The Contexts Of Diaspora Citizenship

This book explores the social participation, identification and transnational practices of Somalis living in Finland and the United States. Through a multifaceted collection of chapters which are based on data ranging from legislation and policy documents to welfare indicators and interviews, this book explores how Somali migrants experience and explore their identities and belongings, and how they strive for participation as (diaspora) citizens of their sending and receiving societies. The case studies are conducted in two countries that differ greatly in terms of their social system, migration history and integration policies and as such they provide an opportunity to explore how different social, political and legal orders influence the life-courses and wellbeing of migrant populations. Furthermore, the book highlights how the fate of the Somalis as a global diaspora is routinely intertwined with the changes in the global political climate and the state-level political processes reflecting it. This book will be of great interest to researchers, students and lecturers of migration and diaspora, as well as individuals working with (Somali) migrants.

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.

With the exception of slave narratives, there are few stories of black international migration in U.S. news and popular culture. This book is interested in stratified immigrant experiences, diverse black experiences, and the intersection of black and immigrant identities. Citizenship as it is commonly understood today in the public sphere is a legal issue, yet scholars have done much to move beyond this popular view and situate citizenship in the context of economic, social, and political positioning. The book shows that citizenship in all of its forms is often rhetorically, representationally, and legally negated by blackness and considers the ways that blackness, and representations of blackness, impact one’s ability to travel across national and social borders and become a citizen. This book is a story of citizenship and the ways that race, gender, and class shape national belonging, with Haiti, Cuba, and the United States as the primary sites of examination.

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.

When immigrants to the United States need to learn English, receive health services, open a bank account or get a work certification, US state and local governments or non-profit organizations usually assist as part of the process of supporting immigrant integration and, ultimately, citizenship. But over the past two decades, Mexico, and other origin countries of migrants have been increasingly filling gaps in these activities through their consular representations, particularly focusing on populations with precarious legal status. Put in the larger context of diaspora policies, these practices -- focused on establishing closer ties between the origin country and the emigrant population and protecting their rights through the provision of social services -- are one of the clearest manifestations of the reconceptualization of the boundaries of citizenship and the rights and obligations that come with it. This book looks at citizenship and immigrant integration from the perspective of countries of origin: specifically the processes through which Mexico and other Latin American countries are establishing programs to give their emigrant populations better access to education, health, banking, labor rights, language acquisition and civic participation in the United States. While immigrant integration is often assumed as an issue that mainly concerns the population and institutions of the country of destination, these cases demonstrate the role that origin countries play in supporting migrants' access to opportunities to participate as members of the societies they are a part of, challenging the limits of citizenship and sovereignty, and offering examples of innovative practices in the protection of migrants' rights. As an area of migration governance that is rarely discussed, this book offers a critical evaluation of these programs and their impact on emigrants, particularly on those who are undocumented or have precarious legal status, and the collaborations between governments and civil society groups on which the programs are based.

Given the recent and rapid changes to migration patterns and citizenship processes, this volume provides a timely, compelling, empirical and theoretical study of the gendered implications of such developments. More specifically, it draws out the multiple connections between migration and citizenship concerns and practices for women. The collection features original research that examines women's diverse im/migrant and refugee experiences and exposes how gender ideologies and practices organize migrant citizenship, in its various dimensions, at the local, national and transnational levels. The volume contributes to theoretical debates on gender, migration and citizenship and provides new insights into their interrelation. It includes rich case studies that range from the Philippines and Somalia to the Caribbean and from Australasia to Canada and Britain. Designed to have a multidisciplinary appeal, it is suitable for courses on migration, diversity, gender, race, ethnicity, law and public policy, comparative politics and international relations.

This book addresses the conceptual difficulties and political contestations surrounding the applicability of the term "African-Canadian". In the midst of this contested terrain, the volume focuses on first generation, Black Continental Africans who have immigrated to Canada in the last four decades, and have traceable genealogical links to the continent.