Imperial Migration from the Marshall Islands to Northwest Arkansas
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Syracuse University SURFACE Dissertations - ALL SURFACE August 2016 New Destinations of Empire: Imperial Migration from the Marshall Islands to Northwest Arkansas Emily Mitchell-Eaton Syracuse University Follow this and additional works at: https://surface.syr.edu/etd Part of the Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons Recommended Citation Mitchell-Eaton, Emily, "New Destinations of Empire: Imperial Migration from the Marshall Islands to Northwest Arkansas" (2016). Dissertations - ALL. 645. https://surface.syr.edu/etd/645 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the SURFACE at SURFACE. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations - ALL by an authorized administrator of SURFACE. For more information, please contact [email protected]. ABSTRACT This dissertation examines Marshall Islander migration to Arkansas as an outcome of an international agreement, the Compact of Free Association, between the U.S. and the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI), a former U.S. territory. While the Compact marked the formal end of U.S. colonial administration over the islands, it also re-entrenched imperial power relations between the two countries, at once consolidating U.S. military access to the islands and creating a Marshallese diaspora whose largest resettlement site is now Springdale, Arkansas. As a result, Springdale, an “all- white town” for much of the 20th century, has recently been remade by Marshallese and also Latino immigration, nearly tripling in size in the past three decades. I examine U.S. empire through three interrelated lenses: through an imperial policy, the Compact of Free Association (COFA); through an imperial diaspora, the Marshallese diaspora; and through the town of Springdale, Arkansas, a new immigrant destination for Marshall Islanders, which I argue has become a new destination of empire. These three lenses reveal how empire’s interrelated workings—migration, militarization, racialization, labor, detention, capitalism, and the law, among others—inform one another to uphold U.S. imperial power and how U.S. empire both engenders and constrains mobility for its subjects. I argue that COFA status, the visa-free immigration status granted to Marshallese immigrants, is a type of imperial citizenship and that its partial, contingent, and revocable character produces precarity for those who hold it, placing them alongside other groups of imperial citizens from U.S. non- sovereign territories. Due to a lack of awareness of U.S. empire, however, long-term residents in new destinations of empire like Springdale are unable to comprehend Marshall Islanders as imperial citizens. Instead, their interpretations of Marshall Islanders’ presence are woven back into dominant narratives of U.S. exceptionalism. Such interpretations of why COFA status exists exemplify and perpetuate an occlusion of U.S. empire. In Springdale, in other words, the refrain—‘We are here because you were there’, commonly used to explain the presence of imperial migrants elsewhere— was never heard and, thus, never placed in the context of empire. NEW DESTINATIONS OF EMPIRE: IMPERIAL MIGRATION FROM THE MARSHALL ISLANDS TO NORTHWEST ARKANSAS by Emily Mitchell-Eaton B.A., Smith College, 2006 M.P.A., Syracuse University, 2011 DISSERTATION Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Geography Syracuse University August 2016 Copyright © Emily Mitchell-Eaton 2016 All Rights Reserved ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS There are a number of people without whom this work would not have been possible. First, I want to thank Sam McPhetres, Sr., whose expansive archival collection gave this project legs and whose curious mind and relentlessly playful wit made research in Saipan a delight. Many of this dissertation’s ideas were born out of our conversations. Many thanks, also, to Agnes McPhetres for her generous hospitality—I still remember plucking dragonfruit and soursop off the trees as we sat talking on the open patio—and to Sam McPhetres, Jr. for sharing in, and acting as tour guide for, countless adventures in Saipan and Guam in the summers of 2012 and 2013. This project also owes an enormous debt of gratitude to the staff of the Shiloh Museum of Ozark History in Springdale, Arkansas, who provided me not only with working space, field contacts, and near-constant research support but also with their warm companionship during the several months I spent in Arkansas. Special thanks go to Marie Demeroukas for her extraordinary archival skills and to Susan Young, whose love of local history is born out of, and matched by, a love for the people around her and a genuine curiosity in their stories. That love and curiosity made this project dance, and I am very grateful for it. Additional thanks for research support go to the library staff of the Pacific Collection at the University of Hawaii at Mānoa in Honolulu, the Micronesian Area Research Center (MARC) at the University of Guam, the Clinton Presidential Library in Little Rock, and the Special Collections at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, and to Guy Lancaster at the Encyclopedia of Arkansas History & Culture in Little Rock. Thanks also to the staff of the Marshallese consulates in Honolulu, HI, Springdale, AR, and to the embassies of the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI) and the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) in Washington, D.C. for their time and support. Of course, much of this project would simply not exist without the countless individuals who gave their time for an interview or an informal chat. I want to extend special thanks to the Northwest Arkansas Workers’ Justice Center, the Gaps in Services to Marshallese Task Force, and the OMNI Center for Peace, Justice, & Ecology, organizations whose social activism is grounded in Northwest Arkansas but whose dreams and efforts for justice extend far beyond that physical space. In Syracuse, a cadre of talented and committed people helped bring this dissertation to fruition. First and foremost is my advisor, Jamie Winders, who supported this work through countless revisions and permutations. Jamie pushed me to clarify my arguments, ask difficult questions and say what I meant to say. Often, she saw the broader potential and significance of my work even before I could. Her support of this project, and of me, has been unwavering. This dissertation has also been enriched immensely by my committee members, Don Mitchell, Matt Huber, Natalie Koch, and Jackie Orr, and my external chair, Gretchen Purser. Their thoughtful and sustained engagement with my work was a gift, and it speaks to their integrity as scholars and educators. Thanks, also, to Joe Stoll for lending his cartographic skills to this dissertation. Finally, the Geography Department would grind to a halt without the dedicated work of the department’s administrative staff, Jackie Wells, Margie Johnson, and Chris Chapman. In the five years I have spent in the department, they have become like family. Friends to whom I owe thanks are too numerous to name in full here. Jenna Loyd has been a mentor in every sense of the word. Special thanks to Mitul Baruah for the innumerable hours spent writing and thinking together at Bird Library, to Lisa Bhunghalia and Nicole Nguyen for their sharp iv minds and sharper wit, and to Tre Wentling, Dana Olwan, and Eunjung Kim for teaching me how to be a more generous teacher. My time as a graduate student has been given life by many beloved classmates, among them Sean Wang, Brian Hennigan, and Mike Kantor, early co-conspirators in the program, Jackie Micieli, who offered guidance and care, and Parvathy Binoy, a poet. Alison Mountz and the Island Detention Project gave me my first taste of fieldwork and my first trip to the Pacific, as well as some wonderful research colleagues. Beyond Syracuse University, many bright hearts and minds kept me going during these past few years; I am grateful to Jack Gieseking, Khury Petersen- Smith, Rich Nisa, Mazen Labban, Tish Lopez, and Ben Rubin for their intellectual and political energies, their feedback on this project, and their friendship. Faron Levesque and Len Zheleznyak gave me perspective. Jess Haines-Stephan and Bekka Burton believed in me. Words fall short in expressing my deep gratitude to everyone. Finally, throughout this endeavor, my family has been everything. Thank you to my mother, Remegia, and my father, Wade, who believed in this project from the beginning and who shared in my enthusiasm and excitement every step of the way. Thank you to my brother, Aidan, my sister-in- law, Erika, my niece, Nora, and her new sibling (forthcoming, August 2016) for the countless dinners, pep talks, and neighborhood walks and for making me laugh. Thank you to my sister, Jackie, who always knew I could do this and whose fierce determination I admired greatly. Her passing during this dissertation’s fieldwork opened my heart to new questions and new ways of seeing the world. And lastly, to my partner, Sung: You made it all possible. You made it all fun. Thank you. v TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER 1: Introduction ....................................................................................................... 1 New Destinations of Empire: An Overview .................................................................................... 1 Empire’s Sites and Practices: Methodological Considerations ................................................... 16 Where is the Field? Defining the Imperial Field Site ...................................................... 20 Who are