Transcript Transnationalism and Globalization Not a new term, first cited in 1916 by American writer Randolph Bourne in his paper “Trans-National America” describing what today we would call.

Transnationalism and
Globalization
Not
a new term, first cited in
1916 by American writer
Randolph Bourne in his paper
“Trans-National America”
describing what today we would
call “multiculturalism”
In the context of migration term
was first used in 1990s
 Transnationalism, as
defined by Basch et
al (1994) is “a process by which migrants,
through their daily life activities create
social fields that cross national
boundaries”
 As
the theory progressed in 1990s it
became understood that sending and
receiving countries [of migrants]
constituted one single field of analysis
(Levitt and Nyberg-Sorensen, 2004)
 Multiple
Meanings
 Different disciplinary approaches to the
concept
• Economic vs. social vs. cultural vs. geographical
 Transnational
Condition: Living in
another country than their country of
origin.
 You
can think about transnationalism in
two ways:
 Transnationalism from above:
Corporations, Transnational capital,
global media.
 Transnationalism from below: Informal
economy (remittances), shadow economy
(illicit, drugs, etc), ethnic nationalism…
 Two
are intertwined
 Globalization aids the intensification of
world-wide social relations which link
distant localities in such a way that local
happenings are shaped by events
occurring many miles away and vice
versa
 Transfer of cultural practices
 Example: How sushi went global
 Other Examples?
 Long-distance
politics: Cuban population
in Florida advocating for the fall of
communism in Cuba
 ‘Homeland’ outreach– policies, rhetoric,
electioneering
 Sometimes
transnational populations are
diasporic– exile or opposition groups
 Dual citizenship/nationality– marked
global upward trend in claims through
naturalization, marriage and birth,
widespread government policy shifts
 Diaspora: any
population sharing
common ethnic identity who were either
forced to leave or voluntarily left their
settled territory, and became residents in
areas often far removed from the former.
 Example: During
the Atlantic Slave Trade,
about ten million people from West, WestCentral and South-east Africa were
transported to the Western Hemisphere
as slaves.
 Can we brainstorm other diasporas?
 Immigrant
communities do not de-link
themselves from their home country;
instead, they keep and nourish their
linkages to their place of origin
(Itizigsohn et al, 1999).
 Lets gather some examples from our
local environment.
 Many
social scientists agree that
“transnationalism broadly refers to
multiple ties and interactions linking
people or institutions across the borders
of nation states”
 It
must show sustained cross-border
relationships, exchange, affiliations (kin
and social), loyalties-- social formations
spanning nation-states-- non-government
actors such as aid providers
 Examples: migrants
& refugees, ethnic
diasporas, corporations & business
networks, social movements, criminal
syndicates, terrorist groups
 For
my own research, ethnic homeless
people recreating their national culture
in the United States, while maintaining
close ties with their native land can be
considered transnationals (Native
American population in Lawrence, Latin
American populations in California)
 Transnationalism
is linked to
Globalization forces…
 New technology connecting long
distance networks with increasing speed
and efficiency (Vertovec, 1999)
 Broadband Internet, Instant Messaging,
Email, Skype, Low cost Air Travel
(aspects of globalization)

 Information
and communication
technologies crisscross national
boundaries with relative ease, creating
the possibility for increased and
intensified forms of communication
(Panagakos and Horst, 2003: 113
 Transnationalism
in migration studies
Anthropology, Geography, Sociology,
American Studies, History,
 Multidisciplinary and therefore the
meaning of transnationalism is often
disputed
 Early
work focused on migration to the
USA from either Latin-America or
Caribbean
 Anthropologists focused initially on
Economics e.g. flows of commodities,
services and money…more attention now
on cultural mobility, identities and
transnational spaces
 Transnationalism
has developed in the
context of the spread of global capitalism.
 It has shifted capital and labor across
borders
 As capital investments flow from high wage
Core countries to low wage Periphery
regions, labor shifts take place in both
 Identity and cultural models spread
 Culture does not just “flow” one way
 Politics
of recognition plus transnational
bifocality (ability to see the world
through different “lenses”, different
languages, different cultural models)
leading to: ubiquity, salience and the
public display of cross-border multiple
identities
 German
Turk, Mexican-American, British
Pakistani
 Hyphenated identity? List of the others
we are familiar with
 Identification during assimilation-eras
(post civil war, post civil rights)
 Now, transnational identities are
emerging
 Ethnic
groups identify with both cultures
• Second generation begins to identify host
country as primary
 Ethnographic
evidence of Mexicans,
Central Americans, Caribbeans, and
South Americans identifying themselves
as “Latino” rather than American (Massey
and Sanchez 2004)
 Challenges: nation-state
challenged by
economic globalization, multi-lateral
political agreements, multiculturalismthreats from ‘above’ and ’below’
 Migrant transnationalism adds:
homeland-oriented political activity
 Questions of ‘loyalty’ dual citizenship
 Questions
of ‘allegiance’
 Cross-border multiple identities
 Questions of ‘integration’
 Example: Migrant populations in the Bay
Area
 Integration
→ Citizenship
 Social cohesion → immigrants
 ‘greater sense of citizenship’
 Citizen test
 Localized cultures
 How many immigrant populations in the
Bay?
 Latino, Asian, Arab, etc
 Community
of citizens > nationalistic ties
(regional transnational identification e.g.
mexico city vs. yucatan)
 Community of communities: core need
for shared cultural meanings
 Social cohesion
 Building social capital
 Multiple
attachments do not hamper
integration in the country of settlement.
 Why? Because two or more sets of
attachment do not necessarily compete
with each other.
 Further, when
we accept the fact that people
are attached to their countries of origin, we
realize it gives migrants the self-confidence to
interact much more dynamically and creatively
with the cultural lives of the country of
settlement
 It is hard to believe that if migrant communities
would stop being communities and break up, it
would be easier to integrate them into the
mainstream society
 Some
data has shown in places where
dual citizenship is offered or policies are
newly relaxed, immigrant naturalization
has increased.
 Integration of immigrant populations into
mainstream social order seems to
operate smoothest when immigrant
populations can move at their own speed
 Transnationalism
or Multiculturalism?
 Multiculturalism was built around the
images of 1950s (integrated world
communities)
 1950s lots of immigrants, literature of the
time shows no real understanding of the
complexity of global links with the rest of
the world
 For
example, the support from American
Muslims for Bosnians and Kosavars; the flows of
money from British Bangladeshis back to their
home countries…
 When these links don’t fit the neat multicultural
story then they are left out and forgotten
 The complexity of our real internationalism, our
sense of the possibilities when identities move
beyond the home and the hearth, is diminished
 Migrant
transnationalism often seen as a
threat– a kind of ‘multiculturalism plus’
 Border-crossing identities?
 For how many generations do transnational
populations stay separate?
 Disrupted ‘identities, borders, sociopolitical orders (especially post-9/11 in
USA)
 Does this trigger nation-state backlash?
Illegal Immigration scares, ethnic
cleansings…










McDonalds “fast food”
What is “fast food”
What does this say about society?
Expansion of American style fast food…
Cultural imperialism vs free market expression?
How is McDonalds undermining local cuisine?
How is McDonalds being undermined by local cuisine?
Catalyst for culinary change and/or economic
development?
Lets watch some commercials
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGT2Fe5Lqc0&feature=
PlayList&p=93E302FB9194E6F4&index=0&playnext=1
 The
Birthday party
 Promoted as a way to bring in customers
 Even new symbols developed, such as
“Uncle and Aunt McDonald” characters in
China
• Children’s Day in Japan
 It is a day (late May) set aside to respect children's
personalities and to celebrate their happiness. On the 5
week of the 5th month. Old holiday.
 Shared “birthday” ritual for age groups (children’s festival)
 A group/village holiday as opposed to an individualistic
one.
 What
item is present on the menu in all
global locations?
• What about standardization? Image and
consumerism. What about diet? Addictions?
 What
are some unique items on the menu
globally?
 (Veggie mcnuggets, maharaja mac,
Mcspegetti, mclean deluxe, mcploughmans,
mclaks, mchueva)
• Impact of religion, impact of regional tastes
 Ever heard of the McRibb?
 Cultural icon, periodically brought
back…
 http://www.kleincast.com/maps/mcrib.p
hp
 http://nessart.8m.com/mcrib.htm
Same fries from Chicago to Cancun
 Developing a “system” of construction
and delivery (assembly line method)
 The same burger in San Diego as in
Highgate Vermont
 McDonalds not the only organization to
do this, and is not limited to
transnationals.
 Whole foods, Target, many chain grocers.

What is the new family structure emerging in
Taiwan?
 Neolocality
 Patrilocality
 (living with or near the husbands family)
 verse
 (forming a new household separate from family)
 Living with mom allows mom to do more
househhold labor, freeing the woman to enter the
job market

 What
changed to allow this to happen in
East Asia? (wages)
 In Taiwan specifically? ()
 A great example of globalization in
action…
 The growth of a middle class, emerging
affluent culture in Taiwan due to wage
increases
 Example
of cultural change and
transnationalism
 Tsukiji Market sets prices
 Japanese buyers purchase using set of
Japanese requirements
 Prior to rise of sushi, tuna used largely for
pet food
 Migration
of Blue Fin Tuna
• Caught all over the world (stateless fish, global
institutions to regulate fishing)
 Some
tuna more desired than others
(blue fin vs. yellow fin)
 Sushi and prestige in Japan
 Growth of Middle Class in Japan
 Growth of sushi consumption in Japan as
culture prospered
 Sushi's
origin goes back to the 4th
century BC in Southeast Asia
 Cooked rice begins to ferment, and fish
packed in this will be preserved
 Early sushi, you ate the fermented fish
and discarded the rice
 Spread throughout Asian and through
China to Japan
 Around the 8th century AD it was
introduced into Japan
 Japanese
cuisine introduced into the
States 1929, but no Sushi or Sashimi
 Japanese cuisine influences art/fashion in
the States…Sushi colored eye-shadow,
Tuna colored lipstick
 American occupation of Japan post WW II
•
•
•
•
American GIs come home with expanded tastes
American culinary changes
Sushi introduced
Spread in the 1970s, explodes on the 1980s
 Sushi
caught in Maine is flown to Japan to be
sold on the Japanese market
 How were the Massachusetts Fisherpeople
impacted by the accident on the Spanish
Fish Farm?
 Not discussed…
• The Cost of economic globalization…
• Transportation costs (fuel, labor, etc)
• Environmental Costs (in transportation and in aqua-
farming)
• Overfishing
• Transnational dislocations and Sushi Chefs?
 In
the global sushi commodity chain,
what country can be described as the
“core”?
 Where are the periphery countries?
 What does this mean about the world
economy?
 World Systems Theory?