Diaspora tourism and the negotiation of belonging: journeys of young second-generation Eritreans to Eritrea

In this article, I address the diaspora tourism of children of migrants. Based on a case study of second-generation Eritreans, I reveal how journeys to parents’ home countries affect the sense of belonging of the second generation. Applying a translocal perspective, I understand diaspora tourism as a translocal phenomenon which is both based on and creates interconnectedness between individuals and places. I illustrate different locally grounded situations and the socio-spatial interconnectedness that second-generation Eritreans experience at various places in the course of their journey in Eritrea. I conclude that diaspora tourism and the associated experiences at the places visited represent crucial identity-establishing events for second-generation Eritreans and influence the negotiation of their belonging and positioning towards both Eritrea and the Eritrean diaspora. This paper contributes to the debate on second generation and belonging by focusing on how localities and socio-spatial interconnectedness affect the negotiation of second-generation Eritreans’ belonging.     

The dynamics of culture lost and conserved: demic migration as a force in new diaspora communities

Migration is a major feature of past and especially today's globalized cultures, and understanding how migration shapes cultural groups is key to the empirical applications of cultural transmission theory. Developed here is a migration–assimilation model describing the population-level dynamics of diaspora culture. Using ethnographic data collected from 2009 to 2010 in the Kingdom of Tonga and a Tongan diaspora community, key parameters of the model were estimated and the fitted model simulated to describe diaspora cultural dynamics in the Tongan case. The relative contribution of recent migrants to the population-level expression of several cultural traits is highlighted in the simulation. Results show that the dependence on the Tongan homeland as a source of conservative culture through migration is variable and trait specific. For traits with higher assimilation rates, the contribution of recent Tongan migrants is substantial, while for other traits with lower assimilation rates, the influence of Tongan migrants is muted. Preliminary hypotheses to explain the trait-specific assimilation rates are discussed.     

On the edge of the Chinese diaspora: The surge of baihuo business in an African city

Since the first Chinese shop opened in Cape Verde in 1995, this remote archipelago has experienced a wave of Chinese entrepreneurial immigration that has transformed local retail and significantly affected people's purchasing power. During this process, Chinese migrants have seen profit margins fall and now complain that there are too many Chinese in Cape Verde. This article explores the migration dynamics that have characterized the pioneer phase of Chinese immigration, and the migrants’ understanding of their own position in relation to the Chinese diaspora. Furthermore, it discusses how the characteristics of the local economy and the resources of the Chinese migrants have interacted to form the basis for Chinese settlement. The article examines the process of market saturation, and relates responses to market saturation to a conceptual framework developed on the basis of literature on Chinese migration to Europe and the former Soviet Union.     

Diaspora identification and long-distance nationalism among Tamil migrants of diverse state origins in the UK

Accounts of Tamil long-distance nationalism have focused on Sri Lankan Tamil migrants. But the UK is also home to Tamils of non-Sri Lankan state origins. While these migrants may be nominally incorporated into a ‘Tamil diaspora’, they are seldom present in scholarly accounts. Framed by Werbner's (2002) conception of diasporas as ‘aesthetic’ and ‘moral’ communities, this article explores whether engagement with a Tamil diaspora and long-distance nationalism is expressed by Tamil migrants of diverse state origins. While migrants identify with an aesthetic community, ‘membership’ of the moral community is contested between those who hold direct experience of suffering as central to belonging, and those who imagine the boundaries of belonging more fluidly – based upon primordial understandings of essential ethnicity and a narrative of Tamil ‘victimhood’ that incorporates experiences of being Tamil in Sri Lanka, India and in other sites, despite obvious differences in these experiences.     

‘It's not how it was’: the Chilean diaspora's changing landscape of belonging

Abstract

The increasingly diverse character of London's multicultural landscape has shaped how migrants interact with(in) the different spaces of the city. This process entails both settled and incoming migrants' participation in place-making; a mutual imbrication that might promote the long-settled migrants' evocation of a lost terrain. This article unpacks that process by looking at the Latin American social football scene of South London, specifically a space known as la cancha (the pitch). This was founded by Chilean political refugees during the 1970s and it has incorporated Latin American ‘economic’ migrants and ‘local’ Britons through time. Starting from the evocation of a lost ‘golden age’ of la cancha, the paper unpacks this space's contested, complex and changing nature. It presents diaspora space, community and belonging as lived processes. Through this depiction, the assumptions of homogeneous and isolated migrant communities are challenged, as are the diaspora's nostalgic claims that also emerge from them.     

Politicized and depoliticized ethnicities,power relations and temporality: insights to outsider research from comparative and transnational fieldwork

The insider and outsider positions in migration studies have conventionally been approached in terms of ethnic or national belonging. Recently scholars have problematized the essentialist approaches to these roles by arguing for the inclusion of multiple intersecting social locations that are at play in the constitution of researcher positionality. Less attention has been paid, however, on how different ethnicities are constructed and how they can become politicized and depoliticized at particular moments during the research process. This article discusses the fieldwork experiences of two “apparent outsiders” to the studied diaspora community. Drawing from our experiences in multi-sited and comparative fieldwork on the Kurdish diaspora, we argue that rather than taking insider and outsider positions as a starting-point to understand researcher positionality, scholars need to look at particular moments of insiderness and outsiderness to grasp how the researcher’s assumed ethnicity becomes politicized and depoliticized during ethnographic fieldwork.     

The dynamics of health and return migration

The increasing importance and complexity of migration globally also implies a global increase in return migration, and thus an increased interest in the health of returning migrants. The health of returning migrants is impacted by the cumulative exposure to social determinants and risk factors of health during the migration process, during the return movement, and following return. Circular migration often occurs among the diaspora, which can result in the transfer of knowledge and skills that contribute to development, including health system strengthening. Migrants with dual nationality often return to countries with better health services than their country of origin when they are sick and can not get care at home. To maintain and improve the health of returning migrants, multi-sectoral policies at global and national levels should facilitate access to appropriate and equitable health services, social services, and continuity of care across and within borders.     

Community Life and Discourses among Fiji Islanders in Kantō, Japan

This article examines how Fiji Islanders of diverse ethnic backgrounds living in Japan's Kantō area reflect on and constitute community life in the diaspora. While they occasionally refer to the ‘community’ and speak about its social value, get-togethers of significant numbers occur infrequently. Ultimately, a Fijian-centred community is virtually absent in the everyday lives of Japan-based Fiji Islanders. Based on twelve months of ethnographic fieldwork in the Tokyo Metropolis and its neighbouring prefectures, this contribution suggests that for Fiji Islanders in Kantō, talking about ‘community’ serves two particular purposes: on the one hand community discourses create an emotional bond, both among the migrants and between the migrants and their place of origin. At the same time, discourses on the relevance of the community without undergoing efforts to maintain it, serve as strategies of navigating self and belonging in a critical and reflexive way. As migrants’ social lives are complex and shaped by numerous economic, spatial, and individual disjunctures, Kantō Fiji Islanders contextually configure and extend their social relations with regard to their socio-cultural heritage, their place of residence in Japan, their gaikokujin (foreigner) status, and their life-work cycles.     

Mirrored boundaries: how ongoing homeland–hostland contexts shape Bangladeshi immigrant collective identity formation

Largely overlooked in the international migration literature, migration from the Muslim world can reveal how the combination of globalization and ongoing homeland tensions shapes immigrants’ collective identity formation in the hostland. Using the case of Bangladeshi Muslims in Los Angeles, this article ethnographically traces how ongoing and historic homeland, hostland, and global political–religious contexts shape immigrants’ everyday struggles over identity categories through two distinct but overlapping processes: (1) the immigrants’ exposure to a more expanded, diverse range of people in the hostland; (2) their import of homeland cleavages to the receiving society. It argues that through international migration, migrants both produce and experience globalization, consequently both reiterating and reconstructing their identity categories in the hostland. It also shows how the immigrants’ cross-border ties to not only their homeland and hostland but also to nation-states beyond shape their identity-work, thus revealing conceptual ambiguities about transnationalism and diaspora.     

Complex belongings: Racialization and migration in a small English city

The article explores how long-term residents in a small city with rural links in the East of England related to new migrants at a time of changing patterns and increased volume of migration. Based on in-depth interviews and observations in 2005–6, the article shows dynamic, complex, and nuanced constructions of belonging and governmentalities of belonging. Long-term Peterborians felt proud that their city attracted migrants and became more multicultural. Many saw this as a normative aspect of being modern. Yet, the arrival of migrants also led to tensions and re-inscribed the racialization of Peterborough's ethnic minorities, articulated through the theme of neighbourliness. Through the figures of ‘uncaring migrant neighbours’ and ‘ruthless Pakistani landlords’, migrants and ethnic minority Peterborians were portrayed as refusing injunctions to care for the neighbourhood and the nation. Ethnic minority Peterborians were positioned ambivalently as hosts of and – at times – targets of racism by new migrants.     

Diaspora activism in a non-traditional country of destination: the case of Filipinos in the Netherlands

Diasporas have played important roles in democratization in their homelands. But how does diaspora mobilization occur when the country of settlement has a small and isolated ethnic community, the host and homeland governments have weak relations, and the conflict is invisible in the geographies of power? Using case study research, I analyse how solidarity groups in the Netherlands facilitated the emergence and growth of diaspora mobilization for democracy in the Philippines during the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos. My findings show that in cases where exiles and migrants lack pre-existing economic, political and social ties in the host society, solidarity groups can affect the political opportunity structure in the host country, permitting the promotion of certain claims and demands in the public sphere. Furthermore, diaspora mobilization can develop within the formal organizations or associational networks of solidarity groups.     

How marginality leads to inclusion: insights from mobilizations of Chinese female migrants in Paris

ABSTRACT

This article examines the collective actions undertaken by two groups of Chinese female migrants in Paris: sex workers who opposed a new law on prostitution, and manicurists who joined trade unions and went on strike. These women share similar geographical origins and migration projects; many came to France alone, and thus have much weaker social capital than other Chinese migrants in Paris, which pushed them to choose professional sectors viewed as marginal or even stigmatized. Despite their precarious situation, their marginal position has created conditions for collective action, enabling them to develop strong sense of collective belonging and receive support from organizations outside the community. These findings show how a marginal position in an ethnic community can be a triggering factor for migrants’ inclusion and political engagement in the host society.     

Bangladeshi migrant associations in Italy: transnational engagement,community formation and regional unity

Referring to the case studies of two cities in Northern Italy, this article seeks to understand how Bangladeshi migrants use associations to seek transnational “ways of belonging” and “ways of being”. It analyses how this transnational attachment to their home country has played an important role in building their own “community”. The findings reveal that Bangladeshi migrant organizations work to maintain “transnational ways of belonging” by enabling migrants to retain their cultural roots; this is reflected in their observation of festivals, national days, and other practices and rituals. Although, as a relatively new migrant community, they do not share as many economic links through these associations as many other “diasporic” organizations, migrants widely express a sense that these economic connections are with their country of origin. However, there is competition within the community based on regional origin, as well as have many ambivalences and contradictions.     

Patterns of bird migration phenology in South Africa suggest northern hemisphere climate as the most consistent driver of change

Current knowledge of phenological shifts in Palearctic bird migration is largely based on data collected on migrants at their breeding grounds; little is known about the phenology of these birds at their nonbreeding grounds, and even less about that of intra‐African migrants. Because climate change patterns are not uniform across the globe, we can expect regional disparities in bird phenological responses. It is also likely that they vary across species, as species show differences in the strength of affinities they have with particular habitats and environments. Here, we examine the arrival and departure of nine Palearctic and seven intra‐African migratory species in the central Highveld of South Africa, where the former spend their nonbreeding season and the latter their breeding season. Using novel analytical methods based on bird atlas data, we show phenological shifts in migration of five species – red‐backed shrike, spotted flycatcher, common sandpiper, white‐winged tern (Palearctic migrants), and diederik cuckoo (intra‐African migrant) – between two atlas periods: 1987–1991 and 2007–2012. During this time period, Palearctic migrants advanced their departure from their South African nonbreeding grounds. This trend was mainly driven by waterbirds. No consistent changes were observed for intra‐African migrants. Our results suggest that the most consistent drivers of migration phenological shifts act in the northern hemisphere, probably at the breeding grounds.     

Citizenship,Belonging, and Moldovan Migrants in Post-Soviet Russia

Drawing on ethnographic research among transnational Moldovan households in Moscow, this essay considers how ideals of belonging, assertions of historically inflected rights, and aspirations for mobility are all part of the everyday practice of citizenship. Mobile subjects encountering increasingly restrictive post-Soviet citizenship regimes often recall incorporation into a greater historical polity than their current passports would suggest. Three key areas are examined: the intersection of citizenship regimes and popular understandings of belonging; the sense of rights driven by cultural logics informed by previous history; and the way in which ideals and practices of citizenship are diverse among migrants from apparently homogeneous migration streams. The post-Soviet context where the Soviet promise of enfranchisement continues to inform how people on the margins view citizenship illustrates just how deeply citizenship regimes come to be incorporated into popular understandings of belonging even long after formal citizenship ceases to exist.     

Obesity, hypertension, and migration: a meta-analysis of populations of the South Asian diaspora

The effects of migration on human health have been a topic of interest for demographers and human biologists. Even if migrants to a new region achieve a higher standard of living in their new place of residence, their improved living conditions may not be associated with better health. Part of the difficulty of understanding the health consequences of migration is the complications in trying to control for variables that may affect health, such as gender, age, and urban or rural environment of migrants and nonmigrants. In this paper we report results of a meta-analysis of the body mass index (BMI) and blood pressure (BP) of people of South Asian descent, by comparing nonmigrants who inhabit the subcontinent, with migrants who moved to various places around the globe. Our results indicate that BMI almost always increases to a significant level upon migration and that an increase in BMI is most pronounced in female migrants. Our results also show that BP does not always increase in migrant communities and that it is actually lower in some migrant samples than it is in comparable nonmigrant groups. Therefore, our results show that BP and the BMI do not behave in the same manner following a migration event. We propose that the BMI changes experienced by migrants are likely to reflect different activity levels and diet in the new homeland. However, the BP changes experienced by migrants are likely to reflect stress broadly defined. Such stress may be increased or decreased, depending on the specific migration experience. We propose that the BMI and BP measure two different dimensions of the migration experience.     

Movements,moments and moods. Generation as unity and strife in Peruvian migration

This article discusses the meaning and use of generation in migration studies. It argues that the term is useful to examine how migrants create linkages between their pre- and post-migration lives. The article draws on Mannheim's notions of ‘generational units’ and ‘fresh contact’ to scrutinize how Peruvians engage resources from their previous lives in Peru to achieve social mobility in the USA, Japan, Spain and Argentina. In particular, the article focuses on the role of education, ethnicity and conflict in Peruvians’ efforts to create support networks and form migrant institutions. It suggests that generational units grow out of migrants’ shared experience of mobilizing the same resource to establish fresh contact with their receiving society. The article concludes that while generational belonging can generate a strong sense of solidarity among some groups of migrants, this often happens at the cost of the unity and inclusion of the migrant community at large.     

El Ni?o-Southern Oscillation Is Linked to Decreased Energetic Condition in Long-Distance Migrants

Predicting how migratory animals respond to changing climatic conditions requires knowledge of how climatic events affect each phase of the annual cycle and how those effects carry-over to subsequent phases. We utilized a 17-year migration dataset to examine how El Niño-Southern Oscillation climatic events in geographically different regions of the Western hemisphere carry-over to impact the stopover biology of several intercontinental migratory bird species. We found that migratory birds that over-wintered in South America experienced significantly drier environments during El Niño years, as reflected by reduced Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) values, and arrived at stopover sites in reduced energetic condition during spring migration. During El Niño years migrants were also more likely to stopover immediately along the northern Gulf coast of the southeastern U.S. after crossing the Gulf of Mexico in small suboptimal forest patches where food resources are lower and migrant density often greater than larger more contiguous forests further inland. In contrast, NDVI values did not differ between El Niño and La Niña years in Caribbean-Central America, and we found no difference in energetic condition or use of coastal habitats for migrants en route from Caribbean-Central America wintering areas. Birds over-wintering in both regions had consistent median arrival dates along the northern Gulf coast, suggesting that there is a strong drive for birds to maintain their time program regardless of their overall condition. We provide strong evidence that not only is the stopover biology of migratory landbirds influenced by events during the previous phase of their life-cycle, but where migratory birds over-winter determines how vulnerable they are to global climatic cycles. Increased frequency and intensity of ENSO events over the coming decades, as predicted by climatic models, may disproportionately influence long-distance migrants over-wintering in South America.     

Performing the Nation: Unauthorized Mexican Migration and the Politics of Language Use and the Body along the US–Mexico Border

ABSTRACT

Given the harsh environment for Mexican migrants in the US state of Arizona, migrants must think carefully about instantiating their identities in White public space through clothing, bodily movements, and language. This article explores the ways some unauthorized Mexican migrants in Arizona perform belonging to the USA by performing Chicano. Performing Chicano means passing as a US citizen, and migrants’ well-being can depend upon the recognition of those performances. Other unauthorized migrants perform the Supermexicana, to pass as Mexicans who are shopping in the USA, and need to hide the fact that they clandestinely live there. This article examines how some migrants perform a commitment to the USA in public while privately disavowing it, and how others perform a commitment to Mexico that they simply cannot have. This analysis argues that the experiences of unauthorized migrants in the USA can be productively seen through the lens of national performativity.     

“Grateful” subjects: class and capital at the border in Philippine–Canada migration

This paper considers how Philippine migrants prepare themselves and are prepared by others for emigration to Canada. In particular, it emphasizes how class-differentiated migrants are rendered socially homogenous as they are encouraged to be “grateful” transnational citizen subjects throughout their migration trajectories, commencing with initial decisions to migrate. Preparations for migration include individual decisions to increase marketability by acquiring particular kinds of skill sets matched to one of a variety of immigration streams. Despite such individual projects, the inequalities associated with gendered and racialized characteristics of Philippine migration trajectories and class dynamics are enduring for many migrants, though not all. Historical structural processes shaping the contours of global migration in the example of Philippine–Canada migration are compounded by the contradictory practices and outcomes associated with various preparations for migration. Current reforms to Canada’s immigration system to a “just-in-time” model promise to cause major disruptions to long-held migrant plans. Meanwhile, migrants are preconditioned to accept uncritically the multiple forms of subordination encouraged through the policies of multiple states and to accommodate themselves to new immigrant/citizen social identities which are devalued in a multiplicity of ways. This paper shows how, through the collusion of agents that migrants encounter in multiple sites, the disciplining of mobile citizens becomes more formalized and the contradictions between migrant ambition and neoliberal imperatives more visible.