Diasporic Citizenship

This book briefly delineates the history of the Haitian diaspora in the United States in the nineteenth century, but it primarily concerns itself with the contemporary period and more specifically with the diasporic enclave in New York City. It uses a critical transnational perspective to convey the adaptation of the immigrants in American society and the border-crossing practices they engage in as they maintain their relations with the homeland. It further reproblematizes and reconceptualizes the notion of diasporic citizenship so as to take stock of the newer facets of the globalization process.

This collection of papers discusses the impact of diasporas on the articulations and practices of legal, political, cultural and social citizenship in their country of origin. While the majority of current citizenship debates focus on the challenges and directions in which diasporic and migrant communities impact on the citizenship regime in their country of settlement, the papers in this volume approach the study of citizenship from the perspective of the link between the sending state and its diasporic communities abroad. The papers discuss the role of language, religion, kinship, and other ethnic markers in diaspora politics and trace their implications for the articulations and practices of citizenship. Through discussing cases across political and geographical spectrums, and from different historical epochs the book broadens and enriches the debate on citizenship by demonstrating important ways in which diasporas impact on the delineation of citizenship regimes and the politics of national identity in their homeland. This links to the continued use of language as an ethnic marker, but also one which may be learned, allowing a certain degree of choice and shifting affiliations amongst putative members of a diaspora. This book was published as a special issue of Nationalism and Ethnic Politics.

Forging Diasporic Citizenship explores the dynamics of everyday life for German-born Berliners of Turkish origin. These Ausländer (or “outsiders”) are obliged to define themselves by their Otherness, but it is their relatedness to German society that transgresses traditional concepts of both German and Turkish identity. By examining the social encounters, life stories, and everyday practices of these Ausländer, this transnationally applicable work serves to disrupt delimited notions of citizenship. It shows how diasporic people are creating a broader basis for identity, community, and social responsibility that transcends the scope of membership in a nation-state.

Examining various cultural products-music, cartoons, travel guides, ideographic treaties, film, and especially the literary arts-the contributors of these thirteen essays invite readers to conceptualize citizenship as a narrative construct, both in Canada and beyond. Focusing on indigenous and diasporic works, along with mass media depictions of Indigenous and diasporic peoples, this collection problematizes the juridical, political, and cultural ideal of universal citizenship. Readers are asked to envision the nation-state as a product of constant tension between coercive practices of exclusion and assimilation. Narratives of Citizenship is a vital contribution to the growing scholarship on narrative, nationalism, and globalization. Contributors: David Chariandy, Lily Cho, Daniel Coleman, Jennifer Bowering Delisle, Aloys N.M. Fleischmann, Sydney Iaukea, Marco Katz, Lindy Ledohowski, Cody McCarroll, Carmen Robertson, Laura Schechter, Paul Ugor, Nancy Van Styvendale, Dorothy Woodman, and Robert Zacharias.

While the history of Asian migration to Latin America is well documented, we know little about the contemporary experience of diasporic Asians in this part of the world. Memories of a Future Home offers an intimate look at how diasporic Chinese in Panama construct a home and create a sense of belonging as they inhabit the interstices of several cultural-national formations—Panama, their nation of residence; China/Taiwan, their ethnic homeland; and the United States, the colonial force. Juxtaposing the concepts of diaspora and citizenship, this book offers an innovative framework to help us understand how diasporic subjects engage the politics of cultural and political belonging in a transnational context. It does so by examining the interaction between continually shifting geopolitical dynamics, as well as the maneuvers undertaken by diasporic people to negotiate and transform those conditions. In essence, this book explores the contingent citizenship experienced by diasporic Chinese and their efforts to imagine and construct "home" in diaspora.

Based on rich oral histories, this is an engaging study of citizenship construction and practice in Liberia, Africa's first black republic.

This book examines the dynamic processes by which communities establish distinct notions of 'home' and 'belonging'. Focusing on the agency of diasporic groups, rather than (forced or voluntary) dispersion and a continued longing for the country of origin, it analyses how a diaspora presence impacts relations between 'home' and host countries. Its central concern is the specific role that diasporas play in global cooperation, including cases without a successful outcome. Bridging the divide between diaspora studies and international relations, it will appeal to sociologists, scholars of migration, anthropologists and policy-makers.