From Immigrant to Transmigrant: Theorizing Transnational Migration Author(S): Nina Glick Schiller, Linda Basch and Cristina Szan
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From Immigrant to Transmigrant: Theorizing Transnational Migration Author(s): Nina Glick Schiller, Linda Basch and Cristina Szanton Blanc Source: Anthropological Quarterly, Vol. 68, No. 1 (Jan., 1995), pp. 48-63 Published by: The George Washington University Institute for Ethnographic Research Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3317464 Accessed: 26-02-2015 19:48 UTC Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. The George Washington University Institute for Ethnographic Research is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Anthropological Quarterly. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 134.74.122.250 on Thu, 26 Feb 2015 19:48:47 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions FROM IMMIGRANTTO TRANSMIGRANT:THEORIZING TRANSNATIONALMIGRATION NINA GLICK SCHILLER Universityof New Hampshire LINDA BASCH WagnerCollege CRISTINA SZANTON BLANC ColumbiaUniversity Contemporaryimmigrants can not be characterizedas the "uprooted."Many are trans- migrants,becoming firmly rooted in their new countrybut maintainingmultiple linkages to their homeland.In the UnitedStates anthropologistsare engagedin buildinga transna- tional anthropologyand rethinkingtheir data on immigration.Migration proves to be an importanttransnational process that reflectsand contributesto the currentpolitical con- figurationsof the emergingglobal economy.In this article we use our studies of migration from St. Vincent,Grenada, the Philippines,and Haiti to the U.S. to delineatesome of the parametersof an ethnographyof transnationalmigration and explore the reasonsfor and the implicationsof transnationalmigrations. We concludethat the transnationalconnec- tions of immigrantsprovide a subtextof the public debatesin the U.S. about the meritsof immigration.[transnationalism, immigration, nation-state, nationalism, identity] In the United States several generationsof re- ing a new processof migration,scholars of transna- searchershave viewed immigrantsas personswho tionalmigration emphasize the ongoingand contin- uprootthemselves, leave behindhome and country, uing ways in which current-day immigrants and face the painfulprocess of incorporationinto a constructand reconstitutetheir simultaneousem- differentsociety and culture(Handlin 1973[1951]; beddednessin more than one society.The purpose Takaki 1993). A new conceptof transnationalmi- of this article is to delineatethe parametersof an gration is emerging,however, that questionsthis ethnographyof transnationalmigration and use long-held conceptualizationof immigrants, sug- this anthropologyto explorethe ways in whichthe gesting that in both the U.S. and Europe,increas- currentdebate on immigrationin the U.S. can be ing numbersof immigrantsare best understoodas readas a nation-statebuilding project that delimits "transmigrants."Transmigrants are immigrants and constrains the allegiances and loyalties of whose daily lives dependon multipleand constant transmigrants.Once we reframethe conceptof im- internationalborders and interconnectionsacross migrant and examine the political factors which whose identitiesare in relation- public configured have shaped the image of immigrantsas the up- to more than one nation-state Schiller ship (Glick rooted,a wholenew approachto understandingim- et al. Basch et al. are not so- 1992a; 1994). They migrantsand the currentdebate about immigration because settle and become journers they incorpo- becomespossible. rated in the economyand politicalinstitutions, lo- calities, and patternsof daily life of the countryin Threevignettes of discontinuitieswe have ob- whichthey reside.However, at the very same time, servedbetween the transnationalpractices of immi- they are engagedelsewhere in the sense that they grantsand commonassumptions about immigrants maintain connections,build institutions,conduct made by scholars,members of the public,the me- transactions, and influence local and national dia and publicofficials experts illustrate the myopic eventsin the countriesfrom whichthey emigrated. view of immigrantsdemonstrated in much public Transnationalmigration is the process by debate.The vignettespoint to the need to redefine which immigrantsforge and sustain simultaneous our terminologyand reformulatesome of our basic multi-strandedsocial relations that link together conceptualizationsof the current immigrant their societiesof originand settlement.In identify- experience. 48 This content downloaded from 134.74.122.250 on Thu, 26 Feb 2015 19:48:47 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions FROM IMMIGRANTTO TRANSMIGRANT 49 Towardsa TransnationalAnthropology A large numberof Filipino householdsare transnational with individuals,resources, goods, and services moving back In the 1960s the word "transnational"was widely and forth between the U.S., the Philippines,and other coun- used by studentsof economicprocesses to refer to tries. Decisionsthat affect the daily lives of householdmembers the establishmentof structureswith es- are made across national borders.Yet Szanton Blanc noted, corporate while participatingwith census organizersand Filipinoimmi- tablished organizationalbases in more than one grantsliving in New York in discussionsthat precededthe ad- state (Martinelli1982). In a separateintellectual ministrationof the 1990 U.S. Census, that census questions traditionseveral generations of scholarshad been about householdsdid not reflect the transnationalismof these the "transnational"to an The assumedthat all resided using adjective signal populations.1 questions Filipinos abatementof nationalboundaries the in the U.S. permanently,having cut their ties with their coun- and develop- tries of origin. The partial characterof many of the Filipino ment of ideas or politicalinstitutions that spanned householdslocated in the U.S. that participatedin the census nationalborders; it is this usage that can be found interviewwas not recognized.The frequencyof travel between in standarddictionaries. For example, Webster's the two countries,the ongoingrelationships between household Third New International the members living in both locations marked by a constant ex- Dictionary,defining change of funds and resources,and the organizationof activi- term as "extending or going beyond national ties across borderswere not examined.Hence, officialsof gov- boundaries"(1976: 2430), providestwo examples. ernmentaland civic institutionsoften formulatepolicies and The first from the New Republicmagazine speaks programsbased on census data that inadequatelycapture the of the "abatementof nationalismand the creation structureand mode of operationof many contemporaryimmi- grant households. of transnationalinstitutions which will render boundariesof minorimportance." In the secondci- tation EdwardSapir reportsthat "by the diffusion of culturallyimportant words transnational vocabu- laries have grownup." At a dinnerrecently Glick Schiller listenedwhile interna- The recentuse of the "transnational" tional debatedthe to whichland in adjective developmentexperts degree in the social sciencesand culturalstudies draws to- the Haitiancountryside was cultivatedby squatters.These spe- cialists did not consultwith the only Haitianat the table. They getherthe variousmeanings of the wordso that the did not expect him to be familiarwith questionsof land tenure restructuringof capitalglobally is seen as linkedto in Haiti because he was an authorityon Haitian cosmology the diminishedsignificance of nationalboundaries who had been living in the U.S. since he was a teenager.What in the and distributionof they did not consider was that the Haitian scholar and his production objects,ideas, brotherowned land in Haiti and that the two brothershad ne- and people. Transnationalprocesses are increas- gotiateda workingrelationship with the squatterswho lived on ingly seen as part of a broaderphenomenon of that land. Like so many Haitians in the U.S., the Haitian globalization,marked by the demiseof the nation- scholarrelates to Haiti diverseand social and through ongoing state and the growthof worldcities that serve as class relationshipsthat influencehis stance towardsdevelop- ment in Haiti. Expertson Haiti routinelyignore the impactof key nodesof flexiblecapital accumulation, commu- transnationalmigration on all aspects of Haitian society, in- nication,and control(Knox 1994;Knight and Gap- cluding Haiti's relationshipto the U.S. pert 1989). In anthropology2there has been a re- newed interest in the flows of culture and populationacross national borders,reviving, in a new globaland theoreticalcontext, past interestsin culturaldiffusion.3 contributorsto this schol- At a trade and Many Expo 1993, culturalfair in Brooklynspon- trendsee it as of an effortto soredby the CaribbeanAmerican Chamber of Commercethat arly part reconfigure Basch attended,one of the panelsexplored the extent to which anthropologicalthinking so that it will reflectcur- the curriculumin New York City schools gives voice to Afri- rent transformationsin the way in whichtime and can-Caribbeanand African-Americanexperiences. It soon be- space is experiencedand represented came clear