TRANSNATIONAL MIGRATION AND DIASPORIC COMMUNITIES

ISTD/ANTH 595Instructor: Van Dusenbery

Fall 1999Office: LC 4S, x2129

T&Th 9:40-11:10 a.m.E-mail: vdusenbery@gw.hamline.edu

LC 104EOff hrs: M&W 10:00-11:00 a.m.

and by appt.

COURSE DESCRIPTION

This course is a senior seminar for International Studies majors and an upper-level elective for Anthropology majors and other interested students. It is conceived as an interdisciplinary, comparative investigation of the contemporary movement of peoples across international borders and of the social, cultural, political, and economic repercussions of such movements. As such, the seminar is intended to draw on the complementary expertise of participants coming out of any of the various paths through the International Studies major (Latin American Studies, East Asian Studies, European Studies, Anthropology/Sociology, Political Science, Economics, History, Development Studies, Human Rights) or coming from one of the area studies majors (Latin American Studies, East Asian Studies, Middles Eastern Studies, or Russia, Central, and Eastern European Studies) or having a background in any of a number of potentially relevant social science or humanities disciplines.

The seminar will explore the global flow of people across national boundaries in the late twentieth century and the ways in which these dispersed peoples build and maintain social networks across national borders. As such, we will be looking at the reasons that have impelled people to move about the globe, the ways that transnational social identities are being constructed among globally dispersed peoples, and the challenges that new social formations pose to the hegemony of the nation-state as the primary source of social identities and political loyalties.

During the first part of the course, we will take time to familiarize ourselves with some of the major theoretical and methodological issues that have been addressed in the recent literature on transnational migration and diasporas. However, the bulk of the course will be devoted to case studies of specific transnational migrants and diasporic communities. Some of these case studies (i.e., those on the Sikhs, Roma, Russians, Turks, Palestinians, and Nuer) will be presented in part two of the course with the help of academic specialists on these groups and their transnational experiences. Other case studies will be presented in part three of the course by seminar participants based on independent research projects undertaken during the course. In part four of the course, we will assess what we have learned about the causes, consequences, and implications of transnational migration at the turn of the century.

Among the broad questions we seek to address at the outset of this seminar are the following:

• Why do people move from one country to another?

• How do nation-states affect the global flow of people?

• How do peoples' identities change as they move across borders?

• What relationships do dispersed peoples maintain with "homelands" and others in the "diaspora"?

• Are the answers to the above changing and, if so, why?

Since the true hallmark of a liberal arts education is the ability to vex one another with our questions, we might be wise to anticipate that our initial naive questions will give way to a new and more sophisticated set of questions by the end of the semester.

COURSE OBJECTIVES

This course meets Cultural Breadth (I--Other cultures and International Issues), Independent Learning (Q), Writing Intensive (w) and Computer Intensive (c) requirements of the Hamline Plan. Although it is not designated a Speaking Intensive course, as an advanced seminar drawing upon our collective knowledge and expertise, the course will involve class discussion and oral presentations.

The course addresses the following knowledge and skill areas of the Department of Anthropology's "Goals and Objectives" statement: to be familiar with the nature of human variation over time and space; to be familiar with key theoretical perspectives and concepts; to be able to articulate and operationalize relationships among theories and methods; to be conversant with the major tensions and paradoxes of the discipline; to exercise creative imagination with regard to content, theories, and methodologies; to develop critical self-awareness; to develop analytical skills -- the ability to formulate arguments and support them with evidence; to develop research skills (library, computer); to develop communicative skills (speaking, writing, computer utilization), and to develop the ability to do independent work.

In addressing this year's transnational theme as specified in our Ford Foundation-funded project, "Making the Global Local," the seminar, taken in conjunction with ISTD 596, meets one of the requirements for the Certificate in International Journalism.

COURSE MECHANICS

As an upper-division, capstone seminar with an independent learning component, this course relies on seminar participants to be teacher-learners, sharing responsibility for learning outcomes. Class participation (25% of final grade) involves critical reading of assigned articles, regular seminar attendance, regular postings to the e-mail list (including research exercises and paper drafts), and active and informed participation in and facilitation of class discussion. The research project involves submitting an initial statement of topic, submitting a prospectus (5% of final grade), making a class presentation (30% of final grade), submitting a draft paper, and submitting a final paper in hard copy and to the course Web page (40% of final grade). These components of the seminar are discussed in greater detail below.

Readings

There is one text -- The Age of Migration, 2nd ed. by Stephen Castles and Mark J. Miller -- for sale in the Book Store. Several articles and book chapters relevant to our theoretical and methodological discussions in Sections I and IV of the course are available on reserve in Bush Library. Please make personal copies for use in discussion. Background readings for the case studies presented in Sections II and III of the course will be made available on reserve at a later date.

Discussions

During Section I and IV of the course, as we read and consider the theoretical, methodological, and comparative literature on transnational migration and diasporic communities, each seminar participant will have an opportunity to facilitate some portion of our collective discussion. Those facilitating discussion should expect to read closely and carefully the texts to be discussed, make connections across texts, and relate our readings to the general concerns of the seminar. Facilitators should monitor the e-mail list to pick up on and address points raised in seminar postings. Facilitators should touch base with me immediately after the preceding class session to discuss strategies (NB: reading ahead is encouraged). Facilitators should then post a brief summary of the argument and potential discussion points to the e-mail list at least a day before class. All seminar participants should come prepared to engage with the material and the issues under discussion.

Active questioning of our speakers will be expected both in Section II of the course, as we benefit from case studies presented by outside experts, and in Section III of the course, as seminar participants present their case studies. Presenters have a choice of opening their presentations to interruption for questions and comment as they proceed or of asking the seminar participants to hold their questions for general discussion at the conclusion of their presentation. In either case, seminar participants should be prepared to engage the case studies by having done the assigned background reading, by paying close attention to the presentations (including jotting down questions or comments), by relating the cases to the more general theoretical literature/concerns of the course, and by drawing comparisons among the cases. Questions and insights that do not find their way into the class discussion are appropriate postings to our e-mail list.

E-mail list

Everyone should have an active groupwise account. I have set up a list for the course on groupwise (alias: CLA ISTD_595). Any issue relevant to the seminar (either substantive and procedural) is appropriate for posting to the list. Seminar participants are encouraged to read and respond to postings, either by replying to the list or by responding directly to the individual who posted. In addition to using the list as a way to prepare for and to extend discussion, we will use the attachment capabilities of groupwise to share internet site information, computer-assisted research exercises, and component pieces of research projects.

Computer-assisted research exercises

The possibilities opened up by computer searches, downloaded materials, and interlibrary loan partially compensate for the limitations of Bush Library as a repository of books and journals on our topic. The Internet offers us incredible access to databases, discussion groups, chat rooms, and Web sites that we will make use of to access both primary and as secondary research material. To build our skills in computer-assisted research, we will meet with Diane Clayton, library liaison for International Studies and Anthropology, in the Drew Science 307 computer lab on Sept. 23 to explore Internet-based resources. An exercise in searching for and evaluating Internet resources (data bases, Web sites, discussion groups, etc.) will be due for sharing with the seminar when we meet in Library 205 computer lab on Oct. 5.

Course Web page

As part of the computer utilization component of the course, we will construct a course Web page with help from Karen Campbell, campus Web Coord inator. To that end, we will meet with her when the seminar meets in the Library 205 computer lab on Oct. 5 and Nov. 30.

Case study research project

The main Independent Learning component of this course is the research project. Seminar participants are to select as their case study a transnational migrant group/diasporic community and analyze processes of dispersion, social relationships across sites of migration, interactions with states regarding rights and identities, development of a collective consciousness, etc. A fuller description of the project will be distributed separately. Key components of the research project and their due dates are as follows:

Initial statement of topic (to be posted to the e-mail list by Oct. 5)

Prospectus -- including tentative thesis and preliminary list of sources (to be posted by Oct. 28)

Presentation to the seminar (to be scheduled Nov. 2-23)

Paper Draft (to be posted by Nov. 30)

Final Paper -- including annotated bibliography and annotated internet site list (due in hard copy to the instructor and in electronic copy to the Web page by 5 p.m. on Dec. 17)

Co-curricular activities

The weekly International Roundtable Series (see attached), the "Making the Global Local" Conference (on Oct. 28-29), and various off-campus events supplement our in-class activities.

International Roundtable and "Introduction to International Studies"

This spring, the International Studies Program will be offering a new course, "Introduction to International Studies" (ISTD 198), targeted at potential majors. The course will take as its organizing theme the annual transnational topic of the fall senior seminar. The course will incorporate the International Roundtable Series for spring semester. It is my hope that students in this seminar will agree to serve as resource persons to the introductory course. To that end, the first International Roundtable of the semester (Feb. 11) will feature a general presentation on "Transnational Migration and Diasporic Communities," with contributions from all participants in the seminar who are available and willing to share their insights.

CLASS SESSIONS

Part I

9/9Introductions to the topic and the seminar participants

9/14Is the movement of people across the globe changing . . . or does it just seem that way?

Rdgs: Parfit, M. "Human Migration" in National Geographic (Oct 1998): 6-35.

Papademetriou, D. "Immigrants on the Borderline: Myths and Realities" in The UNESCO Courier (Nov 1998): 17-22.

Castles, S. & M. Miller, The Age of Migration, 2nd ed., pp. ix-66.

9/16What factors make this "the age of migration" and what are the features of the "post-industrial migratory order"?

Rdgs: Castles, S. & M. Miller, The Age of Migration, 2nd ed., pp. 67-140.

Massey, D. et al. "New Migrations, New Theories" in Worlds in Motion, pp. 1-16

9/21What are some of the sociocultural, political, and economic implications of transnational migration?

Rdgs: Castles, S. & M. Miller, The Age of Migration, 2nd ed., pp. 212-298.

Lycklama a Nijeholt, G. "Women in International Migration" in N. Heyzer, ed. A Commitment to the World's Women, pp. 53-68.

9/23Library and Internet-based resources for the study of transnational migration and diasporas

(with Diane Clayton, Library liaison for ISTD and ANTH, Bush Library)

9/28What distinguishes state-centric and postnational understandings of transnational migration?

Rdgs: Glick Schiller, N., L. Basch. and C. Blanc-Szanton. Towards a Transnational Perspective on Migration, pp. ix-24.

Appadurai, A. "Disjuncture and Difference in the Global Cultural Economy" in Modernity at Large, pp. 27-47.

9/30Are diasporas "the exemplary communities of the transnational moment"?

Rdgs: Tololyan, K. "The Nation-State and Its Others" in Diaspora 1, 1 (Sp 1991):3-8.

Safran, W. "Diasporas in Modern Societies" in Diaspora 1, 1 (Sp 1991): 83-99.

Clifford, J. "Diasporas" in Routes, pp. 244-77.

Lei, J. "From International Migration to Transnational Diaspora" in Contemporary Sociology 24, 4 (July 1995): 303-306.

Cohen, R. "Diasporas in the Age of Globalization" in Global Diasporas, pp. 155-76.

10/5Evaluation of research sources/internet sites (with Diane Clayton, Library liaison, Bush Library)

and discussion of course web page (with Karen Campbell, Web Coordinator, Bush Library)

COMPUTER-ASSISTED RESEARCH EXERCISE DUE

INITIAL STATEMENT OF TOPIC DUE (to be posted to the listserv)

Part II

10/7SIKH case study

Rdgs: Dusenbery, V. "A Sikh Diaspora? Contested Identities and Constructed Realities" in

P. van der Veer, Nation and Migration, pp. 17-42.

Dusenbery, V. "The Poetics and Politics of Recognition: Diasporan Sikhs in Pluralist Polities" in American Ethnologist 24, 4 (Nov 1997): 738-62.

Dusenbery, V. "Diasporic Imagings and the Conditions of Possibility: Sikhs and the State in Southeast Asia" in SOJOURN 12, 2 (Oct 1997): 226-60.

Dusenbery, V. "Sikhs in Multicultural Australia: Diasporic Circulation, State Policies, and Discourses of Belonging," unpublished ms.

10/12 ROMA case study (with Bill Duna, Adjunct Professor of Music, St. Thomas University)

Rdgs: www.lc.stthomas.edu/roma

10/14 RUSSIAN case study (with Nick Hayes, Professor and Chair of History, Hamline University)

Rdgs: TBA

10/19 TURK case study (with Kari Fangel, Instructor of German, Hamline University)

Rdgs: TBA

10/21 PALESTINIAN case study (with Erika Alin, Associate Professor of Political Science, HU)

Rdgs: TBA

"Migration and Identity" talk by Robin Cohen at the University of Minnesota, Theater at the Coffman Memorial Union @ 1:00 p.m.

10/26 NUER case study (with Diana Shandy, Visiting Instructor of Anthropology, Macalester College)

Rdgs: TBA

10/28 How to present your research project (via oral presentation, paper, web site) to an audience

FORMAL PROSPECTUS DUE (to be posted to the listserv)

"Making the Global Local" Conference in the Hamline University Conference Center @ 6:00 p.m.

Keynote Speaker: Mark Fritz, Pulitzer prize-winning Los Angeles Times correspondent and author of Lost on Earth: Nomads of the New World (Little, Brown and Company, 1999)

Part III

11/2 Student presentations of case studies, Rdgs: TBA

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Part IV

11/30 Workshop on Web page (with Karen Campbell, Web Coordinator, Bush Library)

PAPER DRAFT DUE (to be posted to the e-mail list for transfer to Web page)

12/2 Comparative insights on the causes and consequences of transnational migration

12/7 Implications of transnational migration for social life in the 21st century

Rdgs: Appadurai, A. "Patriotism and Its Futures" in Modernity at Large , pp. 158-177.

Ong, A. "Introduction" in Flexible Citizenship, pp. 1-26.

Sassen, S. "Immigration Policy in a Global Economy" in The UNESCO Courier (Nov. 1998): 34-36.

12/9 Evaluation and celebration

12/17 FINAL PAPER DUE by 5 p.m. (hard copy to instructor; electronic copy to the Web page)

2/11 INTERNATIONAL ROUNDTABLE (public presentation on our topic by all who can make it)