This thesis examines how transnational gay and queer discourses conceal ongoing forms of violence against multiple subaltern populations, through the seemingly natural teleology and progressive nature assigned to gay rights and queerness. I use the theoretical framework of necropolitics, developed by Achille Mbembe who analyzes how power is exercised through killing and death, to examine two sites of violence that are typically presented as progressive: transnational gay rights and queer tourism. First, I demonstrate that the problem of ‘anti-gay’ violence in non-western subaltern contexts is not due to a lack of legal rights, as most western activists have framed the issue, but is rather an issue of non-controlled forms of lateral violence carried out by non-state actors against multiple groups. Second, I reveal that the representation of queer tourism as progressive masks subjection of subaltern labourers to violence and death. These findings suggest that relations of power constituted through necropolitics should be the lens through which violence in subaltern contexts is read. This perspective is in opposition to most western based transnational discourses that misread and disregard forms of violence in subaltern contexts and consequently facilitate the recurrence of violence in these contexts. / Thesis (Master, Sociology) -- Queen's University, 2013-06-21 12:17:17.871

This research began as an attempt to question to what extent a politics of solidarity and the evolution of a ‘transnational feminism’ which travels across borders can be established within Arab and Western literary novels. While this study, in spirit, takes its lead from the call for ‘feminism without borders’ within the writings of two contemporary women writers, the Canadian Margaret Atwood and the Lebanese Hanan Al-Shaykh, it responds to the notion of transnationalism and literary ambassadorship from the perspective of Arab-Western relations. This process raises key questions for the reading of women’s writings across sensitive cultural divides: How can the literary contributions of Margaret Atwood and Hanan Al-Shaykh help in reshaping the form and content of a transnational and cultural interaction between the Arab World and the West? Do women writers articulate their concerns in the same manner across cultures? To what extent can literature cross borders and be fully engaged within diverse women’s concerns? And what might hinder the circulation of a transnational literary interaction? These contemporary women writers have been studied in the belief that their novels are committed to a transnational feminist agenda. Both writers place their feminist concerns within a national framework that they constantly negotiate. However, this comparison to test the value of women’s writings across borders has been challenged by a more complex study of factors that intervene along the way. The politics of reception, the processes of production, circulation, and consumption of the writers’ literary texts, the writers’ own shifting allegiances moving from nationalism to broader multicultural, cosmopolitan and transnational frameworks, are all factors to be taken into account. These factors have a direct impact on the context through which the literary texts have to be studied. Hence, this study seeks to contribute to this task by showing how these writers are engaged in the process of adjusting, reconstructing and even transcending their cultural milieus.

This dissertation analyzes moments in which presidents interact with transnational audiences, identifying and explaining their rhetorical strategies for developing a global imaginary. Specifically, I first consider how George H.W. Bush and Mikhail Gorbachev negotiate geo-political and spatial metaphors leading up to their joint press conference, symbolically ending the Cold War. Second, I discuss how Bill Clinton and George W. Bush universalize the trope of “democracy” in their speeches before the United Nations General Assembly. Third, I explain how Barack Obama figures transnational citizens and himself as a global leader in his transnational town hall meetings. Together, these case studies show the ways contemporary presidents call forth particular understandings of “the global” through speech. Politically, this study is significant because it broadens our understanding of the institution of the presidency from the framework of a national institution to that of a global one. Rhetorically, this study illuminates the relationship between presidential speech, transnational audiences, and the rhetorical imaginary of the global sphere.

Thesis advisor: Brinton Lykes / A growing number of families in the U.S. are of mixed-status with at least one undocumented relative who is threatened by deportation. Many also are simultaneously involved in cross-border or transnational families. Despite these challenging contexts,these families rarely are attended to in psychological research. This dissertation presents findings from research with nine intergenerational Maya Kiche transnational and mixed-status families who live across the United States and Guatemala. The study explored relationships within these families and how they are maintained in contexts of family separation as influenced by U.S. immigration and deportation systems. A grounded theory analysis of in-depth interviews with at least one U.S.-based undocumented migrant parent, and one Guatemala-based child and caregiver from each family was developed to better understand and characterize the ways in which diverse family members perceive and experience their family relationships and separations. The middle-range theory developed from this study is called "being present when forced to be absent." This theory describes the main strategies family members in Guatemala and the U.S. utilize to maintain relationships over time and across space, which include communication, remittances or financial support, and the provision of life advice or consejos. Findings suggest that while these strategies mitigate challenges experienced in transnational family relationships, families view contextual strains in Guatemala and the U.S. as continuing to influence their cross-border relationships and family processes. Finally, this study showed that families leverage an additional strategy identified as reconfiguring the transnational family, wherein they alter the transnational configuration of their family to confront challenges of family separation. This study shows that U.S.-based undocumented migrant parents and children and elected caregivers in Guatemala contribute to their transnational families in unique ways. It also supports previous research arguing that immigration and deportation policies violate the rights of families from the global south who migrate north to support their relatives in origin countries. Implications for comprehensive immigration reform and new directions for research in psychology with migrant and transnational families are discussed. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2012. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Counseling, Developmental, and Educational Psychology.

This is a comparative analysis of two German-speaking Mennonite colonies. One group of 1,800 migrants voluntarily left Russia for Canada in the 1870s and departed Canada for Paraguay’s Gran Chaco in 1927 to preserve their communal autonomy. Another group of 2,000 Mennonites remained in Russia until 1929, when Stalinist persecution forced them to flee as individual refugees through Germany to the Gran Chaco. Here, the colonies negotiated their relationships with each other and crafted different responses to German Nazis and American Mennonites who desired global German or Mennonite unity. Comparing the groups’ collective narratives—as voluntary migrants and refugees—reveals problems faced by individuals who do not fit into prescribed national or religious molds. This work engages global forces—such as nationalism and displacement—and universal conditions affecting mobile groups—including how they negotiate group identifications and perpetuate local cultures. It begins from the premise that group identifications are not immutable and objective but are tied to fluid, subjective narratives. This framework shapes three arguments: 1) Faith-based diasporas are some of the most tenacious carriers of national cultural features—such as languages and folkways—but they often maintain these features for their own ethnoreligious purposes. 2) Governments and aid agencies benefit from the existence of migrants and refugees by advancing mythologies that are inclusive or exclusive of these populations. 3) Mobile faith-based communities use national and religious concepts to interpret new environments but they formulate their collective narratives differently—on a spectrum from faithful disciples to exiled victims.

This dissertation explores how members of sovereignty movements in politically-dependent nations respond to transnational influences in their social, economic, and political lives. My research explores Puerto Rico's independence movements on the island and the U.S. mainland with the intent to uncover how transnational influences in Puerto Ricans' social and economic lives may filter into their political activities. I look specifically at how the prolific use of cultural nationalism within the Puerto Rican political community contributes to the characterization of Puerto Rico as a transnational community, and I investigate how this affects their political activities. I conducted research for this dissertation between 2003 and 2005 in San Juan, Puerto Rico and New York City, New York. I used a variety of ethnographic methods, including semi-structured interviews, participation and observation, and archival research. I conclude that any transnational experiences Puerto Ricans may undergo in their daily experiences do not directly impact their political agendas and activities. Instead, I highlight each independentista community as distinct and illustrate the localized political goals and practices of both. I discuss the significance of spatiality to both pro-independence Puerto Rican communities, specifically as it relates to the traditional nation-state structure and the multiplicity of boundaries affecting national membership and access to citizenship and rights that it entails. Ultimately I argue that neither has the cultural eclipsed the political, nor has the transnational eclipsed the local, in Puerto Rican nationalist movements. Instead, I contend that the nation-state is still a powerful influence on contemporary definitions of national membership and belongingness, and locality and spatiality are significant motivators in today's sovereignty movements.

<p>The thesis examines how language, culture and family structures interrelate and affect the process of migration. Vital is how women from a different ethnic background integrates during migration and in a dialogue context with us as researchers and native Swedes. The thesis is interdisciplinary and analyzes empirical data through a qualitative method by using the perspectives gender, ethnicity and identity. The empirical material consists of 7 interviews, which have been transcribed and then broken down in to quotations. Thesequotations have then been analyzed using the perspectives mentioned above. Throughout the thesis the imperative significance of language to enable communication between people of different ethnical backgrounds, and how these processes may develop, plays an essential role. The conclusion reached through the thesis is that a person’s identity is adaptable and that language plays a vital role in a person’s group identification. Specific systems and rules are created in group constellations to decide who can be included in a particular group. This thesis shows that group constellations between ethnic Swedes and individuals from a different ethnic background has a large impact on the language.</p>

This study examines how the migration experience affects the mental health status of recent Asian and Latin American/Caribbean immigrants. It analyzes the relationship between stress among immigrants and their adaptation patterns. Specifically, this study focuses on the psycho-social transition processes associated with migration, examining how disruption of cultural norms, and restructured lifestyle may lead to stress, or other mental health difficulties. In addition, this study highlights "transnationalism," a newly defined adaptation pattern of recent immigrants, especially among Latin immigrants. It focuses on "transnational activity" as a potential mediator of the relationship between immigration stressors and mental health outcomes among recent migrants from Asia and Latin America/Caribbean countries. Previous research has been largely dedicated to two aspects of immigrants' mental health status, post-traumatic stress disorder and acculturative related stress. This study includes both aspects, focusing on both the context of exit and the context of reception to analyze the factors associated with immigrants' mental health problems. Based on previous research, this study incorporates various theories and concepts, including stress theory, acculturation theory, the life course perspective and transnationalism to establish a synthetic model to explain mental health problems. Using the first wave data from New Immigrant Survey, this study includes a broad range of variables, employs logistic regression to examine the effects of pre-migration experiences and post-migration trajectories on symptoms of depression and distress among Asian and Latin American/Caribbean immigrants. Statistical results show that in general Asian immigrants have slightly better mental health than Latino/Caribbean immigrants. Socioeconomic status, gender, pre-migration persecution, social support, acculturation, transnationalism, and sub-ethnicity all predict symptoms of depression among immigrants with the exception of the age at arrival in the U.S. The effects of factors examined in this study vary slightly across ethnic groups. Future research should use longitudinal data in order to track the long-term effects and the patterns of immigrants' incorporation and their mental health status. In addition, the development of more synthetic theories and key concepts are suggested to better understand how the post migration trajectories of each sub-ethnic group within Asian and Latino/Caribbean immigrants' populations are related with their mental health status.

Uppsatsen syftar till att identifiera livsstilsmigranters identitetsskapande och skapandet av infrastruktur genom att analysera migrationsprocessen och det vardagliga livet på destinationen. Fokus ligger på svenska livsstilsmigranter som är antingen permanent boende, återvändare, säsongsmigranter eller ambulerande besökare på Phuket. Genom att angripa syftet med ett transnationalistiskt perspektiv visar uppsatsen att migrationsprocessen och identitetsskapandet är konstant föränderligt utan definitivt slut. Empirimaterialet består av kvalitativa intervjuer med svenskar som livsstilsmigrerat till Phuket samt observationer i Patong och Kamala beach. Livsstilsmigration till värmen har pågått under flera årtionden men flödena av livsstilsmigranter till Thailand är relativt nya och lite forskning om dessa flöden har bedrivits.  Det svenska transnationella nätverket har byggt upp en infrastruktur på Phuket som tar sig form i en svensk grundskola, svenska kyrkan, lokaltidningar på svenska samt flertalet svenskägda hotell och restauranger som serverar skandinavisk mat. Svenskarna som intervjuades sade sig må bra och leva ett gott liv men vardagen kantas av oro för de visum- och bostadslagar som kan sätta käppar i hjulen för de som vill stanna i Thailand. Även om svenskarna tycker mycket bra om thailändare och uppskattar den goda service och de leenden de får så gör språksvårigheter att de är misstänksamma mot dem och hellre tyr sig till andra livsstilsmigranter.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Rutgers University, 2009. / "Graduate Program in German." Includes bibliographical references (p. 213-222).