No

The current research examines the relationship between the Israeli state and its migrant community in the United States. It argues that under conditions of accelerated globalization, the Israeli state has sought to reach out and re-territorialize its migrants' identities in order to strengthen their territory-based Israeli identity and, ultimately, return them to Israel. Focusing on the role played by cultural practices in the process of reterritorialization - which takes place in newly created extra-territorial spaces - it argues that a new type of transnational contract, namely diasporic citizenship has emerged that defines the relationship between the state and its citizens abroad. Cultural practices from above (state-produced) re-assert migrants' identities as national subjects and include them in the expanding incorporation regime of the Israeli state. At the same time, cultural practices from below (migrants'-produced) have been instrumental in their quest to (re)- imagine themselves as part of a trans-territorial Israeli nation. The research uses the Israel Independence Day Festival in Los Angeles to examine the extent to which it has become an extra-territorial space where state officials and migrants negotiate their often conflicting notions of Israeli culture, identity, and citizenship. It is this continuous process of negotiation, the research concludes that (re)-produces new types of affiliations between the state and its subjects overseas

This research focuses on the contexts of Korean women professional golfers’ transnational migration, and the ways that US and Korean media represent those athletes. A theoretical framework informed by sociology of sport, postcolonial and transnational feminist studies was employed to illustrate the contexts of the women’s golf migration, and to investigate how transnational Korean women professional golfers are represented in both US and Korean media from 1998 to 2009. Elite discourses—941 media texts from both nations together with government/institutional documents—were collected, Korean texts were translated into English, and document analysis, critical discourse analysis and intersectional analysis were employed. The results illustrate that globalization and neoliberal capitalism, patriarchy, and colonial and imperial history all help to shape the women golfers’ transnational migration paths. The complex contexts also shape the media representations of the women golfers in the two nation-states. In US media, the Korean women golfers are constructed as a racialized and gendered Other within the context of Orientalism, and selective knowledge production in the media maintains and ensures global White supremacy. In Korean media, the women golfers are portrayed as winners under hypermasculine Western forms of globalization and neoliberal reformation of the world order but, at the same time, as keepers and performers of Korean traditional Confucian values. Further, Korean media explain the women’s transnational success as a result of following traditional Korean values and norms; therefore, the women are represented as proud symbols of Korean nationalism and ideal models of productive female subjects in neoliberal globalization. In sum, the Korean women professional golfers are taken up by media in both nation-states as an effective discursive contact zone for making sense of the changing power dynamics of race, gender, and nation under a period of rapid changes of world order.

This research focuses on the contexts of Korean women professional golfers’ transnational migration, and the ways that US and Korean media represent those athletes. A theoretical framework informed by sociology of sport, postcolonial and transnational feminist studies was employed to illustrate the contexts of the women’s golf migration, and to investigate how transnational Korean women professional golfers are represented in both US and Korean media from 1998 to 2009. Elite discourses—941 media texts from both nations together with government/institutional documents—were collected, Korean texts were translated into English, and document analysis, critical discourse analysis and intersectional analysis were employed. The results illustrate that globalization and neoliberal capitalism, patriarchy, and colonial and imperial history all help to shape the women golfers’ transnational migration paths. The complex contexts also shape the media representations of the women golfers in the two nation-states. In US media, the Korean women golfers are constructed as a racialized and gendered Other within the context of Orientalism, and selective knowledge production in the media maintains and ensures global White supremacy. In Korean media, the women golfers are portrayed as winners under hypermasculine Western forms of globalization and neoliberal reformation of the world order but, at the same time, as keepers and performers of Korean traditional Confucian values. Further, Korean media explain the women’s transnational success as a result of following traditional Korean values and norms; therefore, the women are represented as proud symbols of Korean nationalism and ideal models of productive female subjects in neoliberal globalization. In sum, the Korean women professional golfers are taken up by media in both nation-states as an effective discursive contact zone for making sense of the changing power dynamics of race, gender, and nation under a period of rapid changes of world order.

The social sciences' interest in transnationalism has grown rapidly over the previous decade. The ethnographic case studies informing this burgeoning transnational literature, however, typically focus upon migration flows with one endpoint in the global North. This dissertation explores the experience of Indian transmigrants in contemporary Bahrain, one of the six petroleum-rich states of the Gulf Cooperation Council, as well as the impact of these transnational flows upon the Bahraini state. Like all the nations of the GCC, foreign guestworkers comprise a majority of the workforce in Bahrain, and a near majority of the absolute population--two aspects of the many that mark the transnational context of the contemporary Gulf as significantly different from those typical of the transnational literature.The arc of my ethnographic analysis draws upon transnational theory, diaspora studies, and critical approaches to the state, and visits three plateaus. First, I use migration narratives gathered from Indian transmigrants to delineate the structure of dominance that shapes relations between guestworker and citizen-host. The parameters of this structure stretch from the global political economy to the apparatuses of the Bahraini state and, through the kafala sponsorship system, to the individual relations between citizen-sponsors and guestworkers. This structure comprises the basis for the systemic exploitation of foreign labor. Second, I analyze the strategies different classes of the Indian transmigrant community utilize against this structure of dominance. For the poorest transmigrants, these strategies are often limited to movement between legal and illegal status, while the diasporic elite employ a strategic transnationalism to combat the vulnerabilities rendered by this system. Finally, I analyze the impact of these transnational flows upon the Bahraini state and citizenry. The structure of dominance, I argue, is essential to understanding the articulation of state-based power in Bahrain, for it provides a mechanism for citizens to cull profit from the private sector while maintaining a system for distributing state-controlled wealth that favors those well positioned in traditional social, familial, tribal relations. In essence, the Bahraini state comprises a form of resistance to the neoliberal logic of the global political economy--one that simultaneously structures inequities via those traditional fissures.

Yes / In this study, we aim to develop an understanding of the similarity between migration and expatriation, identify both as elements in diversity, and draw attention to the additional layer of ethnic diversity created by the high number of top management expatriates in some Nigerian subsidiaries of transnational corporations. Using the qualitative research design, we thematically analysed data from semistructured interviews with six indigenous managers in four transnational corporations. We found a significant number of expatriate managers in two subsidiaries and a lack of diversity management framework to address the new layer of diversity as reflected in the unequal treatment of indigenous managers. We conclude that migration and expatriation are similar and could be better managed through effective diversity management framework.

Doctor of Philosophy / This ethnography is based on fieldwork in two very different cities, Hong Kong and Sydney. It traces the movements of subjects from Hong Kong through the analysis of differing modes of inhabiting urban space. The texture of lived spaces provides an analytic focus for examining a highly mobile migrant group. This ethnography explores the mesh of objective structures and migrant subjectivities in a mobile field of migrant ‘place’. A basic assumption of this study is that people from Hong Kong have acquired a common array of dispositions attuned to living in a specific environment. Hong Kong’s dense and challenging urban space embodies aspects of the singular historical ‘production of space’ underpinning a colonial entrepôt that has expanded into a major global economic node. The conditions of lived space are examined through an historical analysis of urban space in Hong Kong and an ethnographic analysis of spatial practices and dispositions. The sprawling spaces of suburban Sydney clearly differ sharply from that of Hong Kong. Interview accounts of settling in Sydney are used to investigate the ‘gap’ in spatial dispositions. Settling entails both practical accommodations to new and unfamiliar localities and an interweaving of cultural and ideological elements into the expanded everyday of migrant subjectivity. Language and speech are integral to spatial practices and provide means of referencing and evaluating ongoing social relations and trajectories. The ‘discourse space’ of interview accounts of settlement in Sydney and movements back to Hong Kong are closely examined, yielding an array of perceptions and representations of different, and contested styles of urban life. All the senses are brought into play in accounts of densities and absences in people’s everyday worlds. At the same time this thesis provides a perspective from which to interrogate contemporary interpretations of ‘transnational’ migration, suggesting the need for an analysis grounded in a specific economy of capacities and dispositions to appropriate social and symbolic goods.

Seit dem Zusammenbruch der Sowjetunion kamen in diesem Raum neue Migrationsprozesse wie die Arbeitsmigration zwischen den südlichen GUS-Republiken und Russland, aber auch grenzüberschreitende Bevölkerungsbewegungen ethnischer Gruppen in ihre „historischen Herkunftsgebiete“ auf. Die in der vorliegenden Arbeit untersuchten, dynamischen Wanderungsprozesse von Kasachen zwischen der Mongolei und Kasachstan weisen Kennzeichen dieses Migrationstypus, aber auch einige Besonderheiten auf. Die vorliegende Arbeit hat längere Forschungsaufenthalte in Kasachstan und der Mongolei von 2006 bis 2009 zur Grundlage. Aus der Mongolei stammende kasachische Migranten im Umland von Almaty und Kasachen im westlichsten aymag der Mongolei, Bayan-Ölgiy, wurden mittels quantitativer und qualitativer Methoden empirischer Sozialforschung befragt. Ergänzend wurden in beiden Staaten Befragungen von Experten aus gesellschaftlichen, wissenschaftlichen und politischen Institutionen durchgeführt, um eine möglichst ausgeglichene Sicht auf die postsowjetischen Migrations- und Inkorporationsprozesse zwischen beiden Staaten sicherzustellen. Zwischen den Migranten in Kasachstan und ihren – noch bzw. wieder – in der Mongolei lebenden Verwandten haben sich in den letzten Jahrzehnten enge soziale Netzwerke entwickelt. Die Aufrechterhaltung der Bindungen wird durch eine Verbesserung der Transport- und Kommunikationsmöglichkeiten zwischen beiden Staaten gefördert. Zirkuläre Migrationsmuster, regelmäßige Besuche und Telefongespräche sowie grenzüberschreitende sozioökonomische Unterstützungsmechanismen haben sich insbesondere in den vergangenen Jahren intensiviert. Diese Interaktionen sind im Kontext der rechtlichen, politischen und wirtschaftlichen Bedingungen im Migrationssystem Mongolei-Kasachstan – und insbesondere in Wechselwirkung mit der staat¬lichen Migrations- und Inkorpora-tionspolitik – einzuordnen. Die Erkenntnisse der vorliegenden Untersuchung lassen sich in aller Kürze so zusammenfassen: (I) Die in sozialen Netzwerken organisierten Interaktionen der Kasachen aus der Mongolei weisen Merkmale von, aber auch Unterschiede zu Konzepten des Transnationalismus-Ansatzes auf. (II) Die sozialen Bindungen zwischen Verwandten generieren Sozialkapital und tragen zur alltäglichen Unterstützung bei. (III) Die lokalen und grenzüberschreitenden Aktivitäten der Migranten sind als Strategien der sozioökonomischen Eingliederung zu deuten. (IV) Ein wesentlicher Teil der aus der Mongolei stammenden Kasachen artikuliert von der Mehrheitsbevölkerung abweichende, hybride Identifikationsmuster, die die politischen Eliten in Kasachstan bisher zu wenig wahrnehmen. / Since the collapse of the USSR new migration processes such as labour migration between the southern republics of CIS and Russia, and transborder mobility of ethnic groups to their „regions of historical provenance“ emerged on its territory. The dynamic migration processes of ethnic Kazakhs between Mongolia and Kazakhstan analyzed here shows features of the latter type of migration, but also some specific characters. The present dissertation is based on sustained fieldwork carried out in Kazakhstan and Mongolia from 2006 to 2009. Surveys and in-depth interviews were conducted among Mongolian-Kazakh migrants in the environs of Almaty and Kazakhs in Mongolia’s westernmost aymag Bayan-Ölgiy. Additional interviews were held among experts from public, scientific and political institutions to ensure a balanced view on the post-soviet migration and incorporation processes. In the last two decades dense social networks developed between Mongolian-Kazakh migrants in Kazakhstan and their relatives – still or again – living in Mongolia. These networks were perpetuated by the improvement of transportation and communication links connecting both states. Circular migration patterns, regular visits and phone calls as mechanisms of transborder socioeconomic support have intensified during the last years. This interaction has to be classified in the context of legal, political and economical conditions, and, especially, in interdependency with the migration and incorporation policies of the state. The insight of the present analysis can be summarized in short in the following way: (I) The transborder interaction of the Mongolian Kazakhs, which is organized in social networks, is characterized by features of, but in the same way differs from concepts of transnationalism theory. (II) The social relations among Mongolian-Kazakh relatives generate social capital and contribute to everyday support. (III) The local and transborder activities of the Mongolian Kazakhs are to be explained as strategies of socioeconomic incorporation. (IV) A significant part of Mongolian Kazakhs articulate hybrid identification patterns that differ from the majority population and that are yet insufficiently perceived by the political elites in Kazakhstan.

This dissertation examines the production of culture among Indo-Caribbean communities in New York City and Trinidad. It seeks to understand how cultural producers use performance as a way to mediate their experiences of racialization in local, national, and transnational spheres. Based on a multisited ethnographic study, I analyze the Indo-Caribbean diaspora as a result of nineteenth and twentieth century indentured labor migration and as a focus of post-1965 transnational migration. To do so, I introduce the idea of "transnational performances," which I employ to examine how expressions of Indo-Caribbean identity are performed in Trinidad and New York City as a way of mediating global processes. Specifically, this dissertation begins with a geographic and historical overview of Indo-Caribbean transnational populations, then provides an ethnographic study of contemporary Hindu religious festivals in Trinidad, an Islamic festival held in both New York City and Trinidad, Indo-Caribbean media in New York, and a cultural and arts center in New York. In all these sites Indo-Caribbean cultural producers engage the politics of public representation of Indo-Caribbean identity. I argue that while Indo-Caribbean religious, festival, media, and cultural producers engage with diasporic formations of identity and develop diasporic narratives that address Indian origins, they simultaneously develop new, creative, and flexible Indo- Caribbean transnational performances in the public sphere often coproducing their identities in relation to other diasporic communities. Concerns about authenticity exist alongside the desire to create new cultural practices that employ hybridity as a strategy to assert belonging. These transnational performances are spaces from which Indo-Caribbean communities develop a public voice that responds to perceived exclusions and erasures. The geographies of belonging that are central in the transnational performances of Indo-Caribbean cultural producers suggest that we must attend to the cultural practices developed within and across boundaries while taking a historical perspective on global processes that are reconfigured in the contemporary period. / text

This study explores a form of transnational economy that involves cross border movements of students, families and business people that are motivated by education. A main objective of the study is to explore the interplay of structural factors and the agency of migrants in the development of this industry. Using interview data collected in Seoul, Korea and Vancouver, Canada, this study demonstrates that the globalization of the international education industry is not simply an economic process but a by-product of complex relations between many economic and non-economic factors. The intensification of globalization in general, and the rise of neo-liberalism in particular, have introduced macro structural changes in the political economies of both Korea and Canada that have had important implications for growth in the education industry. The role of nation-states is critical in that both Korean and Canadian national governments have delivered more relaxed policies regulating international migration and educational flows between the two countries. At the local level, both public and post-secondary educational institutions in Vancouver have become actively engaged in recruiting fee-paying international students. Ordinary migrants, both permanent residents and temporary visitors, play an important role in promoting Canadian education in the global market as well. The successful recruitment activities of local schools (and school boards) have been facilitated by Korean international education agencies operating in Vancouver. Relying on close social and cultural linkages between Korea and Canada, the transnational entrepreneurial activities of Korean immigrants demonstrate how globalization actually works in practice. With strong motivation and spatial mobility, the rising demands of Korean students and their parents have also been an important precursor of recent industrial growth. This seemingly smooth growth of the international education industry between Seoul and Vancouver, however, masks more complex dynamics of the process. I provide four critiques on taken-for-granted approaches towards neo-liberalism and economic globalization. Exploring immigrant participation at the heart of the knowledge economy (education), this study also asks if the entrepreneurial opportunities that are being cultivated by Korean-immigrants represent an innovative shift from traditional and low-level ethnic niche economies toward more lucrative opportunities.