By Camelia Tigau and Amba Pande
A lot has been written about how diasporas have contributed to their countries of origin, but much less on how diasporas change the places where they arrive. Some diasporas are more present outside than inside their countries of origin. To put it in the words of a Lebanese doctor living in the US, ‘If you look for us on a map, you will not see us because we are a dot. It does not make any sense to have all of us in the country. There is more Lebanese living outside than inside the country…’
A rare and rich dynamism
Migration and the Rise of the United States is intended to shed light on what diasporas and migrants have contributed to the rise of the US as a great political, economic, scientific, and cultural power. In the journey of almost 300 years that the US has witnessed, immigration has run parallel, adding a rare and rich dynamism to the country’s cultural, institutional, idealistic, and material growth.
Immigrants have gone on to become the backbone of American success and power. The American system and environment have influenced and led immigrants towards ‘making it big’ and, in the same way, immigrants have influenced and led America towards becoming a great power and an all-round success. Amongst these two themes, the former has received greater and more positive attention than the latter.
Melting pot, or salad bowl?
Our historical analysis tracks the process in which the idea of the US melting pot changed to a salad bowl, where minorities coexist but do not really mix. Compared to the generally welcoming atmosphere towards migrants to the US before the 19th century, this book was born in a context of rising prejudices towards ethnic minorities: transnationalism seen as an invasion, rather than a cultural benefit. Such narratives are shown to affect the cohesion of migrants as strong diasporas, leading to further mistrust between newcomers and older diasporas. Also, in a context of increasing border control and situations of forced migration, with more difficulties in getting visas, it is harder for migrants to return. Discriminatory visa regimes and unfriendly gender policies clearly indicate the ongoing difficulties and the unwelcoming attitude towards immigrants such as H-4 visa holders.
Today´s geographic dispersion, with migrants arriving from Asia and Africa as opposed to previous waves from the Americas, further complicates return. The impossibility of returning also implies a greater pressure for migrants to assimilate, not only to preserve their professional careers but also to adapt their identity. In this way, those who originally planned to return no longer do so. However, this repressed return can generate more transnational networks. Diaspora utilisation can also be seen as a way to enhance cooperation with countries of strategic interest to the US, using diaspora as intermediaries.
By contextualising and historicising various diasporic groups – old (Armenians, Irish, Italians, Jewish) and new diasporas (Chinese, Indian, Indo-Caribbean, Mexican, Naga, Senegalese), we realise that diasporas are not homogeneous. Some have been citizens for generations, while others acquired their citizenship in the past decade, and some are non-citizens.
They also differ in terms of skill, economic class, political positioning, and other variables. Various points of divergence and segregation exist among these diverse communities. We often see old diasporas opposing the entry of new immigrants. Diasporas may eventually turn anti-migrant in their voting behaviour, to prove their assimilation to the US in a general context of aggressive discourse revived by the recent waves of populism and border enforcement.
Old and new transnationalism
One of the main analytical questions and dimensional analyses of migration tackled in our book is old and new forms of transnationalism. Migrant organisations are a form of transnationalism, lobbying for the recognition of fundamental human rights of mobility, citizenship, and the right to work and education, but also for recognising the otherness of different identities that may clash with what people expect to see and hear. In this way, bottom-up approaches often substitute for top-down, state-centric approaches to transnationalism and diaspora organisations.
There is a constellation of strategies that fluctuate between the way diasporas emphasise their identities to fight, for instance, Islamophobia or Sinophobia. In contrast, others try to accelerate their integration and acceptance by becoming anti-migrant, such as Latino migrants who vote for a migration-conservative agenda. In the middle of these two extremes, emerging diplomatic actors, such as sanctuary cities, lobby for migrants and connect with other cities beyond the state/traditional diplomatic networks. For people across many transnational communities, practising art provides opportunities for independence, identity formation, self-assertion, creativity, and the exploration of imaginaries of the possible. It reflects the fight to achieve true liberation and social justice for all.
Transnationalism and assimilation are opposed concepts: while the first one recognises and praises differences, the second is an effort to erase those differences in identity. This understanding means that transnationalism is a tool for migrants who escape the control of the state by being in two or more cultures and places simultaneously. Transnationalism is also non-belonging, not ascribing to the cultural rules of one state only, but having the freedom to turn and return to their destination countries.
The transnationalisation of communities is maintained through a complex mesh of social networks between sending and receiving areas. New forms of transnationalism are born, such as the spiritual transnational economy, religious transnationalism, and informal economy. Deportations are part of a new form of cruel transnationalism, described by author Fernández Hall through deportations, distance parenthood, and the prohibition of undocumented parents from returning to their children.
We conclude that migrants and diasporas have provided the US with an everlasting endowment, similar to other regions and reception contexts. Migration and the Rise of the United States highlights the ways immigrants and their transnational communities have changed the world. In globalised societies where there is increasing migration, greater acceptance of the ‘other’ is needed.
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About the authors
About the book
Migration and the Rise of the United States celebrates the contribution of diasporas and immigrants in the rise of the United States.
By bringing together eminent scholars, it highlights the current scholarship in the field of migration, which tries to present a counter-narrative to popular anti-immigrant rhetoric and populist domestic politics. It attempts to re-read the US’s emergence as an important power with immigration as the site of analysis.
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