From Immigrant to Transmigrant: Theorizing Transnational Migration Author(S): Nina Glick Schiller, Linda Basch and Cristina Szan

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

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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 transmigrants,becoming firmly rooted in their new countrybut maintainingmultiple linkages to their homeland.In the UnitedStates anthropologistsare engagedin buildinga transnational 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 transnationalconnections 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

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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 renewed 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 that (Appadurai manyimmigrant families opt to send their chil- 1990, 1991; and 1992; dren to private West Indian schools in New York where the Gupta Ferguson Kearney curriculumreflects both Caribbeanand U.S. experiences,pre- 1991a, 1991b; Hannerz 1989, 1990). Appadurai paringchildren to live a transnationalexistence. Indeed, many has stated that ethnographynow has the task of West Indianyoungsters are sent home to the West Indies for determining "the nature of locality, as lived experi- part of their educations.However, public officialsengaged in ence, in a globalized, deterritorialized world" curriculumdevelopment often do not recognizethat the sociali- zation of many transmigrantchildren takes place in an inter- (1991: 196). He has further argued that there is a connected social space encompassingboth the immigrants' need to reconceptualize the "landscapes of group West Indianhome societies and the U.S. identity," a need that flows from the current world

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 50 ANTHROPOLOGICALQUARTERLY conjuncturein which "groupsare no longertightly the infrastructureof transportation,education, territorialized,spatially bounded,historically un- health servicesare strippedaway fromthose coun- selfconscious, or culturally homogeneous" (p. tries, and sectionsof countriesand cities,defined as 191).' superfluousto the newly definedcircuits of wealth Migration is one of the important means and power.Attacks on the infrastructuretake the throughwhich bordersand boundariesare being form of structuraladjustment programs in debtor contestedand transgressed(Kearney 1991a; Rouse countriesand calls for reduced taxes and public 1991, 1992). Anthropologistswho work with mi- spendingin capitalexporting countries such as the grantshave much to contributeto our understand- U.S. ing of a new paradox:that the growthand intensifi- The conditionsfor migrationin a myriadof cation of global interconnectionof economic economicallyperipheral states have been set by the and ideas is a processes,people, accompaniedby intensive penetrationof foreign capital into the in the of differentiation.When resurgence politics economyand politicalprocesses of "post-colonial" we study migrationrather than abstract cultural countriesin the 1960s and 1970s, and the subse- flows or we see that transnational representations, quent massive growth of indebtednessand eco- are located within the life of processes experience nomic retrenchment.Faced with wide-spreaddete- individualsand the and families, makingup warp riorationin their standardsof living,professionals, woof of and daily activities, concerns, fears, skilled workers,unskilled workers, merchants, and achievements. agriculturalproducers all have fled to globalcities or to countriessuch as the U.S. that still play cen- Reasons for Transnational Migration tral rolesin capitalaccumulation. However, once in these countries,immigrants confront a deepening economiccrisis that often limits the economic Threeconjoining potent forces in the currentglobal pos- sibilities and are able to obtain. economylead presentday immigrantsto settle in security many those sectors of the current countriesthat are centersof global capitalismbut Moreover, immigrant who find themselvesracialized as "His- to live transnationallives: (1) a global restructur- population or "Black"find that even if ing of capital based on changingforms of capital panic,""Asian," they obtaina secure face discrimina- accumulationhas lead to deterioratingsocial and position,they daily tion in the of their life activities. economicconditions in both labor sendingand la- pursuit bor receivingcountries with no location a secure Observingthe permeabilityof borders and terrainof settlement;(2) racism in both the U.S. boundariessignaled by this form of migration, and Europecontributes to the economicand politi- some observershave begunto speakof the demise cal insecurityof the newcomersand their descend- of the nation-state'sability to form and discipline ants; and (3) the nation buildingprojects of both its subjects(Kearney 1991a). However,the task of home and host society build political loyalties creating capitalist subjects,and the task of gov- among immigrantsto each nation-statein which erningpopulations who will workin and acceptthe they maintainsocial ties. worldof vastlyincreased inequalities of wealthand Capitalismfrom its beginningshas been a sys- power, continuesto reside primarilyin different tem of productiondependent on globalinterconnec- and unequalstates. Financialinterests and transna- tions betweenthe people of the world. Today we tional conglomeratescontinue to rely on the legiti- are facing a reconstitutionof the structureof ac- macy and legal, fiscal, and policing structuresof cumulationso that not only are profitsaccumulated the nation-state.'There are, however,changes pre- globally,but all partsof the worldhave been incor- cipitatedby this emergingform of migration.We poratedinto a single system of production,invest- are enteringan era in which states that can claim ment, communication,coordination, staffing, pro- dispersed populations construct themselves as duction, and distribution(Sassen 1994). In this "deterritorializednation-states" (Basch et al. globalcontext there is less incentiveto investin en- 1994); states that continueto be bases of capital tire nationaleconomies. It has becomemore profit- rather than the homelandof migrantsrespond in able to base global operationsin certaincities and ways that tighten ratherthan transgressterritorial regionsthat are emergingas centersof communi- boundaries.The hegemonicpolitical ethic of the cation and organization(Sassen 1991). Capital is U.S. continuesto demandthat citizens,both native being channeledinto key sectorsand regionswhile born and naturalized,swear allegiance only to the

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U.S. and define their political identity within its the narrativesof nation that were prevalentuntil borders.Meanwhile, dominant forces in laborsend- the current period of globalization.Assumptions ing states imagine their states to exist wherever about the uprootednessof immigrantsfiltered the their emigrantshave been incorporated. way in which immigranthistory was recorded,in- terpreted,and remembered.6At the heart of the of "America the was a Memoriesof Things Past: The Issue of History metaphor melting pot" model of settlement and Memoryin ImmigrationStudies immigrant in which immi- grantseschewed the nationalidentity as well as the customsand languageof their birth.However, the It is useful to recall the and socially historically ruptureof home ties or their transformationinto constructednature of the conceptof nation-stateto sentimentrather than connectionis also a central understandthis of transnational aspect migration. aspect of pluralistand multiculturalimaginings of Recent has made it clear that nation- scholarship America in which immigrant are en- states are new inventionsthat can be groups relatively to their culture, custom, and linked of and to the couraged preserve to the development capitalism be embeddedin an Americanmo- of and economic that serve identityyet fully type political loyalties saic and Takaki the needs of dominantclasses and strata within (Glazer Moynihan 1970[1963]; 1989, 1993). Whetherthe has been one of modern centralized states imagery (Hobsbawm 1990; assimilationinto a Americancul- Gellner Nation-stateswere constructedas newly emergent 1983). or into a diverse classesand elite to maintainor con- ture, incorporation culturally strata,striving in the U.S. the of an American tend for state memoriesof a America, forging power, popularized has been and continuesto shared and used this historicalnarrative to au- nationality be the under- past concernthat unitedall discourseabout immi- thenticateand validate a commonalityof lying purpose Whathas been definedas unac- and nationalinterests (Anderson 1991 [1983]). This gration.7 uniformly was a in which process of constructing and shaping collective ceptable migration immigrants settled in their new while memoriescan be called nation-statebuilding. Key permanently country ties to countries still saw as to nation-statebuilding as a political processhas maintaining they homelands.And this is an been the constructionof a myth that each nation- yet emergingpattern set- state containedwithin it a single peopledefined by among many immigrantpopulations currently in the U.S.' their residencein a commonterritory, their undi- tling vided loyalty to a commongovernment, and their A brief recountingof the Americanization shared cultural heritage. In the past immigrants studiescommissioned by the CarnegieCorporation were forcedto abandon,forget, or deny theirties to in 1918 can serve to illustrateboth the types of home and in subsequentgenerations memories of transnationalpolitical connections that were main- transnationalconnections were erased. tained by previousgenerations of immigrantsset- There is evidencethat in variousways and to tled in the U.S. and the processesby which these different degrees, dispersed populationswhether connectionswere discountedand historicallyoblit- they were diasporasof Jews (Clifford1994), Pales- erated. The studies were commissionedduring tinians (Gonzalez 1992), or "old world" immi- World War I becausethe home ties and political grants to the U.S. (Portes and Rumbaut 1990), engagementof large numbersof immigrantsfrom maintainednetworks of interconnection.Many im- Europeraised questionsabout the allegianceand migrantsfrom Europewho settledin the late nine- loyalty of immigrants.' Researcherswere sur- teenth and early twentieth century maintained roundedby and reportedevidence of transnational family ties, sendingboth lettersand money(Metz- engagementof immigrantswith their home socie- ker 1971; Thomas and Znaniecki 1927). Italians ties. For example,Robert Park, whose name is usu- returnedhome to land purchasedthrough labor ally linked to the Carnegiestudies, only became abroad (di Leonardi 1984). The Czechs and head of the entire projectwhen HerbertAdolphus Slovacks (Witke 1940), Hungarians (Vassady Miller, who had been leadingthe studies,and who 1982), and Irish (Higham and Brooks1978) were was Chairof the SociologyDepartment at Oberlin among the many immigratingpopulations who College in Ohio, resignedin orderto devotemore built strongnationalist movements in Europefrom time to organizingthe Leagueof CentralEuropean a base in the U.S. Nations (Rausenbush1979). Yet transnationalties These ties were discountedand obscuredby were only notedin passingand negativelyvalued in

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 52 ANTHROPOLOGICALQUARTERLY the publishedstudies. The studiesdescribed and as- the same time parties,factions, and leaderswithin sessedthe progressmade towards incorporating im- many countrieswhich can claim dispersedpopula- migrantsinto U.S. society. These studies contrib- tions have lookedto their diasporasas a globalre- uted to the publicperception that such populations source and constituency.Although they seemingly were in fact immigrants;meanwhile, the public rupture boundaries and borders, contemporary campaignsto insure that these immigrantswere transnationalcultural processes and movementsof loyal to the U.S. also soughtto diminishthe contin- people, ideas, and capital have been accompanied uation of home ties. In subsequentgenerations by an increasein an identitypolitics that is a cele- these connectionsgenerally were not remembered brationof a nation.We are witnessingthe simulta- or reportedby social science researchers.It is only neous growthof globalizingprocesses and the pre- now, and in the contextof the successfulincorpora- eminence of exclusive, bounded, essentialized tion of past generationsof immigrants,that a revi- nationalisms(Appadurai 1993; Anderson 1992). sionist historyin the U.S. is rememberingpersist- This is a momentin which large numbersof peo- ing transnationalconnections of past generationsof ple, no longerrooted in a single place, go to great immigrants. (See, for example, Portes and lengths to revitalize,reconstruct, or reinventnot Rumbaut1990.) only their traditionsbut their political claims to And yet we arguethat the currentconnections territoryand historiesfrom which they have been of immigrantsare of a differentorder than past im- displaced.Moreover these "long distancenational- migrant linkages to home societies. The current ists" (Anderson1992: 12) insist that their collec- processesof restructuringand reconfiguringglobal tive claims to ancestralland bear witnessto their capital have affected both internationalmigration identityas ancient,homogenous, peoples. Transna- and nation-statebuilding in significantways. The tional processesseem to be accompaniedby the new circuitsof capitalprovide the contextin which "re-inscription"of identityonto the territoryof the migrantsand the descendantsof migrants,often homeland(Gupta 1992). The Portuguesegovern- fully incorporatedin the countries of settlement ment, for example,has declaredPortugal to be a such as the U.S., maintainor constructanew trans- global nation (Feldman-Bianco1992, 1994). Its nationalinterconnections that differ in their inten- emigrantsand the descendantsof the emigrantsare sity and significancefrom the hometies maintained part of Portugal even as they live within other by past migrations(Basch et al. 1994). They also countries. Similarly, Haitians, Vincentians, provide the context in which these linkages are Grenedians,and Filipinosmay reside permanently again becomingvisible. Much researchremains to abroadbut be seen as constituentsof their home be done, but it would seem that the currentforms country. of capital accumulationand concomitantaltera- The differencebetween the relationshipof past tions in the formationof all classes and strata in- sending societies towardstheir diasporasand the terpenetratethe politicaland economicprocesses of currentefforts of both immigrantsand states with nation-statesthroughout the world.The increasein dispersedpopulations to constructa deterritorial- density, multiplicity,and importanceof the trans- ized nation-statethat encompassesa diasporicpop- nationalinterconnections of immigrantsis certainly ulation within its domain can be understood made possibleand sustainedby transformationsin throughexamining the trajectoryof Greekmigra- the technologiesof transportationand communication. Greeceis one of the manycases in whichdis- tion. Jet planes,telephones, faxes, and internetcer- persed populationshave been engaged in nation- tainly facilitate maintainingclose and immediate state building over several centuries. Merchants ties to home. However, the tendency of today's and intellectualsof Greekorigin settled in Western transmigrantsto maintain, build, and reinforce Europewere importantactors in the politicaland multiple linkages with their countries of origin culturalprocesses of the late eighteenthand early seems to be facilitatedrather than producedby the nineteenthcenturies that resulted in the modern possibilityof technologicallyabridging time and Greek state (Jusdanis1991).1 Crucialintegrative space. Rather, immigranttransnationalism is best institutionssuch as local schools,and libraries,the understoodas a response to the fact that in a university,academy, polytechnic, and stadiumwere global economycontemporary migrants have found built, in large part, by contributionsfrom the dias- full incorporationin the countries within which pora.There is evidencethat impoverished,illiterate they resettleeither not possibleor not desirable.At peasants,as well as wealthy families, contributed

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 53 to building national educational institutions (p. est descriptionsof transnationalprocesses are of 213). However,and the point is critical, although householdand family economiesrooted in both these nation-buildersengaged in multiple,overlap- sending and receivingsocieties; fewer descriptions ping transnationalactivities in ways that are simi- are availableof transnationalorganizations and po- lar to present-daytransmigrants, they did not litical processes.Rubenstein (1982) and Thomas- claim that their settlementsabroad were part of Hope (1985) in the 1980s and more recently Greece.They were deeply committedto the strug- Gmelch (1992), in describing return migration gle to constituteGreece as a state with its own au- from England,Canada, and the U.S. to the island tonomousterritory. This separationof nation-state nation-statesin the West Indies," have docu- from emigrant populationcan still be found in mentedthe interweaveof transnationalfamily rela- statementsof Greek-Americanswriting on Greek- tionshipsand economictransactions that reserveda Americanidentity: for example,"among those born place for returnmigrants at home, offsettingtheir in this country . . . one's identity is not that of a global vulnerability.These connectionshave ena- transplantedGreek, but ratherthe sensibilityof an bled immigrantsduring their years abroadto have Americanethnic" (Moskos 1989: 146, cited in Jus- childrencared for by kin at home, to continueas danis 1991: 216). actors in key family decisions,to visit at regular At present,a significantchange is underway. intervals, and to purchase property and build of Greek Both the Greek governmentand persons homes and businessesin their countriesof origin, in various countries around the origins settled even as they have boughthomes and createdbusi- world are redefiningtheir relationshipto Greece. nesses in their countriesof settlement. The direction of the change is signaled by the and Grasmuck and Pessar of the term Georges (1990) adoption by the Greek government have noted that individualsand households or "Greeksabroad" for all of (1991) "spodemoi" persons to maintaintheir class or to se- Greek For a sector of these "the struggled positions ancestry. people, cure class in the Dominican force of the Hellenic is no mobility Republicby unifying diaspora longer or businessesin New York. a the nation-state of but the working setting up place, Greece, While such are sometimes re- transcendental of Greekness sojourns temporary, imagined territory turn homeis often and Pessar which of to suit "fragile"(Grasmuck groups individualsmay appropriate 1991: so that end a their own needs and interests" 1991: 86), manyimmigrants up living (Jusdanis settled existencein the U.S. but in It is in this new transnational that the investing prop- 217). space businessesand social status in the Dominican Greek is erty, government mobilizingpopular opinion and Brown have for its current to the Republic.Laguerre (1978) (1991) opposition newly independent describedHaitian of state of Macedonia.As in the transnationalfamily networks they participate po- urban litical of the of North- working-classhouseholds. Even thoughthey process reimagining history had not a of transnational- ern Greece (Karakasidou1994; Danforth n.d.), fully developed concept a few scholarsof that membersof these settled, ism, migrationrecognized populations,many long the transnational that were are participatingin and definingthemselves as a linkages they observing had for the and their part of the Greekpolity while they simultaneously implications immigrants remain embedded in the nation-statesin which home and host societies(Chaney 1979). For exam- Gonzalez notedthat Garifuna they are settled. ple, (1988: 10) many have "become United States citizens, yet they think of themselvesas membersof two (or more) Evidenceof TransnationalProcesses societies."'12 Scholars such as Takaki (1989) and Pido In the remainingsections of this articlewe examine (1986), writingabout Asian immigrantpopulations some of the similaritiesthat emerge from such in the U.S., have been even more focusedon the comparativestudy, illustrate them with someof our problemsof immigrant integration,assimilation, own field studies, and examinethe implicationsof and belonging, than those writing about Latin this anthropologyof transnationalmigration for the Americanand Caribbeanimmigrants. Nonetheless, debateon the meritsof immigration.A large body recentethnographic accounts contain some descrip- of ethnographicdata on transnationalimmigrant tions of immigrantsfrom the Philippines,China, networkshas been producedby researcherswork- and Koreacontinuing to maintainties back home ing in the Caribbeanand Latin America.The rich- (Pido 1986; Wong 1982; Kim 1987).

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Evidenceof transnationalpatterns of intercon- cial mobilityin contextsof vulnerabilityand subor- nectioncan be found in descriptionsof migrations dination to world capitalism both at home and to the U.S. and WesternEurope from most regions abroad. of the world.Some ethnographersworking with re- These collectivetransnational family strategies cent immigrantsin Italy, France, Holland, and also have importantimplications for class produc- Spain have occasionallyobserved evidence of trans- tion and reproductionat both endsof the migration national linkages (Eintziger 1985; Carter 1994; stream.They are helpful in maintaining,and also Neveu 1994; Jimenez Romero 1994). "Dollar" at times in enhancing,the social and economicpo- houses recentlyhave been noted to transformthe sitionsof transmigrants'families in class structures landscapeand inflatelocal land values in the Phil- at home where opportunitiesare often deteriorat- and India as well as in the ippines Caribbean, ing. The Vincentianpeasant family of the Car- Latin the and Africa. America, Pacific, However, ringtonsis an apt exampleof the need to deploy when have documentedthe circulationof even they familymembers in severallocations in orderto sur- and remittances or identified people (Ballard1987) vive as a unit and retaina land base in St Vincent, the of transnationalcultural growth diasporas(Co- and the relativeadvantage that comesfrom such a hen Hall a numberof scholarswork- 1994; 1990), strategy.This family ownedtwo acres of land, the in have to the ing Europe yet recognize significance produceof which the mothervended in the local of these interconnectionsfor studies in migration market.Household members lived in a and cultural A of "transnational- simpleclap- politics. concept boardhouse of two rooms,with no indoor ism" would allow researchersto take into account plumbing or Two who could not find the fact that live their lives acrossna- electricity. daughters, immigrants in St. Vincent's de- tional bordersand to the constraintsand employment stagnanteconomy, respond the recent demandsof two or more states. spite country's political independence, migratedto the U.S. as domesticworkers to gain incomethat could help supportfamily membersin A ComparativeEthnography of Caribbeanand Saint Vincentand contributeto buildinga cement Filipino Transnationalism block family home. Two brothers,who also could not find work locally, migratedto Trinidadas a skilled automobile mechanic and construction Among the Caribbeanand Filipino transmigrants worker.The wife of one of the with whomwe worked,the processesof settlement brotherslater joined her fostered the developmentof transnationalism.As husband'ssisters in New York, whereshe too they settled in their new homes,members of these becamea live-in domesticworker. The motherre- mained in populationsdeveloped multiple social, economic, behind St. Vincentto care for her son's and politicalties that extendedacross borders. In- two small childrenand overseethe constructionof corporationin the U.S. accompaniedand contrib- the family home. At variousmoments one of the uted to incorporationin the home society. Funda- brothersin Trinidad,when he was laid off fromhis mental to these multiple networks of work in Trinidad,returned to the family home in interconnectionare networksof kin who are based St. Vincent;it was loans from his sisters in New in one or more households.Among all classes it York that enabledhim to returnto Trinidadwhen takes some resourcesto migrateand, often, migra- employmentopportunities there increased. tion and the establishmentof transnationalnet- A middle-classFilipino couple, severedfrom works are strategiesto insure that a householdis the supportof their extendedfamily becauseof a able to retainwhat it has in termsof resourcesand businessmisunderstanding, experienced difficulties social position.Flexible extendedfamily networks findingadequate employment and supportingtheir have long been used in all these countriesto pro- children in school during the 1980s. Facing the vide access to resources.By stretching,reconfigur- possibilityof a reducedclass position and social ing, and activatingthese networksacross national status, they took a calculatedrisk and migrated boundaries,families are able to maximizethe utili- (first the wife and then the husbandand children) zation of labor and resourcesin multiplesettings to the U.S., eventhough they had to leavetwo chil- and survive within situationsof economicuncer- drenbehind to finishschool. Following their migra- tainty and subordination.These family networks, tion, child rearing decisions have been made by across politicaland economicborders, provide the phoneand childrenhave movedback and forthbe- possibilityfor individualsurvival and at times so- tweenschool and businessopportunities in different

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 55 parts of the U.S. and the Philippines.After the economicnetworks maintained by many Haitians successfulwedding of their daughterto a Manila who use familyvisits between Haiti and the U.S. to dentist,which was financedby with dollarsearned restock small stores and businessesin Haiti with in the U.S., the family is now buyingland to build items brought into Haiti in personal luggage. a house in the Philippines;it also is investingU.S. When she comes for periodicvisits to obtainmedi- savings in a small businessstarted by one of the cal treatmentthrough U.S. Medicareto whichshe sons in Manila. The parentscontinue to live in a is entitledafter long years of workin the U.S., as small rentedapartment in Queens. well as throughvisits to relativesin Montreal,Yo- Not everyonewithin a family networkor even landeand her husbandrestock their smallgift shop withina householdmay benefitto the same degree in Port-au-Prince.Immacula, visiting her sister, and tensionsabound as men and women,those at bringsbleach and othersupplies for her sister'sfu- home and those abroad,define their interestsand neral parlor.Many mambosand houngon(priests needs differently.'sFor example,a Haitian doctor and priestesseswho lead Haitian voodoo gather- living in Queensinvited his nieces from Haiti into ings) importritual objects from Haiti for their cer- the household.His wife, who foundher doublebur- emoniesin the U.S. den of work and houseworkcompounded by the Often the most successfulmigrant businesses presenceof her husband'skin, was bitter aboutthe arise in the very intersticescreated by transnation- arrangement.Her anger was fueled by the fact alism-for example,shipping and air cargocompa- that she wanted room for her own siblings'chil- nies, import-exportfirms, labor contractors,and dren. In poorerHaitian families transmigrants feel moneytransfer houses. At the same time the busi- crushedby "bills here and there,"while those left nesses facilitatethe deepeningof transnationalso- at home feel that they are not being adequatelyre- cial relations.A shippingcompany started by two imbursedfor the family resourcesthey have in- brothersfrom St. Vincentis such an undertaking. vested in sendingthe migrantabroad. Haitians of Carl Hilaire,using the savingshe accruedfrom his peasant backgrounds,illiterate and with little ac- job as a bankclerk in New York,started a business cess to phonesin Haiti, have developeda rhetoric shippingbarrels of goodsbetween migrants in New in the form of songs sent throughaudio cassettes York and their kin in St. Vincent.His brotherin within which tensionsand fissureswithin transna- St. Vincent received and deliveredthe goods as tional householdsand kin networksare communi- they arrived in St. Vincent. The success of the cated (Richman1992a). Women,who often shoul- brothers'shipping company was in part relatedto der the responsibility for their children's their active involvementsin social serviceactivities upbringing,face particularpressures to send money both in St. Vincentand the immigrantcommunity back home. A study of Haitian remittancesfrom in New York, whereeach was well known. New York City to Haiti indicatedthat womensent Despitethe wide use madeof this companyby larger amounts of money than men did, with transmigrantfamilies and businessesin New York women who "headed households" sending the and St. Vincent,the limitedcapital available in the greatestamount (DeWind 1987). eastern Caribbean immigrant community has Migrantshave also createdbusiness activities servedas a brakeon the growthof this company. that build upon, and also foster, transnationalso- Employedprimarily as clerks and junior level ad- cial relationships.Students of immigrationin the ministratorsin service sector companies,Vincen- U.S. have devoteda great deal of energyto the in- tian immigrants,including Carl, have limitedfunds vestigationof enclave economies,postulating that availablefor investmentpurposes, and limitedcon- densely settled immigrantsare able to generate nectionsto peoplewith capital,to enablethis busi- their own internal market for culturally specific ness to expandinto relatedactivities or to be ex- cuisines, products, and objects (Sassen-Koob tendedto other West Indianislands. 1985). However,it is possibleto view such com- However,it is possiblefor businessesthat fa- mercial transactionsas located within a transna- cilitate transnationalconnections to generatelarge tional space that spans national borders, rather amountsof capital. When by 1987 annual remit- than as confinedto territoriallybased enclaves. tances to Haiti grew to an estimated to be Sometimes the commercial interconnections U.S.$99.5 milliona year from the New Yorkmet- are surreptitiousor so small scale they are barely ropolitanarea, Citibankinvestigated the possibility visible. This is certainlytrue of the transnational of competingwith the profitableHaitian money

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 56 ANTHROPOLOGICALQUARTERLY transferbusinesses that had developedin the U.S. tions. They organizednot just nostalgicimaginings (DeWind 1987). Becauseof their largerpopulation of the home countrybut active relationshipswith size and resourcebase, Filipinoshave been able to it. These organizationalactivities provided a base develop large scale transmigrantbusinesses with upon which leaderswere able to validateor build multiplebranches across national borders by using social and political capital in both societies. the intersticescreated by the ongoingtransnational Vincentiansand Grenadians,given a migrationhis- lives of the new immigrants.For example,starting tory to the U.S. that spans the twentiethcentury, with the sale of rice and vegetables to Filipino and confrontingracial barriers both in the past and nurses from a small delivery truck as a second presentthat preventedtheir full incorporationinto source of income, a Filipino accountantprogres- the social and political life of the nation, have a sively graduatedto the bulk air shipmentof trans- long history of using organizationsto maintain migrants'balikbayan ("homecomers") boxes. Ten transnationalinterconnections (Basch 1992; Basch years later he had offices in New York, Manila, et al. 1994;Toney 1986)." The increasingtransna- and six other Philippinecities, a fleet of some 100 tional activitiesof Vincentianand Grenadianorga- couriers picking up and deliveringthe packages nizationsfollowing 1970 demonstratethe important door to door, and a special agreementwith certain impact self-ruleand politicalindependence in the airlines.The once part-timebusiness has becomea West Indies.combined with greatlyexpanded emi- large investmentand a full time occupationfor him grationto the U.S., have had on the organizingof and other membersof his family. The growth of a multi-strandedtransnational social field."1 these businessesis a testimonyto multipleties that Filipinotransmigrants have built a dense net- extend betweenhome and host countries. work of linkages with hundredsof organizations Transnationalpractices extend beyondhouse- that stage religious,cultural, and social events in hold and family networksto includeorganizations the Philippinesas well as in the U.S. Fiestas, for that link the home countrywith one or moresocie- example,in townsin the Philippineshave takenon ties in which its populationhas settled. Immigrant a grandscale with the participationof Filipinoor- "voluntaryassociations" have often been studiedas ganizationsin the U.S. Some of the organizations institutionsthat assist in the adaptationof new- havedeveloped new formsof Filipinonational iden- comers to a new location (Mangin 1965). On the tity and political action and have mediatedrela- other hand,researchers who have lookedfor expla- tionshipsbetween the U.S. and Philippinesgovern- nationsfor culturalpersistence in the midst of as- ments (Basch et al. 1994). similativepressures have argued that immigrants A surveyof the leadersof Haitian organiza- build organizationsto preservetheir practicesand tions in New York City begunduring the Duvalier values,even as they assist in adaptation(Jenkins et dictatorshipindicated the range of organizational al. 1985). Social programsoriented towards the in- linkages that can grow up, even in a situation corporationof immigrantsinto their new society where transnationalorganizations are viewedwith often use these organizationsas cultural brokers. suspicionor activelyoppressed in the home coun- Most recentlyin the U.S. immigrantorganizations try.16Not all Haitian organizationsin New York have been seen as representativesof ethniccommu- were transnationalbut more than forty percent nities that contributeto a nation'scultural diver- were engagedin activitiesoriented at least in part sity. None of these approacheshas examinedthe to Haiti and sixty percentsaw some of theiractivi- contribution these organizations make to the ties in some way contributingto Haiti. The range growth of social and politicalspaces and cultural of organizationsthat operatedin a transnational practicesthat go beyondthe boundariesof the na- social field included Protestant and Catholic tion-state.Also not exploredby scholarsor policy churches,alumnae organizations from various high makersare the implicationsof transnationalorga- schools, hometownassociations, Masonic lodges, nizationalconnections for programmaticefforts to culturalassociations,17 and organizationsthat saw use immigrantorganizations as agentsof the social themselvesas a voiceof the "Haitiancommunity in and political incorporationof immigrantsinto the New York."These organizationssaw their mem- receivingsociety. bersas neithersolely part of the U.S. nor Haiti but Each of the four immigrantpopulations with rather as connectedsimultaneously to both socie- which we workedhad developedorganizations that ties. To educate Haitian youth in the U.S. would build a dense networkof transnationalinterconnec- both contributeto their success as Americansand

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 57 assist in the transformationof Haiti. After the fall movementtook off after the Aquinoassassination. of the Duvalierregime many of these organizations It lobbiedfor a new governmentand a renewalof workedto developorganizational bases in Haiti. democracyin the Philippinesand obtainedthe col- Transmigrantshave been partisansand par- laborationof key U.S. Senatorsand Representa- ticipantsin strugglesagainst dictatorships in Haiti, tives. Popularoutrage in both the U.S. and the the Philippines,and Grenada and have charged Philippinesat Marcos'manipulation of the Philip- their respectivegovernments to be responsiblefor pine nationalelections, confirmed by the personal making democracywork. Through organizations, observationsof top U.S. politicians,and accompa- as well as on the basis of personaltransnational re- nied by the intenselobbying of transmigrants,ulti- lationships,transmigrants have been able to play a matelyforced the Reagangovernment to changeits role in politicalarenas in both the U.S. and their policiestowards Marcos and to help overthrowthe home countries.Key membersof the anti-Duvalier Marcos regime. The personnelof the Filipinore- movementin the U.S. returnedto Haiti in the gimes that have followed,beginning with that of 1980s and built supportfor politicaland social re- CoryAquino, have been filledwith politicalplayers form from a base both in Haiti and in the U.S. In whose personaland politicalnetworks link them to the yearsbetween the fall of the Duvalierregime in both the U.S. and the Philippines.In the 1980sand 1986 and the election of Aristide in 1990, candi- 1990s increasedFilipino efforts to lobby the U.S. dates for the Haitian legislatureand Presidency Congressfor assistancefor the Philippinesreflect a campaignedin the U.S., Canada,and Haiti. Sev- political terrain of dense transnational eral were long-timeresidents of the U.S. Taking interconnection. the stance that they share a single destiny, Hai- These activitieshave all been spearheadedby tians demonstratedin New York, Washington, immigrantleaders in the U.S., acting in concert Miami, Boston, Montreal, and Port-au-Princeto with political actors in their home nation-states. demandpolitical change in Haiti, to protestthe la- LamuelStanislaus, an informalleader in the West belingof Haitiansas carriersof AIDS, and for the Indianimmigrant community in Brooklyn,is an ex- reinstatementof Aristideas Presidentof Haiti. ample of how immigrantsare able to participate Vincentianand Grenadianimmigrants, have in-and have an impact on-political strugglesin workedclosely with, and sometimesas representa- both Grenadaand the U.S. A dentist to the West tives of, their home governmentsto obtainU.S. ec- Indian and African American populations in onomic support.Grenadian transmigrants, for ex- Brooklyn,Stanislaus emigrated from Grenada over ample, lobbiedthe U.S. governmentfor economic forty-fiveyears ago to studyat HowardUniversity. assistancepromised but never deliveredafter the In the mid-1980she becamea key organizerof a U.S. invasion of their country and expected support group comprisedof West Indian immi- throughthe CaribbeanBasin Initiative.Active in grants in New York to re-elect MayorKoch. The efforts to develop agriculturaland industrialex- membersof this organizationfelt that the then- ports from their home countries,Grenadian and mayorwas cognizantof and wouldbe responsiveto Vincentianmigrants have built organizationsthat West Indianinterests in New York.Stanislaus had have workedclosely with their homecountries' con- takenpart in severalmeetings with Koch,at which sulates in New York to obtain more favorable he lobbiedfor West Indianinterests. At the same termsof tradefor Caribbeanagricultural and man- time Stanislaus, who during the last years of ufacturedproducts being importedinto the U.S. Bishop'sgovernment had been vocal in his opposi- They also have been part of effortsto obtainmore tion to what he consideredto be that government's lenient immigrationquotas. antidemocraticpractices, headed a supportgroup Filipinotransmigrants were a major force in of Grenadians,located both in New Yorkand Gre- developingopposition to the Marcosgovernment in nada, to elect a successorto MauriceBishop, after the wake of deterioratingeconomic conditions at Bishop was murderedand the U.S. invadedGre- home and in ensuring U.S. support in toppling nada. When Stanislaus' candidate was elected Marcos.Through transmigrant organizing, discus- primeminister of Grenada,Stanislaus himself was sion groups,speeches, and media exposure,a new appointed Grenada'sambassador to the United form of nationalism was created and fostered Nations, althoughhe had not visited Grenadain amongtransmigrants in the U.S. underthe leader- over forty years. ship of opponentsto the Marcosgovernment. This As we see from these examples,the ability of

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 58 ANTHROPOLOGICALQUARTERLY these transmigrantsto wield politicalinfluence in This extensionof the bordersof the nation- both the U.S. and their home nation-statesderives state to includetransmigrant populations long set- from their political incorporationin both settings. tled and often legally citizens of other countries Grassrootsorganizing linked to new social move- was highlightedby the politicaldiscourse of Presi- ments as well as electoralpolitics take place in the dent Aristideof Haiti. In 1991 he designatedthe emergingtransnational political arenas. While the Haitian diasporaDizyem-na, the Tenth Depart- dominantpolitical ethic of the U.S. continuesto ment of Haiti. Haiti has nine territorialdivisions demandthat citizens,both nativeborn and natural- called departments. By including Haitians in ized, swear allegianceonly to the U.S. and define whatevercountry they have settled as part of the their politicalidentity within its borders,the trans- Haitian nation-stateAristide contributed to a new nationalismof increasingnumbers of its citizens constructionof the postcolonialnation-state. In this promotesnew politicalconstructions in labor-send- constructionof Haiti as a borderlessstate, Haitian ing states. Facing situationsof extreme economic territorybecomes a social space that may exist impoverishmentand dependency,Caribbean lead- withinthe legal boundariesof manynation-states.8" ers are developingconstructions of their nation- Haiti now exists whereverin the world Haitians states that encompassthose residingabroad as part had settled. Speaking of the "bank of the dias- of their body politic.These constructions,which we pora,"he offeredthe model of Jewish Zionismas have labeled "deterritorialized nation-states" evidence of the productivityof this strategy in (Basch et al. 1994) define state boundariesin so- which, in the Haitian reading,the diasporastays cial rather than geographicterms. Accordingto abroadbut providesmoney and politicalassistance this readingof the nation-state,the bordersof the to the "home"country (Richman 1992b).1' state spreadglobally to encompassall migrantsand Aristide'sconstruction of the Tenth Depart- their descendantswherever they may settle and ment recognized,accepted, and made use of the whateverlegal citizenshipthey may have attained. multiple embeddednessof the Haitian trans- Bishop,the primeminister of Grenadaduring migrantsand their participationin the politicallife the early 1980s,reflecting the perspectiveof several of the U.S. Haitian transnationalismwas more West Indianpolitical leaders, underscored the im- than legitimized:it was nationalized.By nationaliz- portanceof the immigrantsto Grenada'snation ing transmigrants,Aristide made Haitiantransna- building by referringto Brooklynas "Grenada's tionalisma politicalforce that must be figuredinto largest constituency."To assure that the immi- the relationshipbetween Haiti and the other na- grantsremain connected and committedto projects tion-statesin which Haitianshave settled.By theo- at homeboth ideologicallyand financially,scores of rizing a deterritorializednation, leaders such as West Indian political leadersvisit their "constitu- Aristideare definingvoting, lobbying,running for encies" in the diasporato describetheir develop- office,demonstrating, building public opinion, send- ment initiatives.In so doingthey enmeshthe trans- ing remittances,and maintainingother transna- migrantsin the nation-statebuilding processes of tional activitiescarried out in the U.S. as acts of West Indiannation-states. citizenshipand expressionsof loyalty to another As early as 1973 Philippines President country. Marcos,and subsequentlyhis successors,developed U.S. hegemonic forces, on the other hand, a programfor balikbayan("homecomers") and be- have reactedto the growingcommitment of trans- gan to use the term to referto Filipinocitizens and migrantsto participatein the politicalprocesses of non-citizens residing overseas. They encouraged both the U.S. and the "homesociety" by renewed migrantsto visit home throughvisa and travel fa- incorporativeefforts. They have insisted that the cilitation and allowed for large shipmentsof per- bottom line loyalties of Caribbean immigrants sonal effects that ultimatelyfed transnationalim- must be to the U.S. Interviewsconducted in 1986 port-exportbusinesses and they levied taxes on with representativesof fifty-one philanthropies, incomesearned abroad. Government officials called churches,and state agencieswho workedwith Hai- upon Filipino transmigrantsto fund development tian immigrantorganizations made this clear. Rep- projects in the Philippinesand to lobby for in- resentativesof U.S. organizationswere explicit in creased U.S. aid. Filipino senatorsand congress- their insistence that Haitian immigrantsbecome men came to the U.S. to campaignfor elected of- U.S. citizensand give up their allegianceto Haiti. fice in the Philippines. Both implicitlythrough the money,technical assis-

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 IMMIGRANT TO TRANSMIGRANT 59 tance, and political connections they provided to or- ticular focus on the undocumented is worth exam- ganizations, and explicitly in the course of meet- ining for several reasons. Certainly the continuing ings and conversations with Haitian leaders, these ability of the nation-state to punish violations of representative sent a consistent message. It was law should not be dismissed in debates about the summarized by a representative of the Community demise of the nation-state. In the realm of the Service Society, a large philanthropic organization: withdrawal of rights to health, education, and "I have problems with dual citizenship; I believe in peace of mind, the U.S. nation-state is clearly able allegiance to one country." to enforce a distinction between categories of belonging. However, it should be noted that the polit- and such as 187 Implications of Transnationalism for the Debate ical rhetoric policies Proposition residents and the on Immigration delineate legal undocumented, rather than native born and foreign or citizen and non-citizen. the special Federal Commis- The paradox of our times, and one that must be Similarly, sion on Reform chaired former central to our understanding of the identities and Immigration by U.S. Barbara Jordan does not advo- dilemmas of current day immigrants is that the Representative cate but does restrict- "age of transnationalism" is a time of continuing halting immigration propose undocumented immigration. and even heightening nation-state building ing processes. In the current heightening of nationalist This particular emphasis on categories of le- sentiment in a globalized economy, transnational gality has a dual thrust. The debate is as much migration is playing a complex, significant, yet lit- about confining immigrant loyalties to the U.S. as tle noted role (Miles 1993). It lies as a silent sub- it is about reducing the flow of immigration. Of text that contributes to the actions, motivations, course, the current national public discussion about and sensibilities of key players within the political immigration certainly contributes to a broader processes and debates of both states that have his- anti-immigrant hysteria that has racist underpin- tories of population dispersal and states that have nings, with all immigrants of color finding their primarily been and continue to be recipients of presence and activities under increased scrutiny. population flows. In the U.S. the debates on both Concepts of "America, the white" are reinforced. immigration and multiculturalism need to be ana- Yet at the same time, documented immigrants are lyzed in relationship to the efforts by dominant being drawn into the debate on the side of enforce- forces to reconstruct national consensus and legiti- ment, validating their right to belong but differenti- mate state structures at the same time that they ating themselves from other immigrants. There is a globalize the national economy. The 1994 passage dialectic between inclusion and exclusion that disci- of the General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs plines transnational migrants by focusing public at- and California's Proposition 187 that denies vital tention on the degree to which they belong in the services to undocumented immigrants are a U.S. The current debate on immigrants in U.S. will matched set of policy initiatives. As the national lead not to the effective policing of national borders economy is restructured to facilitate higher levels but to the reinscription of boundaries. It serves to of profit for transnational capital, politicians and counter transnational identities and loyalties and the media have projected a bunker mentality, con- creates a terrain in which immigrants are drawn vincing the majority of the population, including into defending whatever they have achieved or ob- people who are themselves immigrants that the na- tained by defending it against the undocumented. tional borders have to be defended against the un- They are therefore drawn into a discourse of iden- documented. Undocumented workers are said to be tity that links them to the U.S. nation state as a the cause of the deterioration of the infrastructure bounded structure of laws and institutions as well and the lack of public services. as a defended territory. Yet none of the nation- The strategy of U.S. hegemonic forces forming building processes encompasses fully the complex- a national consensus by depicting immigrants as an ity and multiple identities which constitute the lives enemies of the nation is not new. However, the par- of transmigrants. NOTES 'The Filipino immigrants also did not raise the issue of enced by the concept of "the immigrant" as uprooted, believe transnationalism. Even while they continue to build their trans- that they must make a choice between their new country and national practices and networks, immigrants, very often influ- their homeland. Interactions such as these with the census or-

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 60 ANTHROPOLOGICALQUARTERLY ganizersreinforce their belief that U.S. society wants them to tries formedfrom the Caribbeanterritories under the controlof be loyal to only the U.S., so that they do not describeother the Britishduring the colonial period.The term "Caribbean" aspects of their experiences. has a broaderconnotation, referring to all islandstates lying in 2"Transnational" appearsin the titles of books, disserta- the CaribbeanSea as well as states along the northernrim of tions, conferences,and journals(American Academy of Politi- South America (See Basch 1987, 1992). cal and Social Science 1986; Georges 1990; Richman 1992a; 12Further work on Garifuna networksthat interconnect Rouse 1989; Wakeman1988). Diasporais "a journalof trans- populationsin multiplenation states has been done by Macklin nationalstudies," Public Culture has as its subtitle the "Soci- (1992). Macklin identifieda patternin which immigrantnet- ety for TransnationalStudies," and the statementof purposeof worksspan so manycountries that migrantsdevelop an identity Identities speaks of "transnationalmovements of population." which in some ways is independentof any particularnational In 1993 transnationalconnections became a theme of the an- territoryor history. nual of the American while the meetings EthnologicalSociety, 13SSeePessar 1991 for an explicationof this theme. for Cultural called for workon "transna- Society Anthropology "These interconnections,which were apparentin the early tional culture."The 1994 of the American meetings Anthropo- 1980s, led Basch to design a study to explorethe extent and logical Society contained seven sessions devoted to transna- ramificationsof these connections.This researchwas conducted tional studies. underthe auspicesof the United Nations Institutefor Training 3Sutton and were Mackiesky-Barrow(1992[1975]: 114) and Researchand was fundedby the United Nations Fund for the first to of a "transnationalsociocultural and among speak PopulationActivities and the InternationalDevelopment Re- in which eventsat home ... had an politicalsystem" "political search Centre (Ottawa, Canada). Rosina Wiltshire,Winston on the communitiesabroad while ex- impact migrant migrant Wiltshire,and Joyce Toney were researchcollaborators with were in the direction."Researchers periences relayed opposite Basch; their efforts were greatly aided by the researchassis- with whose lives sometimeson daily working immigrants defy, tance of Colin Robinson,Isa Soto, and MargaretSouza. terms, the legal constraintsof the Mexican and U.S. border, immigrationlegislation of 1965, and the social and to talk of "transnationalcircuits" (Rouse 1989, 1991) or "1The began economicrelations between the United States and the Carib- "transnationalcommunities" (Kearney 1992; Rouse n.d.). Ap- bean that framedits enactment,greatly liberalizedrestrictions padurai(1990, 1991) and Gupta (1992), noting the rapid flow of West Indian that had been in force since the of ideas and objects as well as people, began to reimaginethe immigration 1920s.This historicmoment to was a watershedin globe as having entered an era of transnationalism,a position (1965 1970) the of the West Indian of West Indian also expressedby Rouse and Kearney.In 1989, respondingto expansion population, and economic and of as- our call to develop a transnationalperspective on migration, social, political, activities, increasing seven scholarsexamined the ramificationsof transnationalmi- sertionsof a public West Indianidentity in New York. Trans- an role in gration to the U.S. from Asia, the Caribbean,Mexico, and national organizationsplayed important fostering Portugal,at a conferenceat the New York Academy of Sci- these intertwiningdevelopments. ences (see Charles, Feldman-Bianco,Lessinger, Ong, Rouse, 16The survey, as well as a survey of U.S. organizations Richman,and Wiltshirein Glick Schiller et al. 1992b). that providedsupport to Haitian ethnic organizingwas funded 4Thisstatement reflects a tendencyfound in manyscholars by a grant from the National Institute for Child Health and influencedby postmodernismto imagine a past of unchanging Human Development(#281-40-1145) to Josh DeWind and and tightly boundedcultures. Nina Glick Schiller. It was developedand administeredby a Carolle 5Appadurai(1993) has made a similar point but does not research team that included Marie Lucie Brutus, include militaryand police functions. Charles,George Fouron,and Antoine Luis Thomas.For a re- on some of the see Glick Schiller et 6Gilroy (1987) has examinedthe responseof black immi- port findings, al. grant youth in Britain from a similar perspective. 1992[1987]. in New York 7See Chock (forthcoming)for a critique of the way in 17"Inher researchwith Filipinoorganizations which texts such as the Harvard Encyclopediaof American City Szanton-Blancfound a similarrange of organizationswith Ethnic Groupsshaped narrativesof immigrantsettlement and transnationalconnections. identity. 1"GeorgeAnglade had previouslyused the term in his The of the Tenth 8The intensity of earlier drives to assimilate immigrants writingsbut Aristidepopularized it. concept may actually have been a reactionto the fact that immigrants Departmentstruck a resonantnote amonga numberof middle- of earlier generationsalso tended to maintaintheir home ties. class Haitian immigrantsand aspiringpolitical leaders in the Certainly there are glimpses in the historicalrecord of large U.S., and they proceededto hold a seriesof meetingsto organ- scale returnmigration to Italy (Portesand Rumbaut1990) and ize the mannerin which they wouldassist Haiti and to choose of political movementsin Europe, including many national official representativesof the Tenth Department. strugglesthat were transnationalin their composition(Higham '1Aristidealso waged a campaign to insure that when and Brooks 1978). transmigrantscame home to visit and spend their money,they 9Bolsheviksincluding Trotsky wrote for the immigrant felt welcome. In the past personsin the diasporawere often pressin New York and then returnedto Russia in the courseof devalued as unauthenticopportunists who had jumped ship. the revolutionto build newspapersin the Soviet Union. "Diaspora"became a somewhatpejorative term. In contrast, 1OTheycontributed to the reconceptualizationof the Aristidecalled on the Haitianpopulation to welcomethe trans- Greek-speakingpopulation from a religiousmillet composedof migrantswho shouldreturn to Haiti not to settle but as "good co-religionistswithin the Ottoman Empireto a nation with a homegrownKreyol tourists" (bon jan pitit kay touris Kreyol) shared nationalculture and its own state. and to see them not as a threat but a sourceof assistancefor "The term "West Indies"is used to describethose coun- the strugglesof the Haitian people (Richman 1992).

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