Introduction
Debates over illegal migration often invoke the use of technology as a solution to control migration and to enhance security. Consequently, increasingly sophisticated and expensive technologies have been developed to monitor the external borders of nation-states. For example, the 2,000 mile border along the United States and Mexico, has become increasingly militarized and monitored through the application of various technologies. However, the sophistication of the technology and the increased danger of illegal border crossings have not deterred migrants from risking their lives in order to get into the United States. An exclusive focus on ‘technological fixes’ to border control ignores the economic realities, partially induced by the North American Free Trade Agreement, that have devastated livelihoods in Mexico and increased pressure to migrate. While border surveillance is designed to attempt to keep some migrants out of the United States, other technologies, such as the NEXUS program at the US and Canada border, are used to facilitate the migration of privileged economic classes. As a result, these technologies effectively separate groups of migrants, and raise significant questions about equity and human rights. Finally, technologies used for migration control are not exclusively focused on the external borders of nation-states. Passports, biometrics, identity cards all enable border control to occur within the boundaries of nation-states. Although technology can be useful, it is important to understand that it does not exist as a neutral device. Technologies of border control are linked to power relations, exclusionary politics and globalizing economic forces.

The following resources focus on how technology is used to control the border of the United States and Mexico, and how migrants respond to changing border management. The first source is an article published by the Christian Science Monitor which provides details on “Project 28", a United States program that attempted to create a virtual fence along 28 miles of the border with Mexico. The second source, an audio file by National Public Radio, describes the results of a new virtual surveillance program in Texas, the Texas Border Watch project, which broadcast live video footage of the border on the internet and requested that the public report suspicious activity. The third source is a PBS video, entitled Mexico: Crimes at the Border, which shows how smugglers and migrants change their border-crossing strategies in response to the increased surveillance and militarization of the border. The final source, a New York Times article, describes how a migrant was shot and killed at the border fence, as well as the reactions to the killing in Mexico.

Sources

Source one
Wood, Daniel. 2008. Arizona's 'Virtual' Wall Gets Reality Check. Christian Science Monitor.
Click here for related photographs.

Source two
National Public Radio. 2007. Texas Tests Cameras Along Mexican Border.

Source three
PBS. Mexico: Crimes at the Border.

Source four
McKinley, James C. Jr. 2006. A Border Killing Inflames Mexican Anger at U.S. Policy. New York Times.

Discussion Questions

(1) What difficulties did ‘Project 28’ encounter, and what are the implications of the outcomes of this project for further utilization of more complex and expensive technologies to control border spaces? What impact does this have on migrants trying to cross the border? How do smugglers in the PBS video circumvent increased use of technology and surveillance?

(2) What are the perspectives on the militarization of the border in Mexico, as described in the New York Times article? How does the militarization of the border reflect broader racial and ethnic tensions?

(3) The US-Mexico border has also become increasingly monitored by vigilante groups, but in the case of the Texas Border Watch project the state called on its citizens to monitor the border on the internet. What are the implications of calling on civilians to monitor the border and how successful was this technology?

Suggested Reading

Sparke, Matthew B. 2006. A neoliberal nexus: Economy, security and the biopolitics of citizenship on the border. Political Geography, 25, no. 2:151-180.

Introduction

A typical stereotype, that migrants are unskilled and poorly trained, is defied by the significance of the global migration of highly skilled workers, such as doctors and nurses. This is part of a phenomenon popularly called the ‘brain drain,’ which is a term used to designate the emigration of highly skilled individuals, often from a developing to a developed country. Globally, the continued migration of healthcare workers from places where there are critical shortages exacerbates already existing inequalities between world regions and nation-states. For sending states, this migration not only results in the loss of skilled workers, but it is also a lost financial investment. The training of healthcare workers is expensive, and when healthcare workers leave their home country, their training leaves with them. However, like other migrants, many healthcare workers still maintain ties with their home countries by sending financial remittances. Some countries, such as the Philippines, even encourage the migration of healthcare workers, because their remittances are important for the national economy. Another potential, but currently rare, benefit for sending countries results when migrants return with more education and work experience. In the receiving countries, the critical need for healthcare workers does not necessarily mean that these migrants receive superior treatment. Indeed, quite the opposite may be true: studies undertaken in a wide variety of receiving states attest to the racial discrimination experienced by migrant healthcare workers, despite their social location in the labor market. Moreover, migrant healthcare workers have also been subject to different degrees of deskilling (when their skills are not acknowledged and they are given jobs for which they are over-qualified) because educational credentials may not be recognized in receiving states.

The following sources provide a perspective on the global dimensions of the migration of healthcare workers, as well as more specific stories about its impacts on sending and receiving states. The first source is a map, produced by the World Health Organization, which shows countries with and without critical shortages of health service providers. The second source, a story broadcast by National Public Radio, includes pictures and links to an audio clip which describe the impact of critical shortages of healthcare workers in Kenya. Finally, the third source, an article from the BBC, details the experiences of racism faced by migrant nurses in the United Kingdom.

Sources

Source one
World Health Organization. 2006. Countries with a critical shortage of health service providers (doctors, nurses and midwives).

Source two
Wilson, Brenda. 2005. Developing Countries See Health Care 'Brain Drain'. Morning Edition, National Public Radio.

Source three
BBC NEWS. 2003. UK 'racist' to overseas nurses.

Discussion Questions

(1) The map reveals that Africa suffers the most from critical shortages of health service providers. How is Kenya trying to combat the impacts of ‘brain drain’? What are the implications of this strategy? What are other possible reasons, besides migration, that may account for the shortage of healthcare workers?

(2) The map is based on data collected at the scale of the nation-state. What are the implications of focusing on the nation-state as the primary unit of analysis? What does this focus obscure (for example, differences between rural and urban areas as highlighted in the NPR article)?

(3) Consider the voices of the health service workers and how they are represented in the two articles. While nurses may be legally recruited from abroad, they still face exploitation, discrimination, and deskilling. What are the challenges faced by migrating health service workers? Consider racial and gender-related dimensions.

Suggested Readings

Coombes, Rebecca. 2005. Developed world is robbing African countries of health staff. BMJ: British Medical Journal 330, no. 7497:923-923.

Hugo, Graeme. 2007. Population geography. Progress in Human Geography 31, no. 1:77-88.

Pond, Bob, and Barbara McPake. 2006. The health migration crisis: the role of four Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development countries. Lancet 367, no. 9520:1448-1455.

Ray, Kristin M., B. L. Lowell, and Sarah Spencer. 2006. International Health Worker Mobility: Causes, Consequences, and Best Practices. International Migration 44, no. 2:181-203.

Introduction

The “coolie trade" refers to the importation of Asian contract laborers (especially Chinese and Indians) under force or deception during the 19th century. It emerged during the “gradual abolition" of slavery in the early 19th century, and coolies were exploited as substitutes for slave labor. The British were the first to experiment with this infamous form of labor migration when they imported 200 Chinese to Trinidad in 1806, the time when the British ended the slave trade. By 1838, some 25,000 East Indians had been exported to the new British East African colony of Mauritius. While Indian coolies were mainly transported inside British colonies, 250,000 to 500,000 Chinese coolies were imported during 1847-1874 to various British, French, Dutch and Spanish colonies in the Americas, Africa and Southeast Asia. During this twenty-seven year period, about 125,000 Chinese coolies were sent to Cuba. They were predominantly men from southern China exported via Macao (then a Portuguese colony). Eighty percent or more were sent directly to sugar plantations. Coolies worked and lived no better than slaves, having insufficient food, lacking promised medical care, working long hours, and suffering physical torture. The merciless coolie trade caused scandal in contemporary international media and was criticized as a new form of slavery. In 1855, England withdrew its ships carrying Chinese coolie laborers to Cuba and Peru; in 1856, Peru followed suit and made the coolie trade illegal; in 1862, the United States banned the coolie trade in a law issued by President Lincoln; around 1874 the Portuguese also ended the coolie trade via Macao under international pressure. While having long viewed Chinese abroad as “abandoned people" and having been largely impotent in confronting western powers, the late Qing government took a rather firm stand after the mid-19th century to protect its overseas subjects. In 1877, a Sino-Spanish Treaty provided that the Chinese then under contract in Cuba had their contracts terminated, and Chinese consuls were named to protect Chinese residing in Cuba.

The following sources are about the experiences of Chinese coolie laborers in Cuba and how the coolie trade was discussed internationally. Source one includes excerpts from a report submitted by a Chinese commission sent to Cuba in 1874 to investigate the mistreatment of Chinese laborers. In less than two months, the Cuban Commission collected 1,176 depositions and 85 petitions supported by 1,665 signatures, all vividly demonstrating the miserable lives of Chinese coolies in Cuba. Source two is a New York Times article in 1860 that advocates for United States governmental actions against the coolie trade and compares the coolie trade with Chinese migration to the United States.

Sources

Source One
Excerpts for classroom use.

Citation: The Cuba Commission Report: A Hidden History of the Chinese in Cuba, The Original English-Language Text of 1876. Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 1993.

Source Two
Excerpts for classroom use.

Citation: “The American Coolie-Trade." New York Times, April 21, 1860, sec. 4.

Discussion Questions

(1) According to their own testimonies, how did Chinese coolies come to Cuba? How were they treated in Cuba?

(2) According to the New York Times article, why should the United States act against the participation of United States merchants in the coolie trade?

(3) How did the New York Times article differentiate coolies to Cuba from Chinese immigrants in the US? Read the two sources together, what can we see about the different portrayals and the ambiguous position of Chinese labor migrants in different local contexts (such as their racial status, interracial marriage, cultural characteristics and economic value)?

Suggested Readings:

Christopher, Emma, Cassandra Pybus, and Marcus Buford Rediker. Many Middle Passages: Forced Migration and the Making of the Modern World. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2007.

Hu-DeHart, Evelyn. "Chinese Coolie Labour in Cuba in the Nineteenth Century: Free Labour or Neo-slavery?" Slavery and Abolition 14, no.1 (April 1993): 67–83.

Irick, Robert L. Ch’ing Policy toward the Coolie Trade: 1847-1878. Taipei: Chinese Materials Center, 1982.

Jung, Moon-Ho. "Outlawing "Coolies": Race, Nation, and Empire in the Age of Emancipation." American Quarterly 57, no. 3 (September 2005): 677-701.

Lai, Walton Look. Indentured Labor, Caribbean Sugar: Chinese and Indian Migrants to the British West Indies, 1838–1918. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1993.

Introduction

The new phase of global capitalism in the late 20th century has introduced significant changes to the human society. Capital, goods, people and ideas move increasingly fast across national borders, communication and transportation technologies that allow worldwide connections in real time, reconfigured transportation routes, and consumers’ increased access to products and services, are some examples of globalization’s recent transformation of local and global phenomena. Surely the most readily identifiable consequence of global capitalism is the change that exerts on economic structures. Foreign investment transformed local economies, while international corporations reap significant profits. Less obvious, however, is the effect that global capitalism has on individuals operating within such economically macro-economic systems. Most importantly, changes in local economies often force populations to search for job opportunities in other parts of the world. Scholars refer to such economically motivated migration as "economic migration" or "labor migration." Although they are considered voluntary migration, many people who cross borders in search of better opportunities feel they have no choice but to leave their economically destitute homelands. They also do not necessarily involve the poorest of the poor, as international migration requires resources and connections. Since the mid-1980s, economic migration reached a new high point, and it has remained largely constant through the present day. In the contemporary world, economic migration has been especially characteristic of the developing world, where the penetration of international corporations has disrupted local economies. Many of today’s economic migrants seek jobs in developed countries such as the United States, Germany, and Japan.

This is a documentary entitled Uprooted: Refugees of the Global Economy (2001), made by The Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, raises important questions about the impact of global capitalism on individuals decisions in a time when large corporations cross nation-state borders at will. It is based on interviews with immigrants from the Philippines, Bolivia, and Haiti that migrate to the United States. The interviews show how the penetration of global capitalism has forced people to leave their home countries.

Source

Uprooted: Refugees of the Global Economy (National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights with Sasha Khokha, Ulla Nilsen, Jon Fromer, and Francisco Herrera, 28 min, 2001).

Discussion Questions

(1) List the reasons why Maricel (Filipino), Jessy and Jaime (Bolivians), and Luckner (Haitian) left their countries. Point out similarities and differences in their experiences.

(2) In what ways does serving the economic needs of people in advanced industrialized societies cause harm to people in less developed societies? International corporations show how commodities and financial resources move freely across borders. Is it the same for people crossing borders due to seeking better jobs? Do people in search of work enjoy the same freedom to move across national boundaries? Support your answer.

(3) Global capitalism has both positive and negative attributes. List some of each. What do you think can be done in your daily life to minimize the negative attributes of global capitalism? Whose side (i.e. migrants or corporations) does the documentary take? What can we learn from that perspective? What do we miss from it?

Suggested Readings

Burawoy, Michael, et al. 2000. Global Ethnography: Forces, Connections and Imaginations in a Postmodern World. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.

Frieden, Jeffry. 2006. Global Capitalism: Its Fall and Rise in the Twentieth Century. New York: W. W. Norton.

Parreñas, Rhacel Salazar. 2001. Servants of Globalization: Women, Migrants and Domestic Work. Stanford: Stanford University Press.

Sassen, Saskia. 1999. Guests and Aliens. New York: The New Press.

Introduction

Immigration is closely related to a country's demographic changes and profoundly shapes its identity. In recent decades, the impact of immigration has become significant for both “nations of immigrants" such as the United States and traditionally non-immigrant societies such as Japan. As a United Nations report predicts, with falling fertility rates and population aging, Japan’s population will plummet from over 127 million in 2005 to around 105 million in 2050. The ratio of the working-age population (15-64 years old) to the retried-age population will decline to 1.7 in 2050, down from 4.8 in 1995 and 12.2 in 1950. To sustain the population level in 2005, Japan would need 17 million net immigrants by 2050, when immigrants would comprise 17.7 percent of Japanese population as compared to 1.57 percent around 2005. As a traditionally homogeneous society, Japan faces hard choices of whether and how to transform itself into a multiethnic and multicultural nation. Conversely, the United States has prided itself as “a nation of immigrants" and immigrants have sustained its population growth and development. At the same time, throughout United States history the flows of immigrants have constantly challenged and redefined “what is America" and “who is an American." With post-1965 immigrants mainly from Latin America, the Caribbean and Asia, there are concerns about “the third world coming to the United States." Reports of the ever-increasing immigrant population (especially Mexicans) and predictions that non-Hispanic whites will become a minority have stirred new white nativism and led to heated public debates on the national identity of the United States.

The following sources show the challenges brought by immigration and demographic shifts to national identities. The first source is a translated excerpt from a book published in 2005 and written by a senior Japanese immigration officer, who discusses immigration policy options of Japan as it faces a declining and aging population. The second source is an excerpt from an article in Foreign Policy written in 2004 by Harvard professor Huntington, who questions the influence of the increasing Hispanic immigrant population on the United States.

Sources

Source One
Excerpts for classroom use

Citation: Sakanaka, Hidenori. “The Future of Japan’s Immigration Policy: A Battle Diary." Japan Focus, http://www.japanfocus.org/products/details/2396. This is an abridged translation by Andrew J. I. Taylor based on the last chapter of Sakanaka Hidenori’s Immigration Battle Diary (Nyukan Senki), Kodansha, 2005.

Source Two
Excerpts for classroom use.

Citation: Huntington, Samuel P. “The Hispanic Challenge." Foreign Policy, no. 141 (Mar/Apr2004): 30-45.

Discussion Questions

(1) What are the two options that Sakanaka Hidenori suggests to address Japan’s declining and aging population? What challenges will Japan face if it takes the “Big Option" and accepts large numbers of immigrants?

(2) According to Huntington, what is the core of the American national identity? What challenges have this core identity faced in recent decades? What is the single most immediate and serious challenge, and why? Do you agree or disagree, and why?

(3) Read these two sources together and consider the fact that Japan and the United States have distinct histories and cultures. Are the two authors here perceiving immigration and its impact on national identity in similar or different ways? How and why?

Suggested Readings

Gabaccia, Donna R. Immigration and American Diversity: A Social and Cultural History. Problems in American history. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers, 2002.

Lesser, Jeffrey. Negotiating National Identity: Immigrants, Minorities, and the Struggle for Ethnicity in Brazil. Durham & London: Duke University Press, 1999.

Teitelbaum, Michael S. and Jay Winter. A Question of Numbers: High Migration, Low Fertility, and the Politics of National Identity. New York: Hill & Wang, 1998.

Triandafyllidou, Anna. Immigrants and National Identity in Europe. London, New York: Routledge, 2001.

Introduction

While civil wars often lead to forced displacement for both women and men, gender-specific differences emerge in countries experiencing armed conflicts. While men more often than women participate voluntarily or involuntary in national armies or guerilla movements, women and children too sometimes serve as soldiers. As social structures in such countries break down, unstable economies create job insecurity. Men who succeed in evading military conscription and reach safe locations are usually unable to work or help support their families, in part because they are suspected of being enemies by all sides. As a result, women—wives, mothers, sisters and daughters—often became solely responsible for their families' economic and emotional needs. Women in countries experiencing civil war are also targeted for violence and rape by the "enemy" as a war strategy to make their partners or relatives succumb. Women's visibility and susceptibility to persecution sometimes forces them to migrate across national borders as refugees or political exiles, disrupting families and communities. Women's first-hand accounts of such experiences shed light on both their susceptibility and agency in countries undergoing internal and violent conflicts.

The first source is an excerpt from the testimonial of 1992 Nobel Peace Prize recipient, Rigoberta Menchú, an indigenous Quiche peasant. As a social activist Menchú helped organize against the military oppression of indigenous people through the Committee of the Peasant Union and later she became involved in the women’s right movement. After the Guatemalan army arrested, tortured and killed her family, Manchú's fled to Mexico where she continued to fight for the rights of peasants. The publication of her biography drew wide attention to the conflict and vulnerability of peasants, though there are debates on the accuracy of her testimonials. The second source is an excerpt from the autobiography of Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a controversial Muslim Somali feminist and politician. She fled Somalia in the mist of Siad Barré's dictatorship (1969-1991) and the Somali civil war in 1988. She currently lives in political asylum in the Netherlands where she is a critic of Islamic fundamentalists. In her campaign to reform Islam, she continues to be criticized by many and a target for violence by extremists, but also has received numerous awards such as Norway's Human Rights Service's Bellwether of the Year Award.

Sources

Source One

Excerpts for classroom use.

Citation: Menchú, Rigoberta. Rigoberta Menchú: an Indian Woman in Guatemala. Introduced by Elisabeth Burgos-Debray. London: Version, 1984.

Source Two

Excerpts for classroom use.

Citation: Hirsi Ali, Ayaan. Infidel. New York: Free Press, 2007.

Discussion Questions

(1) Identify specific reasons why Menchú and Hirsi fled Guatemala and Somali to neighboring countries? What are the similarities and differences in their experiences of involuntary migration? (consider their age, class position,resources and skills, and political conditions in Guatemala and Somalia)

(2) How do Menchú and Hirsi depict themselves in their memoirs?

(3) Both women's memoirs sparked debates over whether personal narratives or testimonials reflect reality. What do you think are the advantages and disadvantages of using testimonials as source material?

Suggested Readings

Gluck, Shena Beger and Daphne Patai. "Introduction." In Women’s Words: The Feminist Practice of Oral History., edited by Gluck and Patai, 1-6. New York and London: Routledge, 1991.

Heimer, Carol. "Cases and Biographies: An Essay on Routinization and the Nature of Comparison." Annual Review of Sociology. 27(2001):47-76.

Stoll, David. I, Rigoberta Menchu and the Story of All Poor Guatemalans. Boulder: Westview Press, 1999.

Introduction

The relationship between migration, sex, and labor is complicated and controversial. In 2001, the European Commission estimated that each year over 120,000 women and children cross into Western Europe from Eastern and Southern Europe as part of the sex industry. Some activists use the term "human trafficking" or "sex trafficking" to describe the experience through which mostly women and children move across borders to engage in sex. These activists against "human trafficking" depict migrant prostitution as involving coercion, deception, abduction, and exploitation. This view stresses the involuntary or forced nature of migration and sexual practices; women migrants are depicted as victims of violence and in need of saving by government intervention and international organizations. Others, however, utilize the term "sex worker" to focus on migrant prostitution as a form of employment, in which money is exchanged for a service rendered. Condemning the public stigmatization of sex workers, such advocates depict sex workers as agents, while emphasizing the right of women migrant to control both their own bodies and employment decisions. They call on the public and governments to secure safe labor conditions and legal protection for migrant sex workers.

The following resources provide two different perspectives on the "human trafficking"/"sex worker" debate. In 2006, the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women (CATW) prepared a handbook on connections between prostitution and sex trafficking to promote awareness about migrant prostitution. The second document is an excerpt from the Sex Workers in Europe Manifesto, written and endorsed by sex workers from 26 countries at the European Conference on Sex Work, Human Rights, Labour and Migration in Belgium in 2005.

Sources

Source One

Monica O'Connor and Grainne Healy. 2006. Excerpt, The Links Between Prostitution and Sex Trafficking: A Handbook.

Citation: O’Connor, Monica and Grainne Healy. 2006. The Links Between Prostitution and Sex Trafficking: A Brief Handbook. Coalition Against Trafficking in Women (CATW) and the European Women’s Lobby (EWL) on Promoting Preventative Measures to Combat Trafficking in Human Beings for Sexual Exploitation: A Swedish and United States Governmental and Non-Governmental Organisation Partnership, p. 1-40.

Source Two
International Committee on the Rights of Sex Workers in Europe. 2005. Excerpt, Sex Workers in Europe Manifesto.

Citation: International Committee on the Rights of Sex Workers in Europe. 2005. The Sex Workers in Europe Manifesto. Elaborated and Endorsed by 120 sex workers from 26 countries at the European Conference on Sex Work, Human Rights, Labour and Migration. 15 &16 October, p. 1-11.

Discussion Questions

(1) How do the documents approach the debate over women migrants and sex differently? What arguments do they use to justify their positions? In what ways do these organizations utilize the term "human rights" to discussion migration and sex?

(2) What stereotypes about men, women, and migration for sex do you see the documents challenging or supporting?

(3) How might we use these documents to complicate the divide between activists who view these women as either victims or agents? Can they be both at the same time? How does the debate over sex workers shed light on disparities between economically advantaged and disadvantaged countries?

Suggested Readings

Beeks, Karen and Delila Amir. 2006. Trafficking and the Global Sex Industry. Lanham: Lexington Books.

Brennan, Denise. 2004. What's Love Got to do With it? Transnational Desires and Sex Tourism in the Dominican Republic. Durham: Duke University Press.

Kempadoo, Kamala, Jyoti Sanghera and Bandana Pattanaik. 2005. Trafficking and Prostitution Reconsidered: New Perspectives on Migration, Sex Work, and Human Rights. Boulder: Paradigm Publishers.

Samarasinghe, Vidyamali. 2008. Female Sex Trafficking in Asia: the Resilience of Patriarchy in a Changing World. New York: Routledge.

Introduction

Scholars study food as an important and unique site of cultural exchange between people from different cultures and geographical regions. Food and dietary customs have followed migrants and changed the culinary landscape of their receiving countries. For example, although we commonly assume that the fortune cookie originated in China, they were actually invented and popularized by Asian immigrants on the West Coast of the United States in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. As people on the move introduced new foods to different parts of the world, migration influenced global food production, culinary traditions, eating habits, and gender dynamics. Food has also offered a way for migrants to maintain ties to their homelands. Recipes, imported products, and culinary rituals have provided imagined and real bonds between family and kin, and served as a symbol of comfort and stability during the economic, social, and political upheavals associated with migration. At the same time, immigrants also creatively modify their traditions as they interact with new ingredients, tastes, and market forces.

The first document is a poem about the melding of Mexican and American foodways by the late Mexican-American artist and activist Trinidad Sanchez in 1991. The second document is a 2007 Los Angeles Times article by Catherine Bremer on changing food habits in Mexico, and the influence of United States style food culture on Mexican foodways.

Sources

Source One:

The Mexican Sangwitch
by Trinidad Sánchez, Jr.

Is it a tortilla with peanut butter and jelly,
or jalapeños piled on Wonder Bread?
Is it a coney made with tortillas,
or a Kaiser roll smothered
with salchiches y salsa mayonesa?
Is it chorizo con huevo on whole wheat,
or refried beans on white bread?
Is it the patron saint of botanas,
or a Mexican who can only speak English?
Is it the same as an American Taco?
Is it a Mexican playing tic-tac-toe?
Is it carne asada on rye,
or guacamole on toast?
Do you really want to know why?
Is it me inside of you,
or you wrapped around me?
Is it a güera dancing with two Mexicans,
or two gringos putting the make on my sister?
Is it a super sandwich, with the official
ingredients labeled: HECHO EN MEXICO!
Is it a plain sandwich
made by authentic Mexican hands?
Is it true Juan de la Raza invented it?
Is it a moot question?
Are you a lawyer or a poet?
Does the judge really care?
-Detroit 7/1990

Citation: Sánchez, Trinidad Jr. “The Mexican Sangwitch." Poem from Why Am I So Brown. Chicago: MARCH Abrazo Press, 1991.

Click here for printer friendly version.

Source Two:
Catherine Bremer, "Adios to the four-hour lunch," Los Angeles Times, Nov. 26, 2007.

Citation: Bremer, Catherine. "Adios to the four-hour lunch; In Mexico, where the boozy afternoon food orgy was once common, a new crop of no-nonsense execs favors the quick power breakfast." Los Angeles Times. Nov. 26, 2007. http://www.proquest.com/ (accessed June 25, 2008).

Discussion Questions

(1) Identify examples of ethnic formation and cultural exchange in the Sanchez poem. How does Sanchez employ food to represent and discuss facets of ethnicity, tradition, and change?

(2) What does the Los Angeles Times article reveal about the migration of eating habits and foods across national borders? According to Bremer, what role has the United States played in altering Mexico’s culinary traditions?

(3) How might these documents be examined together to hypothesize about globalization's effects on culinary traditions and eating practices? Who mediates these culinary and cultural exchanges?

Suggested Readings

Gabaccia, Donna R. We Are What We Eat: Ethnic Food and the Making of Americans. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1998.

Pilcher, Jeffrey. Food in World History. New York and London: Routledge, 2005.

Wilk, Richard Ed. Fast Food/Slow Food: The Cultural Economy of the Global Food System. Lanham: Altamira Press, 2006.

Watson, James L. and Melissa L. Caldwell, Eds. The Cultural Politics of Food and Eating: A Reader. Malden: Blackwell Pub., 2005.

Introduction

As defined by the United Nations, “refugees" refer to people who are forced to leave the country of their nationality “owing to well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion." The United Nations adopted this legal definition in 1951 after World War II displaced millions of people worldwide, including victims of the Holocaust. While people have been fleeing their homelands to escape religious and civil strife for centuries, the twentieth century witnessed increasing waves of refugee migration due to civil and international wars, ethnic conflicts and genocide, and political and religious discrimination. Up to 2007, a report by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) shows that the global refugee population, after declining from 2000 to 2005, continued to increase and reached 11.4 million in 2007. Most refugees fled to and remain in neighboring countries. At the end of 2007, about one-third of all refugees resided in countries in the Asia and Pacific region, the Middle East and North Africa region hosted a quarter of all refugees, while Africa, Europe and the Americas hosted 20, 14, and 9 percent of the world’s refugees respectively. Afghanistan continued to be the leading country of origin with almost 3.1 million refugees in 2007, and 96 percent of them were located in Pakistan and the Islamic Republic of Iran. Iraqis were the second largest group with 2.3 million refugees mainly residing in neighboring regions. Forced to leave their homelands, refugees face the challenges of reconstructing their identities and communities (including ties with their homelands) while adjusting to the cultural complexities of receiving societies.

The following two sources provide examples of two refugee groups in different countries. The first document, a New York Times report on Iraqi refugees in Sweden, discusses why large numbers of Iraqi refugees have fled to Sweden since the start of the Iraq War in 2003. The second source includes Minnesota Public Radio (MPR) reports of and interviews with Hmong refugees in the Twin Cities, Minnesota, describing how they came to the US and adjusted to their new society.

Sources

Source One
Ekman, Ivar. “Iraqi Refugees Find Sanctuary, and Fellow Iraqis, in Sweden." New York Times, January 16, 2007, sec. A9.

Source Two
Nyman, Lynette. "This is Home: the Hmong in Minnesota." News and Features. Minnesota Public Radio, March 8, 1998.
Part 1: text/audio; Part 2: text/audio; Part 3: text/audio; Part 4: text/audio

Click here for excerpts of the transcript for classroom use
(you may need to Download RealPlayer to play the audio)

Discussion Questions

(1) Compare these two sources, discuss how different factors such as geographic distance, ethnic networks, and immigration laws and refugee policies in the receiving countries affect refugees’ choices (or lack of choices) to migrate.

(2) Why did Hmong refugees come to the US? What impact did these experiences have on familial and personal identities? How did Hmong refugees maintain ties to and reconnect with the lands they left?

(3) The integration of refugees in receiving societies has often been problematic. What difficulties have Hmong and Iraqi refugees experienced in adjusting to and integrating into their new countries?

(4) How do these two sources help locate refugee experiences in larger global contexts? How do politics, economy, and communities at local, national and international levels work together to influence refugees’ migration and relocation?

Suggested Readings

Cutts, Mark, ed. The State of the World’s Refugees: Fifty Years of Humanitarian Action. United Nations. 2000.

Lischer, Sarah Kenyon. Dangerous Sanctuaries: Refugee Camps, Civil War, and the Dilemmas of Humanitarian Aid. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. 2005.

Ong, Aihwa. Buddha is Hiding: Refugees, Citizenship, the New America. Berkeley: University of California Press. 2003.

Introduction

"Transnationalism" refers to the idea that many human phenomena occur across the boundaries of the nation-state. Migrants are embedded in social networks simultaneously in the country of destination and the country of origin (and perhaps elsewhere in the world, as well). Although historically relevant, improvements in technologies of transportation and communication have made the concept especially obvious in the present day. For example, migrants might move frequently and between multiple locations, rather than in a unidirectional fashion from home country to receiving country. Even if not able to move physically between nations, migrants can still retain cultural, political, or economic connections with their countries of origin (or, again, elsewhere in the world). Transnationalism obviously challenges older models of immigrant incorporation and assimilation. It complicates notions of citizenship and nationalism by suggesting that migrants can have multiple identities. Transnationalism does not, however, remove the nation-state entirely from discussions. States affect the development of transnational networks by their policies, such as actions that incite or restrict migration. Conversely, transnational activities—like the sending of remittances (money transferred by migrants to their home countries) or rallies for political action elsewhere in the world—affect national economies and politics.

The following two sources offer evidence of transnational social networks. Both sources involve immigrants to Minnesota, but from different origins and time periods. The first source consists of excerpts from oral history interviews with European immigrants who came to the United States at the beginning of the twentieth century. Katri (Laakkonen) Saari was born in Finland in 1893 and immigrated to the United States in 1913. Luigi Sella was born in Italy in 1894 and immigrated to the United States in 1909. During the 1980s, both participated in oral history projects concerned with the European immigrant experience. The second source consists of excerpts from in-depth interviews with African immigrants who came to the United States at the end of the twentieth century. The narrators remain anonymous, but all were refugees from Somalia who had spent time in refugee camps in Kenya before coming to Minnesota. The interviews were conducted in 2002 as part of a study of citizenship and gender.

Sources

Source One

CLICK HERE for transcription of European immigrant oral history interviews.

Citation: Interview with Katri (Laakkonen) Saari, conducted on March 4, 1981, by Velma Doby, Minnesota Finnish American Family History Project, Immigration History Research Center; interview with Luigi Sella, conducted on April 12, 1985, by Mary Ellen Mancina-Batinich, Mary Ellen Mancina-Batinich Papers, Immigration History Research Center

Source Two

CLICK HERE for transcription of African immigrant in-depth interviews.

Citation: Interviews conducted in 2002 by team members of the project “Gender Differences in Motivations for Seeking Citizenship among African Immigrants to the United States" (PI Professor Elizabeth Heger Boyle), in possession of the project leader

Discussion Questions

(1) What were the routes that the various narrators followed when coming to the United States? In what ways were these routes determined by transnational social networks?

(2) What sorts of transnational social networks did narrators continue to maintain after their arrival in the United States? Who was involved in these networks?

(3) Compare the examples of transnational social networks identified in the two sets of interviews. In what ways are they similar and in what ways are they different? Are transnational social networks a new or old practice?

Suggested Readings

Blunt, Alison. "Cultural Geographies of Migration: Mobility, Transnationality, and Diaspora." Progress in Human Geography 31.5 (2007): 684-694.

Foner, Nancy. From Ellis Island to JFK: New York’s Two Great Waves of Immigration. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2000.

Jacobson, Matthew Frye. "More 'Trans-' Less 'National.'" Journal of American Ethnic History 25.4 (2006): 74-84.

Kivisto, Peter. "Theorizing Transnational Immigration: A Critical Review of Current Efforts." Ethnic and Racial Studies 24.4 (2001): 549-577.