This dissertation traces Chinese migration to and settlement in Colombia from the 1890s through 2020, and situates immigrants' experiences within a larger racially-attuned economic story of a commercially integrating transpacific Caribbean immediately before and after the consolidation of American hegemony. It specifically traces Chinese migration and commercial activities in key sites and regions increasingly drawn into financial and trade systems shaped by the US, including: the Colombian Pacific port of Buenaventura; Panama and the interoceanic canal which connected transpacific Caribbean communities and commerce; the Colombian Caribbean port cities of Barranquilla, Cartagena, and Santa Marta; and Bogotá, the political seat of power which oversaw externally-oriented national economic development and international trade. Though they were racially and economically marginalized and their entry and movements were restricted in Colombia as elsewhere in the Americas, Chinese were nevertheless able to carve out commercial and migration opportunities that connected regions of nations together. Bridging Anglophone and Spanish-speaking, agricultural and industrial, Pacific and Atlantic, their particular migration paths and economic niches enabled them to play unrecognized but integral integrative roles in larger commercial integration processes—whether as merchants who connected the Colombian Pacific to markets in the United States and Europe; truck farmers whose production of food for domestic consumption supported agricultural export and industrialization efforts; or restauranteurs whose expansion of Chinese restaurants from the Caribbean coast to the western coffee axis and Andean interior later became the basis for a new import-export role of distributing goods cheaply made in China within Colombia’s urban centers. Continually adapting to new structural constraints and opportunities, Chinese created a persisting and evolving migrant and migration economy sustained by and sustaining familial and commercial connections that spanned what I term a transpacific Caribbean. Their (often serial) transpacific and circum-Caribbean historical migration trajectories took them from villages, cities, and counties mostly in the Pearl River Delta of Guangdong province and Hong Kong to the Greater Caribbean region (Panama, Trinidad, Cuba, Jamaica, Venezuela, etc.), the United States, and the coastal Caribbean, Pacific, and Andean interior regions of Colombia. What facilitated such migrations (and what attracted Chinese migrants)—the anticipated economic opportunities that followed the building of integrative transportation and trade infrastructure that connected interior to port cities and port cities to international (mainly US) markets—is as important to Colombian economic development history and US overseas commercial expansion as to Chinese immigration history. By showing how Chinese built a migrant and migration economy within this broader imperial and national economic structure, “A Transpacific Caribbean: Chinese Migration, US Imperialism, and the Making of Modern Colombia” weaves these interconnected strands of history together.

The 2016 presidential election and restrictive immigration policies implemented under the Trump administration created a climate of heightened tension and uncertainty for undocumented immigrants from Latin America. There is a gap in the psychological literature regarding the mental health of undocumented immigrants from Latin America residing in the U.S., the largest number of which reside in California, and few studies have examined the experiences of mental health clinicians conducting therapy with undocumented immigrants, particularly keeping in mind the impact of national policy agendas that fuel anti-immigrant sentiment. Following Consensual Qualitative Research (CQR) methodology, this study gathered first-person narratives from 15 mental health professionals who work with undocumented immigrants from Latin American in California, with a focus on the effect of change in political leadership following the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Nine domains emerged from the analysis. Mental health clinicians reported that the 2016 election had a significant impact on their work, including client’s distress and the clinician’s own emotional response to the political climate. Themes in therapy following the election, challenges to conducting therapy with undocumented clients, and the risk and protective factors that were reported to have the greatest influence on client mental health are discussed. Clinical implications and recommendations for the provision of mental health services to undocumented immigrants from Latin America are offered, including a separate set of recommendations for supporting mental health clinicians who provide mental health services to undocumented immigrants from Latin America.

This qualitative study conducted in South Africa, explores the socio-economic integration of Congolese migrants living in Johannesburg. Drawing on respondents own subjective experiences, this study investigates the way Congolese perceive and explain socio-economic integration and the role that gender-roles play in this understanding. Participants were identified using purposive sampling as well as snowballing techniques and narratives of ten Congolese women and men were employed in data collection using semi structured interview guide. Data for this study was analysed using a combination of content, narrative and discourse analysis. Analysis of the data revealed that loss of status played a major role on Congolese men’s and women’s feelings and perceptions of socio-economic integration. Loss of status was increased by migration through intersections of unequal power relations, access to services, and broader related migration issues. Findings also reveal that participants drew on specific migration related discourses including poverty, access to services (institutional), legal status, socio-economic status, socio-cultural status and xenophobia to explain their perceptions and feelings regarding socio-economic integration in South Africa. Further analysis indicates that being socially and economically integrated is not simply defined by having jobs, the right to access services, associating with South Africans but having the lifestyle that one had in the country of origin prior to migration. This includes feeling respected and finally having the same economic and social power as the locals. Among discourses drawn on, participants also used the discourse on traditional practices to justify their unwillingness to integrate into the South African community. The unwillingness to integrate also arises from what respondents described as the reversal of gender roles, and culture showing how these can be a barrier to socio-economic integration.

A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Journalism at the University of the Witwatersrand, 2016 / Economic migrants to South Africa face a hostile reception; periodic displays of widespread xenophobia have highlighted the myths and stereotypes that still abound about foreigners - that they are job-stealers, criminals and a threat to our nation’s well-being. The Department of Home Affairs recently brought in new immigration laws that raise the barriers to entry and participation in the South African economy and society. Yet a back door has been left wide open for economic migrants, often unskilled and with no other options, to enter South Africa, live and work. For six consecutive years South Africa was the number one destination for asylum seekers globally and the influx has caused the refugee determination process to become clogged and corrupt, leaving genuine refugees vulnerable and hundreds of thousands of foreigners in an unhappy limbo. The accompanying narrative long form journalism piece highlights some of the fault lines in the government’s uncoordinated and inconsistent migration policy. Overall the project seeks to personalize some of the key challenges and contentious issues faced by migrants to South Africa. It aims to puts a human face to a bureaucratic process by accessing the stories of marginalized migrants, giving them a voice to articulate their experiences in South Africa. The accompanying method document outlines some of the academic research underpinning the study. / GR2017

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