This research utilizes an intersectionality framework to examine the complexity of social location and its effects on women's health. By examining connections among the state, processes of globalization, and the production of health inequalities for poor women in a rural community in southern Veracruz, Mexico, the research highlights the nexus of nationality, class, and gender. Four interconnected contexts are explored: (1) women's increasing paid and unpaid labor in the context of a poverty of resources brought on by sustained economic crisis; (2) the maintenance of reproductive labor as the responsibility of women; (3) the development of migrant "illegality" and its consequences for the well being of women who are consistently anxious about the lives of their migrant family members and the stability of remittances that sustain the household, and (4) the increasing neoliberalization of public health care that includes the heightened surveillance of women's hygienic activities and chronic underfunding of public health resources. Using an ethnographic methodology including interviews, case studies, and participant observation, the research explores the daily lives of wives and mothers of transnational migrants as well as those women who, although they do not have migrant family members, live within the context of transnationalism because it pervades the community. In addition, all women in the research confront the inadequacy of public health services because most never have the resources to utilize private health services. The research makes three important contributions to medical anthropology and the social sciences. First, it contributes to ongoing debates concerning the potential uses of the intersectionality framework in anthropology and related social sciences. Second, it contributes to border studies by elaborating an example of productive ways that the border can be theoretically extended to include examinations of the lives of migrant family members living far from the border. Third, it critically examines a public health insurance program that has the potential to fulfill Mexico's constitutional right to health care for all citizens and to be a model for global health care policy. By doing so, it provides a basis for future study and development of progressive health care policy in Mexico and beyond.

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.

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.

abstract: Ascribed elements of one's self-identity such as sex, race, and the place of birth are deeply related to one's national identity among Japanese immigrant women. Spouses, offspring, friends, networks in the U.S., or even information about their local area also represent the nation they feel they belong to. The feelings of belonging and comfort are the basis for their achieved sphere of identification with the U.S. This study found that few elderly immigrants would identify only with the host county. Likewise, very few elderly immigrants would identify only with the homeland. Therefore, most of them identify with both countries (transnational), or they identify with neither country (liminal) to an extent. Developing transnational or liminal identity is a result of how Japanese elderly immigrant women have been experiencing mundane events in the host country and how they think the power relations of the sending and receiving countries have changed over the years. Japanese elderly immigrant women with transnational identity expressed their confidence and little anxiety for their aging. Their confidence comes from strong connection with the local community in the host country or/and homeland. Contrarily, those with liminal identity indicated stronger anxiety toward their aging. Their anxiety comes from disassociation from the local community in the U.S. and Japan. With regard to the decisiveness of future plan such as where to live and how to cope with aging, indecisiveness seems to create more options for elderly Japanese immigrant women with the transnational identity, while it exacerbates the anxiety among those who have liminal identity. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Sociology 2012

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. / Arts, Faculty of / Geography, Department of / Graduate

No description available.

Thesis advisor: Patrick Proctor / In this dissertation, I discuss how North Korean migrants and their children reflect on their migratory narratives and construct memories and postmemories vis-à-vis their North Korean heritage. The North Korean migration context has primarily centered on women (Sung & Cho, 2018), labeling them as Confucian communist mothers (North Korea), trafficked wives (China), smuggled refugees (Southeast Asian countries), and finally, unsettled settlers (South Korea) across their migration trajectories (Song, 2013). Considering the trafficking of North Korean women to rural Chinese men after crossing the border, and their subsequent experiences of human trafficking, forced marriage, and forced pregnancy (Kim, 2012, 2014, 2020), it is significant to understand how the children who were born to North Korean mothers make sense of their heritage. With this, I foregrounded the intergenerational transmission of family memories as a critical vehicle to examine how bi/multilingual North Korean migrants and their children construct identity and belonging across time and space. I found that the children mobilize multiple linguistic and cultural repertoires to understand varying narratives that run across multiple resources from family, school, and digital platforms to construct a multifaceted understanding of North Korean heritage. I also found that mothers seek a nuanced perspective on migration, challenging the reductionist approach that portrays them solely as impoverished victims by sharing personal and cultural memories in various contexts. By highlighting the evolving culture of memory construction, I argue that North Korean mothers and their children navigate, re-imagine, and re-construct the understanding of ethnic identity through shared narratives and literacy practices, often mediated by digital technology and cultural knowledge. This dissertation contributes to the field by focusing on the dynamic process of intergenerational transmission of memory between North Korean mothers and their children who live across multiple borders. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2024. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Teaching, Curriculum, and Society.

Made available in DSpace on 2015-03-05T18:25:04Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 30 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / Esta investigação aborda os usos da internet, especialmente MSN, Skype e chat Uol nas experiências de construção e manutenção de redes sociais de migrantes brasileiros na Espanha. A fundamentação teórica abrange os conceitos de migração transnacional, redes sociais, usos e a internet. A pesquisa orienta-se em uma perspectiva qualitativa, centrada na etnografia (observação e entrevistas), propondo, por um lado, uma experimentação das ferramentas online, principalmente MSN, Skype, e-mail, como estratégia metodológica de abordagem etnográfica das migrações transnacionais e, por outro, uma análise empírica de aspectos das interações online e offline relacionada às redes sociais de migrantes brasileiros na Espanha. Como resultados dessas interações em rede, destacam-se os usos da internet, pelos migrantes brasileiros, na constituição de relações familiares transnacionais, na (re) atualização de contatos com o país de nascimento (Brasil), na vivência com migrantes e não migrantes no país de migração (Espanha), e na / This research approaches the uses of the Internet, especially MSN, Skype and Uol chat in the construction of experiences and maintenance of social networks of Brazilian migrants in Spain. The theoretical base encloses the social concepts of transnational migration, networks, uses and the Internet. The research is oriented in a qualitative perspective, centered in the ethnography (observation and interviews), considering, on the other hand, an experimentation of the online tools, mainly MSN Messenger, Skype, email, as methodological strategy of ethnographical approach of transnational migrations and, for another one, an empirical analysis of aspects of the interactions online and offline related to the social networks of Brazilian migrants in Spain. As results of these net interactions, the uses of the Internet are distinguished, for the Brazilian migrants, in the constitution of transnational familiar relations, in the update of contacts with the country of birth (Brazil), in the experience with not migrants

La restructuration productive de l’industrie pauliste survenue à la fin des années 1980 a réservé une place importante à la main d’œuvre migrante dans le secteur de la confection. Le circuit de sous-traitance transnational a favorisé l’arrivée des travailleurs mobiles venus des pays voisins. Suite à une intensification de ce flux migratoire au tournant des années 2000, les Boliviens se sont vite imposés comme la plus importante population migrante latino-américaine de la ville de São Paulo. Ils travaillent dans des ateliers de confection, de petites structures de production ayant l’avantage de faciliter la mobilité sociale et spatiale grâce à des carrières d’entrepreneurs migrants. Les conditions de production de l’espace géographique et social de cette migration sont mises en perspective par une identification des réseaux sociaux dont dépendent les trajectoires migratoires. Afin de saisir l’articulation entre réseaux et mobilités, nous partons du constat de l’existence de dispositifs réticulaires aux agencements variables qui opèrent comme des matrices des migrations individuelles et participent à la production d’un espace social transnational. Ces dispositifs réticulaires sont basés soit sur des liens jetables, soit sur des liens familiaux, soit sur des liens de communauté rurale. Ils donnent à voir des compétences circulatoires et relationnelles engageant une capacité d’action chez les individus concernés qui contraste avec la représentation du « travailleur esclave » qui structure une partie du rapport entre les pouvoirs publics et les migrants boliviens. / The productive restructuring of the paulist industry in the late 1980s has reserved an important place to the migrant labour in the garment sector. The transnational subcontracting circuit has favoured the arrival of mobile workers from neighbouring countries. In the wake of an intensification of this migratory flow at the turn of the 2000s, Bolivians has quickly established themselves as the largest Latin American migrant population in the city of São Paulo. They work in sweatshops, small production structures having the advantage of facilitating social and spatial mobility through careers as migrant entrepreneurs. The conditions of production of the geographical and social space of this migration are put into perspective by identifying the social networks on which the migratory trajectories depend. In order to understand the articulation between networks and mobilities, we start from the observation of the existence of reticular apparatus with variable arrangements that operate as individual migrations matrices and participate in the production of a transnational social space. These reticular apparatus are based either on disposable ties or on family ties or on rural community ties. They reveal circulatory and relational skills involving a capacity for action among the individuals concerned, which contrasts with the representation of "slave labourer" that structure part of the relationship between government and Bolivian migrants.

This thesis tries to explore the effects of socio-economic status, gender and generation of Turkish migrants living in Berlin on their participation into transnational social fields established between Berlin and Turkey. In addition to this, evaluating transnational approaches used in international migration studies critically and acquiring a critical transnational perspective in the context of global capitalism are also in the interest areas of this study. This study is based on a qualitative field research conducted with 30 Turkish migrants in Berlin in 2006. This study maintains that, as well as global restructuring of global capitalism, new technological advances and nation state policies, migrants&rsquo / socio-economic status, gender and generation differences are vital elements to understand the way and content of transnational social fields in daily life of migrants. This study concludes that, apart from being liberatory, nation- state- based inequalities are reproduced in transnational social fields in macro and micro levels as dependent on migrants&rsquo / socio economic status, gender and generation differences.