. A community of practice can emerge that Table 9.4 contains a list of organ- creates multiple lateral, horizontal isations concerned with women’s communications, collaborations, issues and often very local concerns solidarities, supports. This can Life in global cities but which are nonetheless part of enable local political or non-polit- global networks. helps people ical actors to enter into cross- I will also focus on two very experience themselves border politics. different types of networks which as part of global non- have, however, similarly been enabled Migrants by the technical infrastructure of state networks. They globalisation. They are organised enact global civil There are a growing number of terrorist networks and trafficking organisations addressing the issues society in the micro- organisations. of immigrants and asylum-seekers in spaces of daily life a variety of countries (see Table 9.5). Anti-capitalist organisations rather than on some The city is a far more concrete space for politics than the nation. It putative global stage Tables 9.1 and 9.2 briefly present a becomes a place where non-formal few organisations dedicated to fight, political actors can be part of the criticise, and expose various aspects political scene in a way that is more of globalisation and capitalism generally. Most of them difficult, though not impossible, at the national have been formed only recently. Table 9.1 contains level. Nationally politics needs to run through three particular examples, and Table 9.2 a more general existing formal systems, whether the electoral list of these organisations. Together they show the political system or the judiciary (taking state variety of issues, some broad and some very narrow, agencies to court). To do this you need to be a that are bringing people together in struggles and citizen. Non-formal political actors are thereby more work against global corporate capital and other sources easily rendered invisible in the space of national of social injustice. This has clearly emerged as an politics. The space of the city accommodates a broad important anchor for cross-border peoples’ networks. range of political activities—squatting, Many of these organisations are or might become demonstrations against police brutality, fighting micro-elements of global civil society. for the rights of immigrants and the homeless—and issues—the politics of culture and identity, gay and Women lesbian and queer politics. Much of this becomes visible on the street. Much of urban politics is Women have become increasingly active in this world concrete, enacted by people rather than dependent

of cross-border efforts. This has often meant the on massive media technologies. Street-level politics Sassen Saskia potential transformation of a whole range of ‘local’ make possible the formation of new types of conditions or domestic institutional domains—such as political subjects that do not have to go through the the household, the community, or the neighbourhood, formal political system. where women find themselves confined to domestic It is in this sense that those who lack power and roles—into political spaces. Women can emerge as are ‘unauthorised’ (i.e. unauthorised immigrants, political and civic subjects without having to step out those who are disadvantaged, outsiders, discriminated of these domestic worlds. From being lived or minorities, can in global cities gain presence, vis-à- experienced as non-political or domestic, these places vis power and vis-à-vis each other (Sassen 1996: Ch. are transformed into micro-environments with global 1). A good example of this is the Europe-wide span. An example of this is MADRE, an international demonstrations of Kurds in response to the arrest of organisation presented in Table 9.3. In Table 9.4 we Öcalan: suddenly they were on the map not only as

list a variety of organisations concerned with women. an oppressed minority but also as a diaspora in their GLOBAL CITIES AND DIASPORIC NETWORKS

221 GCS2002 pages[09]2/0419/6/023:40pmPage222 222 GLOBAL CITIES AND DIASPORIC NETWORKS Saskia Sassen Table 9.2:More socialjusticenetworks–inbrief nentoa nalac f6 edn ciit osiuae http://www.ifg.org/ newthinking, jointactivity, andpublic educationinresponse totheglobaleconomy. http://www.globalexchange.org/ Anallianceof 60leadingactiviststostimulate Forum on International actioncentre dedicated toadvocatingand GlobalExchangeisaresearch, education,and http://www.afd-online.org/ http://cdan.org/ Exchange Global overcorporations. Hasthepotential Amovementtorestore populistdemocracy Democracy potentialtogotransnational. Alliance for overcome corporate globalisation.Hasthe Network ConsistsofautonomousUSlocalsworkingto Direct Action Continental ithaschangeditspositiononimmigrants and http://www.aseed.net/ http://www.corpwatch.org/ andintheircommunities.Sincethelate1990s http://www.aflcio.org/home.htm Organizations of Industrial onthejob, ingovernment,theglobaleconomy, byenablingworkingpeopletohaveavoice Labor-Congress ecologicalandeconomicpractices. Aimsatbringingsocialandeconomicjustice Federation of The American Monitors transnational corporations’ social, Watch Corporate Targets thestructural causesofthe http://www.jubileesouth.net/ Web address http://www.developmentgap.org/ A SEED organisation Acoalitionofdebtcancellationmovements addressing structural adjustment Jubilee South andcoordination againsttheglobalmarket. Research, resource, andnetworking Gap Development http://www.nadir.org/nadir/initiativ/agp/ Briefdescription Action Aglobalinstrumentforcommunication People’s Global Name justice onaglobalscale. working forpolitical,economic,andsocial to gotransnational. across borders. now seekstoorganise themandtowork institutions and‘free’ trade agreements. campaigns againsttheinternationalfinancial environment anddevelopmentcrisis,it from across theglobalSouth. and trade liberalisation issues. GCS2002 pages[09]2/0419/6/023:40pmPage223 aLtaAgopo ciit,atss dctr,ad http://www.lalutta.org professionals unitedtopromote agreater level ofsocialawareness. Agroup ofactivists,artists,educators, and Collective Media http://www.seen.org/pages/issues.shtml La Lutta Aimedatsteeringthefinancialinvestmentsof who_we_are.htm http://www.ainfos.ca/ http://www.econjustice.net/wbbb/ SEEN politicalandfinancialpressure ontheworld. Aninternationalgrass-roots campaignbuilding Bonds Boycott http://www.wtowatch.org/ World Bank Aproject coordinated byaninternational A-Infos http://www.seac.org/ WTO Watch isawebsiteontrade and http://www.seattleyouth.org/ WTO Watch leadership training, anddecision-making. Network Promotes youthvoicethrough civicinvolvement, Involvement http://www.moles.org/ Seattle Youth Networkofprogressive orgs andindividuals through actionand education. Action Coalition http://www.youthactivism.org/ aimedatuprooting environmental injustices Environmental http://www.phase1.net/ Student around theworldtakingaction foramore just organisation Dedicatedtotheyoungwomenandmen Aradical leftgroup ofSwitzerlandengaged inthe Youthactivism Web address Carriesout focusedcampaigns Phase1 againstabusiveextractive resource activity. Underground Project http://www.justact.org/home/index.html JustActoffers programmes thatlinkstudents Briefdescription JustAct Name fuels. wealthy countriesawayfrom supportforfossil new classlesssocialorder. believing inrevolution asnecessarytobringa anti-capitalist activists,involvedwithclassand collective ofrevolutionary anti-authoritarian, globalisation. and democratic world. struggle againstracism, sexism,andcapitalism. around theworld. sustainable andself-reliant communities grass-roots movementsworkingfor and youthintheUStoorganisations and 223 GLOBAL CITIES AND DIASPORIC NETWORKS Saskia Sassen GCS2002 pages[09]2/0419/6/023:40pmPage224 224 GLOBAL CITIES AND DIASPORIC NETWORKS Saskia Sassen Benimpuhwe Ibdaa Luhpia Wangky Q’ati’t Antzetik K’inal MADRE Name Table 9.3: MADRE anditssisterorganisations other andtorebuild theirlives. together inthewakeofgenocidetosupporteach An associationofRwandanwomenwhopulled build afuture forthemselvesandtheircommunity. children todeveloptheskillsandpoliticalvision In theinDeheisherefugee campinPalestine, enables nutrition. against women,drugaddiction,illiteracy, andmal- In Nicaragua, supportsprogrammes combatingviolence where theywork. document andcombathumanrightsabusesinfactories In Guatemala,equipswomenmaquilaworkers to weavers. In Chiapas,acooperative ofindigenouswomen home countries. to strengthen theirworkforsocialjusticein international campaignsandshare ideasandstrategies its sisterorganisations sothattheycanjoinforces on advocate fortheirrights.Itservesasabridgebetween providing thetraining andresources forthemto process ofcreating andimproving internationallawby work forsocialchangeatthecommunitylevelinto the peopleitismeanttoserve.Itbringswomenwho to makeinternationallawrelevant andaccountableto international humanrightsadvocacyprogramme aims struggles forsocialjusticeandhumanrights.MADRE’s hurt byUSpolicyandsupportswomen’s long-term programmes tomeetimmediateneedsincommunities to demandchangesunjustpolicies.Itdevelops organisations andworkstoempowerpeopleintheUS provides resources andtraining foritssister economic development,andotherhumanrights.It worldwide toaddress issuesofhealth,education, based women’s organisations inconflictareas 1983, ithasworkedinpartnership withcommunity- against attacksontheirrightsandresources. Since MADRE workstosupportwomenwhoare organising Description http://www.madre.org Website address http://www.dheisheh-ibdaa.net/ http://www.laneta.apc.org/kinal/ GCS2002 pages[09]2/0419/6/023:40pmPage225 Violence Racist Sexual Website Against Black Women’s Rights Net Women Human Organization Development and Environment Women’s For Women The GlobalFund Development Women in Alternative Law Under Muslim Women Living Development Rights in for Women The Association Women (NEWW) East-West The Networkof SPARC Name Table 9.4: More women’s organisations –inbrief their countryoforigin. harassment, includingwomenseekingasylumafterbeingraped in suffered rape, racist sexualassault,orotherformsofviolenceand immigrant, migrant, andrefugee womeninBritainwhohave A pointofreference forinformationonblack,ethnicminority, and strategies forwomen’s humanrightswork. world; provides linkstoorganisations andexplanationsofsystems A partnership ofwomen’s humanrightsorganisations around the roles, andleadership nationally, regionally, andinternationally An internationalorganisation workingtoincrease women’s visibility, world ofequalityandsocialjustice. An internationalnetworkofwomenandmencommittedtoa and socialissuesaffectingwomen. A workinggroup strugglingtobringafeministanalysiseconomic Islam lives are conditionedbylawsandcustomssaid toderivefrom An internationalnetworkproviding supportforallwomenwhose equality An internationalorganisation committedtoachievinggender women across theUSandformerYugoslavia An internationalcommunicationandresource networkfoundedby options, andprepare budgets enables themtohandlemonetarytransactions, analyseeconomic moneylenders. SPARC’s capacity-buildingworkwiththesegroups to extricatethemselvesfrom theclutchesofexploitative circulated bythesegroups maybesmall,thisactivity allowswomen point fortheseinteractions. Thoughtheamountofmoney with women’s collectives.Savingsandcredit isfrequently theentry running through allofSPARC’s activities.SPARC worksclosely and thoseofothers. Thus,peer-basedcapacitybuildingisathread element ofsuchcapacitybuildingislearningfrom one’s experiences decisions whichaffecttheirlives.SPARC’s philosophyisthatakey sustainable processes andinstitutionsinorder toparticipatein helping themtoorganise themselves,developskills,andcreate with theurbanandrural poor, especiallywomen,withtheaimof registered asasocietyandtrustin1984.Sincethen,ithasworked The SocietyforPromotion ofArea Resource Centres (SPARC) was Description co.uk/ www.bwrap.dircon. www.whrnet.org www.wedo.org/ women.org www.globalfundfor altwid.org www.geocities.com/ www.wluml.org www.awid.org www.neww.org www.sparcindia.org/ Website address 225 GLOBAL CITIES AND DIASPORIC NETWORKS Saskia Sassen GCS2002 pages [09] 2/04 19/6/02 3:40 pm Page 226

Box 9.1: Immigrant communities building cross-border civic networks: The Federation of Michoacan Clubs in Illinois

Immigrant communities in many different parts of the home-town associations in the US is in Los Angeles. The world have formed home-town associations of various second largest is in Chicago, the particular focus here. kinds over the last two centuries. But today we are According to the Mexican Consulate of Chicago, seeing a very specific type of home-town association, there are seven federations of home towns organised one directly concerned with socio-economic develop- according to state of origin. In Chicago, a total of 125 ment in its communities of origin and increasingly home-town clubs constitute these seven federations. engaging both governmental and civic entities in There are several researchers working on these home- sending and receiving countries in these projects. These town associations in Chicago (Gzesh and Espinoza home-town associations are becoming micro-level 1999; Pizarro 2001; Bada 2001). A growing number of building blocks of global civil society. these are working on infrastructure and development In the particular case of the Mexican immigrant projects in their communities of origin, with several community in the US, home-town associations were more probably uncounted, working quietly and formed already in the 1920s and 1930s; but there was unnoticed on small projects. This is a new development; little if anything in the way of development efforts. there is no precedent in the Mexican community of These were often a one-shot affair and then the associ- such cross-border socio-economic development ation would disappear. In the 1960s a whole series of projects. new associations were formed. This corresponded partly In their research on one particular federation of to a generational renewal and the increase of immigra- home towns, the Federation of Michoacan Clubs in tion. But it is particularly in the 1980s and 1990s that Illinois, Gzesh and Espinoza (1999) made the following these associations grew stronger and proliferated. This major findings. is partly because there are now 3 million Mexican nationals settled permanently in the US. 1. The formation of Mexican home-town associations But it is also partly because globalisation and the in the US is a grass-roots response to the stresses new types of transnationalisms that are emerging have placed on communities undergoing rapid change created enabling environments for the types of projects in a globalising society. Mexicans from Michoacan these associations are launching. residing in Illinois have an ethic of community Today more than 400 home-town clubs and associ- responsibility that transcends national boundaries. ations of Mexican immigrants have been counted in 2. The 14 Mexican home-town associations which the US. The largest single concentration of Mexican make up the Illinois Federation of Michoacan Clubs

own right, distinct from the Turks. This signals, for me, cross-border development projects and in that process

Saskia Sassen Saskia the possibility of a new type of politics centred in new are mobilising additional resources and political types of political actors. It is not simply a matter of capital in both their countries of origin and of having or not having power. These are new hybrid immigration. bases from which to act. Tables 9.5 and 9.6 present organisations that are largely focused on a variety of Terrorists issues of powerless groups and individuals. Some are global and others national. While powerless, these But the city and the infrastructure for global individuals and groups are acquiring presence in a networks also enable the operations of militant, broader politico-civic stage . criminal, and terrorists organisations. Globalisation, The case of the Federation of Michoacan Clubs in telecommunications, flexible loyalties and identities Illinois (USA) described in Box 9.1 illustrates this mix facilitate the formation of cross-border geographies of dynamics. These are associations of often very for an increasing range of activities and communities

GLOBAL CITIES AND DIASPORIC NETWORKS poor immigrants which are beginning to engage in of membership. The evidence that has come out since

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depend entirely on volunteer work and voluntary the home towns or in the US, and are run entirely by contributions from their members. They have volunteer labour. With time, these associations have developed high standards of accountability and come to take on social and economic development serve as a model of international, grass-roots projects in their communities of origin, working in philanthropy. conjunction with Mexican local, state, or federal 3. Mexican immigrants who form home-town government entities through various ‘matching’ associations are often from rural communities programmes. which have lost jobs and population during the The home-town clubs eventually formed state- economic restructuring of Mexico over the past wide federations (i.e. all of the home-town clubs from two decades. The projects they undertake in their Michoaca operating in Illinois) to increase their co- communities of origin are intended to mitigate ordination, the scale of the projects which they can those problems and preserve community life. undertake, and their leverage with Mexican govern- Projects completed by contributions from Illinois- ment officials. These are in turn seeking relationships based Michoacan clubs include construction and with other entities in the US and Mexico which share repair of bridges, roads, schools, and churches, as common interests in community and job development well as water systems and recreational facilities in in a globalising economy. their communities of origin. These developments in the immigrant community in 4. The Michocacan home-town associations in this the US parallel developments in Mexico, where there is study have developed along similar paths, which now a local movement searching for alternative ways likely reflect a common experience among to promote development at the local level in a political Mexican immigrant home-town associations system which has been historically highly centralised. across the US. Further, there is a concurrent development of new transnational politics in which migrant organisations The organisational base for the Illinois Michoacanos along with other new political actors can play an has been the home-town-level association; immigrants important role in the construction of more democratic from a single community of origin often work together ways of promoting local development in Mexico. or live in the same community. These associations often start as soccer clubs or organisations that raise Sources: the Mexico-US Advocates Network URL; Pizarro 2001; money to support town-specific religious festivals in Bada 2001.

the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001 have made have closed by now. (For more details Box 1.5 on

it clear that the also served page 24). Sassen Saskia their purposes and that several major cities in Europe were key bases for the Al-Qaeda network. Many Traffickers militant organisations set up an international network of bases in various cities. London has been a key base Another example of illegal networks is those for the Sri Lanka’s Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam’s concerned with human trafficking, a major source of international secretariat, and cities in France, Norway, income for criminal organisations, often mixed in Sweden, Canada, and the US are home to various of with trafficking in drugs and arms. Large cities are their centres of activity. Osama Bin Laden’s Al-Qaeda crucial spaces both in the input (recruitment) and in terrorist organisation is known to have established a the output (insertion of the trafficked person in the support network in Great Britain, run through an destination country labour market) process of office in London called the ‘Advice and Reformation trafficking. Cities such as Bangkok, Lagos, Moscow,

Committee’, founded in July 1994, which is likely to Kiev, are key sites for the top organisers from where GLOBAL CITIES AND DIASPORIC NETWORKS

227 GCS2002 pages[09]2/0419/6/023:40pmPage228 228 GLOBAL CITIES AND DIASPORIC NETWORKS Saskia Sassen Association Workers’ Staff and The Chinese Kalayaan in Europe Organisations Migrant of Filipino The Platform Name Table 9.5: Migrants’ organisations the communityinwhichtheylive, andbeyond. in shapingthepriorities,laws,policies,andvaluesof that bringsChineseworkers togethertoclaimtheirvoice Together theyhavedevelopedamodeloforganising women andmen,youngold,unionnon-union. garment, domestic,restaurant andconstructionworkers, members are low-incomeChineseworkers-including sexism, andtoworkforsocialeconomic.Mostofits challenge thesweatshopsystem,tocounterracism and workplace andinthecommunitieswhere theylive,to aims atguaranteeing therightsofitsmembers inthe members, withcentres inManhattan andBrooklyn. It and hasgrown intoanorganisation ofover1,000 of alltrades. Itbeganasasmallmutualassistancegroup York thatbringstogetherChineseimmigrant workers Founded in1979,CSWA istheonlyorganisation inNew belongings from formeremployers. obtain theirunpaidwages,passports,andother sessions sothatworkers canmakeinformeddecisions and running Englishclasses.Italsoprovides free legaladvice domestic workers infindingemergency housing,and workers abouttheirimmigration status,assistingoverseas domestic workers byproviding initialadvicetodomestic work alsoaddresses thepractical needsofoverseas trade unions,lawcentres, andconcernedindividuals.Its includes migrant andimmigrant supportorganisations, independent coalitionofpeopleandorganisations that the UKandEurope. an endtotheircurrent irregular immigration statusin for overseas domesticworkers ofallnationalitiesandfor Kalayaan activelycampaignsforbasicworkers’ rights undocumented migrants. women, youth,andsecondgeneration seafarers andthe concerns ofthePlatformalsoincludesectors of development ofEurope andthePhilippines.Priority migrants themselvesaskeyactors andparticipants inthe andenvisages the PhilippineandEuropean governments Philippines. TheMigrant Agendaisaddressed toboth Europe andforparticipativedevelopmentinthe Migrant Agendawhichaimsatequalityofrightsin networks from 14countriesinEurope, developeda representing 75organisations, nationalandEurope-wide Centennial ofPhilippineindependence.Its120delegates migration experienceinEurope andcelebrating the Athens inNovember1997,marking30years ofFilipino was establishedduringaEurope-wide Conference in The PlatformofFilipinoMigrant Organisations inEurope Description E stablished in1987,Kalayaan isan http://www.cswa.org home.htm com/homepages/kalayaan/ http://ourworld.compuserve. http://www.platformweb.org/ Website address GCS2002 pages[09]2/0419/6/023:40pmPage229 A Ta Turquie Center Women’s Asian New York Workers Migrant Filipino Mission for (KIWA) Advocates Workers Immigrant Korean Center Resource Workers Immigrant (CFMW) Workers Migrant for Filipino Commission The Europe Youth in The Filipino Committee Service The African Group Resource The Refugee Committee Service The African Council Development Community The Ethiopian Alliance Refugees’ The Iranian community inFrance andthehostsociety. Seeks tostrengthen linksbetweentheTurkish women andchildren ontheagendainNewYork City. Acts asavehicleforplacingtheconcernsofAsian workers whoare indistress. Established inHongKong, thecentre assistsmigrant immigrant workers ofLosAngeles’Koreatown. A non-profit workers centre organising low-wageKorean in society. protect theirrightsintheworkplace,unions,and the capacityofallimmigrant workers todefendand Located inMassachusetts,thecentre isaimedatbuilding empowerment andcapacitybuilding. community inEurope andaimstodevelopmigrant Works inpartnership withtheFilipinomigrant other organisations inthePhilippinesandEurope. development ofaEurope-wide networkwithyouth and Operating outofTheNetherlands,pursues the throughout theNewYork metropolitan area. Provides resettlement assistancetonewAfricansarrivals workers inPakistan. Protects andpromotes rightsofrefugees, migrant immigrants andrefugees intheUS. and MiddleEasternFrench-speaking Caribbean Provides health,legal,andsocialservicestoallAfricans nationally andinEthiopia. in theWashington, DC,metropolitan area awellas through awiderange ofactivitieslocallyandregionally Serves thecommunityofimmigrants andrefugees of Iranian refugees intheUS. A community-basedorganisation topromote therights www.ataturquie.asso.fr www.nyawc.org www.migrants.net www.kiwa.org com/html/mgd/iwrc.html http://www.communityworks. www.cfmw.org http://www.africanservices.org/ www.rwcz.tripod.com www.africanservices.org www.ecdcinternational.org www.irainc.org 229 GLOBAL CITIES AND DIASPORIC NETWORKS Saskia Sassen GCS2002 pages [09] 2/04 19/6/02 3:40 pm Page 230

Table 9.6: Mail-order bride services

Apex Visa Services http://www.hervisa.com Goodwife.com http://www.goodwife.com Mail-orders bride.com http://www.tourrussia.com Heart of Asia http://www.heart-of-asia.org A pretty woman http://aprettywoman.com Kiss.com http://www.kiss.com Romancium.com http://www.romancium.com Beautiful Russian Women Net http://www.beautiful-russian-women.net Mail Order Bride Guide http://www.mailorderbrideguide.com Mail Order Brides 4U http://www.mailorderbrides4u.com

they are able to control the whole process up to its significant component of global networks, both final destination, whereas the other categories of constitutive of and enabled by global civil society. personnel, usually lower-level actors, enforcers, debt collectors, etc., operate in the major destination cities, The Forging of New New York, Los Angeles, Paris, London, etc. In recent years other forms of ‘trafficking’, Political Subjects particularly in women and minors , have developed he mix of focused activism and local/global through the use of the Internet. Bride traffickers, for networks represented by the organisations example, advertise through catalogues on the Tdescribed in the preceding section creates Internet operating mainly in the US (in particular conditions for the emergence of at least partly New York, Los Angeles, Miami) as well as in the transnational identities. The possibility of identifying countries where women are recruited: the Philippines, with larger communities of practice or membership the former Soviet Union, and south-east Asia. can bring about the partial unmooring of identities According to the International Organisation for referred to in the first section. While this does not Migration (1999), nearly all the mail-order bride necessarily neutralise attachments to a country or services, especially those in the former Soviet Union, national cause, it does shift this attachment to are under the control of organised crime networks include trans-local communities of practice and/or

Saskia Sassen Saskia (see Table 9.6). membership. This is a crucial building block for a global civil society that can incorporate the micro- Anti-trafficking practices and micro-objectives of people’s daily lives as well as their political passions. The possibility of In turn, there has been an increase of counter- transnational identities emerging as a consequence networks for anti-trafficking programmes in the of this thickness of micro-politics is important for areas of trafficking prevention, protection, and strengthening global civil society; the risk of assistance for victims, and prosecution of traffickers nationalisms and fundamentalisms is, clearly, present (see Table 9.7). Much of this effort is centred in non- in these dynamics as well. governmental organisations. Insofar as the numbers A growing number of scholars concerned with of peoples and organisations, the geographic scope identity and solidarity posit the rise of transnational and the institutional spread of these anti-trafficking identities (Torres 1998; R. Cohen 1996; Franck 1992)

GLOBAL CITIES AND DIASPORIC NETWORKS efforts are all growing, they are becoming a and trans-local loyalties (Appadurai 1996: 165). This

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Table 9.7: Anti-trafficking organisations

The Global Aimed at ensuring that the human rights of migrant http://www.inet.co.th/org/g Alliance Against women are respected and protected by authorities and aatw Traffic in Women agencies.

Anti Slavery Aimed at eliminating slavery in all its forms through http://www.antislavery.org International awareness raising, lobbying of governments and international bodies and public campaigning.

The Initiative Established as a project of the Women’s Rights Advocacy http://www.hrlawgroup.org Against Program (WRAP) to combat the global trade in persons. /site/programs/Traffic.htm Trafficking in Persons

Asian Women’s An Asia-wide network of women’s human rights http://www.awhrc.org Human Rights programmes, centres, organisations, and individuals Council with coordinating offices in Bangalore, India and Manila, Philippines.

Coalition to Established to address the special needs of trafficked http://www.trafficked- Abolish Slavery persons, and related issues, within the context of a women.org and Trafficking network of non-profit human service providers. (CAST)

Fundacion An NGO in Colombia working on the issue of trafficking http://www.fundacionesper ESPERANZA in the Latin American region. Their work mainly focuses anza.org.co on prevention, reintegration, and documentation.

La Strada La Strada group is an international programme which http://www.ecn.cz/lastrada operates in the , Poland, Bulgaria, Ukraine, and the Czech Republic. La Strada focuses on prevention of traffic in women, support of victims of traffic in women, influencing legislation, and disseminating information on the issue. Saskia Sassen Saskia

literature provides us with a broader conceptual growing cultural awareness of a ‘European identity’. landscape within which we can place the more This is clearly a different condition from that specific types of organisations and practices that represented by the activist and diasporic networks concern us here. Following Bosniak (2000: 482) we described in the second section, which include some can find at least four forms taken by trans- European-wide organisations but with a very specific, nationalised identity claims. particularistic focus, notably immigration issues. In One is the growth of European-wide citizenship contrast, European identity entails a diffuse sense said to be developing as part of the European Union of belonging on a semi-continental level. (EU) integration process, and beyond the formal A second focus is on the affective connections that status of EU citizenship (Soysal 1994; Howe 1991; Isin people establish and maintain with one another in

2000; Delanty 2000). Turner (2000) has posited a the context of a growing transnational civil society (J. GLOBAL CITIES AND DIASPORIC NETWORKS

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Cohen 1995; Lipschutz 1996; Lister 1997). Citizenship Internet has played a crucial role in making this here resides in identities and commitments that arise possible. It is, perhaps, this type of network that best out of cross-border affiliations, especially those captures the notion of diasporic networks as enabling associated with oppositional politics participation in and contribution to though it might include the corporate global civil society (see Table 9.9 for professional circuits that are increas- A key dynamic examples). Though of a very different ingly forms of partly de-territorialised sort from those described here, becoming evident global cultures (Sassen 2001). These diasporic networks can enable the identities and commitments can be of among some of the formation of international organised an elite and cosmopolitan nature or organisations we terrorism and certain types of they can be very focused and with ethnic-based cross-border trafficking studied is a shift away specific objectives, such as those of networks (Sassen 2000). many of the licit organisations de- from the type of A fourth version is a sort of global scribed in the preceding section. bi-national experience sense of solidarity and identification, MADRE and its worldwide affiliates is partly out of humanitarian con- that most of the a good example. Many aspects of the victions (Pogge 1992). Notions of global environmental movement as migration literature on the ultimate unity of human experi- well as the human rights movement the subject describes, ence are part of a long tradition. are actually rather focused and Today there are also more practical towards a more diffuse illustrate these emergent cross-border considerations at work, as in global identities in that these activists tend condition of globally ecological interdependence, eco- to identify more strongly with the constituted diasporic nomic globalisation, global media global movement than with their and commercial culture, all of which networks national state. There are elements of create structural interdependencies this also in many of the women’s and senses of global responsibility organisations we presented earlier. (Falk 1993; Hunter 1992; Held 1995; Table 9.8 lists some very diverse organisations that Sassen 1996). Table 9.8 lists some possible examples capture some of the features of an emergent of this kind of organisation. transnational sense of one’s community of membership and to some extent an often key part of one’s sense Towards Denationalised of identity. Citizenship Practices and A third version is the emergence of transnational social and political communities constituted through Identities trans-border migration. These begin to function as ow do we interpret these types of bases for new forms of citizenship identity to the developments in ways that help us understand extent that members maintain identification and Htheir implications for global civil society? One solidarities with one another across state territorial way is to explore what it tells us about modern divides (Portes 1996; Basch, Schiller, and Szanton- nation-based citizenship in so far as the existence of

Saskia Sassen Saskia Blanc 1994; Smith 1997; Soysal 1994). These are, a global civil society requires the possibility of an at then, identities that arise out of networks, activities, least partial reorientation towards objectives that ideologies that span the home and the host societies. are not exclusively geared towards one’s nation-state. A key dynamic becoming evident among some of Yet global civil society would be severely weakened the organisations we studied is a shift away from if it were to become completely disconnected from the type of bi-national experience that most of the the substantive notion of citizenship as a complex migration literature on the subject describes, towards condition predicated on formal rights and obligations a more diffuse condition of globally constituted configured in ways that negotiate individual and diasporic networks. The orientation ceases to be shared interests and needs. confined to one’s community of residence and one’s Most of the scholarship on citizenship has claimed community of origin, and shifts towards multiple a necessary and exclusive connection to the national immigrant communities of the same nationality or state, thereby neutralising the meaning and significance

GLOBAL CITIES AND DIASPORIC NETWORKS ethnicity wherever they might be located. The of the types of citizenship practices and emergent

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Table 9.8: Organisations promoting transnational identity based on activities

Name Description Website adress The International It has a membership of over 500 persons in more http://www.fit.edu/ft- Association for than 65 countries with the aim of facilitating orgs/iaccp/ Cross-Cultural communication among persons interested in cross- Psychology cultural psychology. (IACCP) International Its aim is to serve all those active in tobacco control, http://www.globalink.org Tobacco Control cancer control and public health. Network The International It fosters recognition that protection from http://www.iarlj.nl/ Association of persecution is an individual right established under Refugee Law international law, and that the determination of Judges refugee status and its cessation should be subject to the rule of law. International Founded with the core goal of ensuring a full, fair http://www.hri.ca/partners/ Criminal Defence and well organised defence in the proceedings of the aiad-icdaa/ Lawyers ad hoc tribunals and the future International Association Criminal Court. World Business A coalition of 125 international companies united by www.wbcsd.ch Council for a shared commitment to the environment and to the Sustainable principles of economic growth and sustainable Development development. (WBCSD) Water Partners Addresses water supply and sanitation needs in www.water.org International developing countries. Promotes innovative and cost- effective community water projects. 50 Years is See Table 9.1 for details www.50years.org Enough MADRE An international women’s human rights organisation www.madre.org (see Table 9.3 for details). Saskia Sassen Saskia identities present in the variety of organisations dimensions, only some of which might be inextricably described in the preceding sections. The transformations linked to the national state (Isin and Turner 2002). afoot today raise questions about this proposition of a The context of this possible transformation is necessary connection of citizenship to the national defined by the two major, partly interconnected state in so far as they significantly alter those conditions conditions discussed in the preceding sections. One which in the past fed that connection (for a good is the change in the position and institutional features description of these conditions see Turner 2000). If this of national states since the 1980s resulting from is indeed the case, then we need to ask whether national various forms of globalisation, ranging from conceptions of citizenship exhaust the possible range economic privatisation and deregulation to the of experiences and aspirations that today denote increased prominence of the international human citizenship. It is becoming evident that, far from being rights regime. Among the consequences of these

unitary, the institution of citizenship has multiple developments is the ascendance of sub-national and GLOBAL CITIES AND DIASPORIC NETWORKS

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Table 9.9: Diaspora organisations

Name Description Website adress The Council of An historic international movement that unites http://www.saeamerica.org/ Hellenes Abroad Hellenes worldwide under one, non-profit, non- governmental organisation with its permanent headquarters in Thessaloniki, Greece

The Hungarian Formed to alert the public opinion and political http://www.hhrf.org Human Rights leadership of the United States and other Western Foundation countries to the gross human rights violations (HHRF) against national minorities in Romania. The Foundation is now working on behalf of the ethnic Hungarians who live as minorities in Croatia, Serbia, Slovenia, Slovakia and Ukraine, as well as in Romania itself.

BADIL A Palestinian NGO that works to find solutions to the www.badil.org residency problems of the Palestinian diaspora.

transnational spaces for politics. The second is the confines of the national state. The European passport emergence of multiple actors, groups, and is, perhaps, the most formalised of these. But the communities partly strengthened by these emergence of a re-invigorated transformations in the state and increasingly (Turner 2000; Nussbaum 1994) and of a proliferation unwilling automatically to identify with a nation as of trans-nationalisms (Smith 1997; Basch, Schiller, represented by the state. Again, it is important to and Szanton-Blanc 1994) have been key sources for emphasise that the growth of the Internet and linked notions of post-national citizenship. As Bosniak technologies has facilitated and often enabled the (2000) has put it, there is a reasonable case to be formation of cross-border networks among made that the experiences and practices associated individuals and groups with shared interests that with citizenship do, to variable degrees, have locations may be highly specialised, as in professional networks, that exceed the boundaries of the territorial nation- or involve particularised political projects, as in state. Whether it is the organisation of formal status, human rights and environmental struggles or the the protection of rights, citizenship practices, or the diasporic networks and immigrant organisations experience of collective identities and solidarities, described above. This has engendered or strengthened the is not the exclusive site for their

Saskia Sassen Saskia alternative notions of community of membership. enactment. It remains by far the most important site, These new experiences and orientations of citizenship but the transformations in its exclusivity signal a may not necessarily be new; in some cases they may possibly important new dynamic. well be the result of long gestations or features that There is a second dynamic becoming evident that, were there since the beginning of the formation of while sharing aspects with post-national citizenship, citizenship as a national institution, but are only now is usefully distinguished from it in that it concerns evident because strengthened and rendered legible by specific transformations inside the national state current developments. which directly and indirectly alter specific aspects One of the implications of these developments is of the institution of citizenship (Sassen 2003). These the possibility of post-national forms of citizenship transformations are not predicated necessarily on a (Soysal 1994; Feldblum 1998; see multiple chapters relocating of citizenship components outside the in Isin 2000). The emphasis in that formulation is on national state, as is key to conceptions of post-

GLOBAL CITIES AND DIASPORIC NETWORKS the emergence of locations for citizenship outside the national citizenship. Two instances are changes in

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the law of nationality entailing a shift from exclusive and accentuating the distinctiveness of these various allegiance to one nation-state to dual nationality, aspects, from formal rights to psychological and enabling legislation allowing national courts to dimensions. These developments also bring to the use international instruments. These are transforma- fore the tension between citizenship as a formal legal tions inside the national state. More encompassing status and as a normative project or an aspiration. changes, captured in notions of privatisation and Again, current conditions have led to a growing shrinking welfare states, signal a shift in the emphasis on claims and aspirations that go beyond relationship of citizens to the state. Similarly, the the formal legal definition of rights and obligations. widespread constitutionalising of the right to take The last few years have witnessed a renewed one’s government to court for failure to fulfil its determination by multiple organisations and obligations has also changed the relationship of individuals to play a role in this changed world. Many citizens to their national states in the sense that they of the groups mentioned here do not necessarily create a legally sanctioned possibility have a particularly strong sense of of separation of interests. gratitude to either their country of These and other developments all origin or that of immigration. Others point to impacts on citizenship that In so far as legal and have a generalised critical stance take place inside formal institutions formal developments towards the major trends evident in of the national state. It is useful to the world, including their countries distinguish this second dynamic of have not gone very of origin, which also reorients their transformation inside the national far, we cannot sense of attachment. As Mary Kaldor state from post-national dynamics disregard experiences (2001) has repeatedly found in her because most of the scholarship on research on wars, people, and soldiers citizenship has failed to make this of identity and of in particular, are no longer prepared distinction. The focus has almost citizens’ practices or expected to die for their country. exclusively been on post-national which partly re-map But as Srebrenica has shown, they citizenship, either by opposing or are not quite ready to die for global accepting it or by interpreting these the geography of ideals either. It suggests that the trends as post-national. In my own citizenship building blocks for global civil work (Sassen 1996; 2003) I have society are to a considerable extent conceptualised this second dynamic micro-sites in people’s daily lives. as a de-nationalising of particular For the development of notions aspects of citizenship to be distinguished from post- of citizenship that can strengthen global civil society national developments. directly, it is important to question the assumption The materials presented in this chapter on global that people’s sense of citizenship in liberal cities and activist/diasporic networks fall into this democratic states is fundamentally and exclusively second type of conception of changes in the characterised by nation-based frames. Non-formal institution of citizenship. These are mostly not post- identities and practices need to be taken into national in their orientation: they are either sub- account along with formal developments such as

national, or they are about third issues where shared European Union citizenship and the growth of the Sassen Saskia nationality, as in immigrant organisations, is the international human rights regime. In so far as legal bonding element but the objective may have little to and formal developments have not gone very far, we do with national issues per se. Further, they do not cannot disregard experiences of identity and of scale at the national level, in so far as they constitute citizens’ practices which partly re-map the micro-politics or micro-initiatives enacted in sub- geography of citizenship. This deconstruction of national spaces that are part of cross-border networks citizenship feeds notions of citizenship not based on connecting multiple such sub-national spaces. the nation-state, whether understood in narrow Though often talked about as a single concept political terms or broader sociological and and experienced as a unitary institution, citizenship psychological terms. The growing prominence of actually describes a number of discrete but related the international human rights regime has played an aspects in the relation between the individual and the important theoretical and political role in

polity. Current developments are bringing to light strengthening these conceptions even as it has GLOBAL CITIES AND DIASPORIC NETWORKS

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underlined the differences between citizenship of citizenship. Instances that capture this are lawsuits rights and human rights. filed by citizens against particular state agencies, Recently there have been several efforts to notably the police and the Immigration and organise the various understandings of citizenship Naturalization Service in the case of the US. The one can find in the scholarly literature: citizenship implications, both political and theoretical, of this as legal status, as possession of rights, as political dimension are complex and in the making: we cannot activity, as a form of collective identity and tell what will be the practices and rhetorics that sentiment (Kymlicka and Norman 1994; Carens might be invented. 1989; Kratochwil 1994; Conover 1995; Bosniak Second, there is the granting, by national states, 2000). Further, some scholars (Turner 1993; C. Taylor of a whole range of ‘rights’ to foreign actors, largely 1994; see also generally Van and especially economic actors— Steenbergen 1994) have posited foreign firms, foreign investors, that cultural citizenship is a neces- Through new forms of international markets, foreign sary part of any adequate concep- citizenship practise business people (see Sassen 1996: tion of citizenship, while others new understandings Ch. 2). Admittedly, this is not a have insisted on the importance of common way of framing the issue. It economic citizenship (Fernandez of what citizenship is comes out of my particular perspect- Kelly 1993) and yet others on the about and can aspire ive about the impact of globalisation psychological dimension and the to are being and denationalisation on the ties of identification and solidarity national state, including the impact we maintain with other groups in constituted. Cities and on the relation between the state the world (Conover 1995; Carens cross-border networks and its own citizens, and between 1989; Pogge 1992). (See in this are two key sites for the state and foreign actors. I see regard also Record 23 and 27 in this this as a significant, though not volume. this type of widely recognised development in This pluralised meaning of engagement the history of claim-making. For me citizenship, partly produced by the the question as to how citizens formal expansions of the legal should handle these new concen- status of citizenship, is today contributing to the trations of power and ‘legitimacy’ that attach to expansion of the boundaries of that legal status global firms and markets is a key to the future of even further. One of the ironies is that, in so far as democracy. My efforts to detect the extent to which the enjoyment of rights is crucial to what we the global is embedded and filtered through the understand citizenship to be, it is precisely the national (e.g. the concept of the global city) is one formalised expansion of citizen rights which has way of understanding whether this might enable weakened the ‘national grip’ on citizenship. Notable citizens, still largely confined to national institutions, here is also the emergence of the human rights to demand accountability of global economic actors regime partly enabled by national states. Again, it through national institutional channels rather than seems to me that this transformation in nation- having to wait for a ‘global’ state. Herein would also

Saskia Sassen Saskia based citizenship is not only due to the emergence lie a key element for participation in, and the further of non-national sites for legitimate claim-making, constituting of global civil society through sub- i.e. the human rights regime, as is posited in the national initiatives that are part of cross-border post-national conception. I would add two other dynamics or issue-oriented global networks. elements already, alluded to earlier, which concern These new conditions may well signal the changes internal to the national state. possibility of new forms of citizenship practices and First, and more importantly in my reading, is the identities that can allow large numbers of localised strengthening, including the constitutionalising, of people and organisations to become part of global civil rights which allow citizens to make claims civil society. New understandings of what citizenship against their states and allow them to invoke a is about and can aspire to are being constituted measure of autonomy in the formal political arena through these practices. Cities and cross-border that can be read as a lengthening distance between networks are two key sites for this type of

GLOBAL CITIES AND DIASPORIC NETWORKS the formal apparatus of the state and the institution engagement. After the long historical phase that saw

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the ascendancy of the national state and the scaling Delanty, Gerard (2000). ‘The Resurgence of the City in of key economic dynamics at the national level, we Europe?: The Spaces of European Citizenship’, in Engin now see the ascendancy of sub- and transnational Isin (ed.), Democracy, Citizenship and the Global City. spaces. The city is once again today a scale for London and New York: Routledge. strategic economic and political dynamics. Many of Falk, Richard (1993). ‘The Making of ’, in the disadvantaged concentrated in cities can become Jeremy Brecher and Tim Costello (eds), Global Visions: part of this global civil society even as they remain Beyond the New World Order. Boston: South End Press. confined to their localities and to some extent Feldblum, Miriam (1998). ‘Reconfiguring Citizenship in absorbed by problems and struggles that are not Western Europe’, in Christian Joppke (ed.), Challenge to cosmopolitan. the Nation-State. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Fernandez Kelly, Maria-Patricia (1993). ‘Underclass and The author thanks the Centre for the Study of Global Immigrant Women as Economic Actors: Rethinking Governance for its support and Isabel Crowhurst for Citizenship in a Changing Global Economy’. American her excellent research assistance. University. International Law Review, 9/1. Franck, Thomas M. (1992). ‘The Emerging Right to References Democratic Governance’. American Journal of International Law, 86/1: 46–91. Gzesh, Susan and Espinoza, Victor (1999). The Federation Anheier, Helmut, Glasius, Marlies, and Kaldor, Mary (eds) of Michoacan Clubs in Illinois. Chicago: Chicago- (2001). Global Civil Society 2001. Oxford: Oxford Michoacan Project, Heartland Alliance for Human University Press. Needs and Human Rights. Appadurai, Arjun (1996). Modernity at Large. Minneapolis: Held, David (1995). Democracy and the Global Order: From University of Minnesota Press. the Modern State to Cosmopolitan Governance. Bada, Xchotil (2001). ‘Mexican Hometown Associations in Cambridge: Polity Press. Chicago: Engaging in Development Back Home’ Howe, Stephen (1991). ‘Citizenship in the New Europe’, in (unpublished thesis). Chicago: MAPS Program, Geoff Andrews (ed.), Citizenship. London: Lawrence and . Wishart. Basch, Linda, Glick Schiller, Nina, and Szanton-Blanc, Hunter, David B. (1992). ‘Toward Global Citizenship in Cristina (1994). Nations Unbound: Transnationalized International Environmental Law’. Willamette Law Projects and the Deterritorialized Nation-State. New Review, 28: [PAGES?] York: Gordon and Breach. International Organisation for Migration (1999). Bosniak, Linda S. (2000). ’Universal Citizenship and the http://www.iom.int/en/what/main_MR_new.shtlm Problem of Alienage’. Northwestern University Law Isin, Engin F. (ed.) (2000). Democracy, Citizenship and the Review, 94: [PAGES?] Global City. London and New York: Routledge. Braudel, Ferdinand (1984). The Perspective of the World. Isin and Turner (2000). [DETAILS TO BE SUPPLIED] London: Collins. Kaldor, Mary (2001). New Wars and Old Wars: Organized Carens, Joseph H. (1989). ‘Membership and Morality: Violence in a Global Era. Cambridge: Polity Press. Admission to Citizenship in Liberal Democratic States’, Kratochwil, Friedrich (1994). ‘Citizenship: On the Border of

in Roger W. Brubaker (ed.), Immigration and the Order’. Alternatives, 19: [PAGES?] Sassen Saskia Politics of Citizenship. Lanham, New York, and London: Kymlicka, Will and Norman, Wayne (1994). ‘Return of the University Press of America (with the German Marshall Citizen: A Survey of Recent Work on Citizenship Theory’. Fund of the US). Ethics, 104: 352–81. Cohen, Jean (1995). ‘Interpreting the Notion of Global Lipschutz, Ronnie (with Judith Mayer) (1996). Global Civil Civil Society’, in M. Walzer (ed.), Toward a Global Civil Society and Global Environmental Governance: The Society. Providence, RI: Berghahn Books. Politics of Nature from Place to Planet. Albany, NY: Cohen, Robin (1996). ‘Diasporas and the Nation-State: SUNY Press. From Victims to Challenges’. International Affairs, 72/3: Lister, Ruth (1997). Citizenship: Feminist Perspectives. 507–21 Basingstoke: Macmillan. Conover, Pamela Johnston (1995). ‘Citizen Identities and Mexico-US Advocates Network, Heartland Alliance for Conceptions of the Self’. Journal of Political , Human Needs and Human Rights, Chicago.

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