SOC 347 - Topics on Transnationalism

Transnationalism has been defined as a “social process in which migrants establish social fields that cross geographic, cultural, and political borders.”  In this definition, migration is not simply the movement of people from one nation state to the other but a constant ongoing exchange between and across borders.  Immigrants are thus understood to be transmigrants when they “develop and maintain multiple relations-familial, economic, social, organizational, religious, and political-that span  borders” (Schiller, Basch, and Blanc-Szanton 1992:ix). To build on and confront some of the limitations of the transnationalism literature on migration, this course focuses on the motivations, processes, and consequences of migration. Through readings and other mediums, i.e. film, we confront the following questions. First, the focus on motivations reorients the transnationalism literature, and most of U.S. migration studies, to pay as much attention to emigration as it does immigration.  How does the political and socio-economic context of the home country impact motivations for leaving one’s home country? Second, a focus on the process of migration, especially on immigration policy, re-thinks the role of the nation-state in contemporary migration.  Is it as minimal as some transnational scholars argue? And, more broadly, as compared to several decades back, are nation-states less consequential in the lives of migrants in today’s globalized world?  Third, by investigating the consequences of migration, which includes both the consequences for migrants and for those they leave behind at home, this class examines the benefits of transnational lives as well as the difficulties of leading lives constrained by two nations.

Satisfies Africana Studies major and minor requirement
Satisfies the Cultural Diversity requirement
Satisfies the Social-Scientific Thought requirement