David Scott FitzGerald

Beyond 'transnationalism': Mexican hometown politics at an American labour union

Abstract The controversial notion of “transnationalism” has generated new insights into international migrants’ on-going ties with their communities of origin, but its problematic conceptualization and vague usage in empirical studies needlessly inhibit the transnational perspective’s utility. Understanding the political and economic incorporation of migrants in both their communities of origin and destination is facilitated by disaggregating the types of political borders, types of nationalism, and levels of identification that have been conflated in the framework of “transnationalism”. I demonstrate the analytic value of these distinctions by using them to interpret evidence from a six-month ethnographic case study of an immigrant labour union in Southern California. A theoretically coherent typology applicable to both the case study and other migration settings provides a framework for explaining how institutions assimilate migrants into U.S. and local politics while simultaneously promoting cross-border ties.

Nationality and migration in modern Mexico

Scholarship on nationalism and the state has examined how immigration and nationality policy create boundaries of inclusion and exclusion. While a handful of countries of immigration have been analysed extensively, explanations of nationality law have not accounted adequately for countries of emigration. This papers historical analysis of Mexican nationality law and its congressional debate demonstrates that the ways the state has defined nationality at different periods cannot be attributed simply to demographic migration patterns or legacies of past understandings of ethnic or state-territorial nationhood, according to the expectations of received theory. The literatures focus on geopolitically stronger countries of immigration obscures the critical effects of inter-state politics on nationality law in subordinate states. Mexicos nationality laws reflect its experiences as a geopolitically weak country of immigration, despite a net out-migration of its population.

Colonies of the Little Motherland: Membership, Space, and Time in Mexican Migrant Hometown Associations

Comparative Studies in Society and History 2008;50(1):145 –169. 0010-4175/08

A Comparativist Manifesto for International Migration Studies

15.00 # 2008 Society for Comparative Study of Society and History DOI: 10.1017/S001041750800008X Colonies of the Little Motherland: Membership, Space, and Time in Mexican Migrant Hometown Associations D AV I D F I T Z G E R A L D Department of Sociology, University of California, San Diego The hometown associations (HTAs) formed by international migrants sharing a place of origin are considered the quintessential “transnational” institution linking migrants to family and townspeople who stayed behind. Scholars of transnationalism present HTAs as the expression of a new kind of “transna- tional community” or “transnational social field” that is redefining what it means to belong to a community by including people who are physically absent but who make their presence felt through regular visits and remittances and by sponsoring charity and development projects in their hometown. New transportation and communication technologies stretching the limits of space and time are said to be the driving forces that allow migrants to belong to a single community anchored in multiple, distant geographic localities. Such migrants transcend the old boundaries of territorial belonging that depended on a sedentary population, and call into question basic social scientific concepts like “citizenship,” “community,” “nation-state,” and “migration.” Even the most recent transnationalism literature, which has retreated from some earlier claims of novelty to rediscover transborder practices of older migrations, con- tinues to claim that new conceptions of membership are necessary to under- stand both new and older practices (Basch, Schiller, and Blanc 1994; Levitt 2001; Portes and Landolt 2002; Smith 2006). Yet the “transnational” hometown associations are simply an international version of what anthropologists and historians have long known as “migrant Acknowledgments: This research was generously supported by a Social Science Research Council International Dissertation Field Research Fellowship, a University of California MEXUS Doctoral ¨ du¨l Bozkurt, Dissertation Fellowship, and UCLA Latin American Center Small Grant. I thank O Rogers Brubaker, David Cook-Marti´n, Toma´s Jime´nez, Vikki Katz, Jose´ Moya, Roger Waldinger, and an anonymous CSSH reviewer for their comments on earlier drafts. Direct correspondence to David Fitzgerald, Department of Sociology, University of California at San Diego, 9500 Gilman Dr., La Jolla, CA, 92093-0533; dfitzgerald@ucsd.edu.

Liberalism and the Limits of Inclusion: Race and Immigration Law in the Americas, 1850–2000

Abstract Drawing on thirteen years of fieldwork among Mexican migrants in the United States and Mexico and comparisons of immigration policy throughout the Americas, this paper systematically elaborates the advantages and disadvantages of different kinds of multi-sited studies. A reformed logic of the Millian methods of agreement and difference takes into account the causal connections among the cases. I call for a ‘homeland dissimilation’ perspective and comparisons of internal and international migration as a way to take off the self-imposed national blinders that pre-determine many of the conclusions of the assimilation and even transnationalism literatures.

The role of visual markers in police victimization among structurally vulnerable persons in Tijuana, Mexico

Most scholars argue that the global triumph of liberal norms within the last 150 years ended discriminatory immigration policy. Yet, the United States was a leader in the spread of policy restrictions aimed at Asian migrants during the early twentieth century, and authoritarian Latin American regimes removed racial discrimination from their immigration laws a generation before the United States and Canada did. By the same token, critical theorists claim that racism has not diminished, but most states have removed their discriminatory laws, thus allowing significant ethnic transformation within their borders. An analysis of the immigration policies of the twenty-two major countries of the Americas since 1850 reveals that liberal states have been discriminatory precisely because of their liberalism and elucidates the diffusion of international legal norms of racial exclusion and inclusion.

Can you become one of us? A historical comparison of legal selection of ‘assimilable’ immigrants in Europe and the Americas

BACKGROUND Law enforcement can shape HIV risk behaviours and undermine strategies aimed at curbing HIV infection. Little is known about factors that increase vulnerability to police victimization in Mexico. This study identifies correlates of police or army victimization (i.e., harassment or assault) in the past 6 months among patients seeking care at a free clinic in Tijuana, Mexico. METHODS From January to May 2013, 601 patients attending a binational student-run free clinic completed an interviewer-administered questionnaire. Eligible participants were: (1) ≥18 years old; (2) seeking care at the clinic; and (3) spoke Spanish or English. Multivariate logistic regression analyses identified factors associated with police/army victimization in the past 6 months. RESULTS More than one-third (38%) of participants reported victimization by police/army officials in the past 6 months in Tijuana. In multivariate logistic regression analyses, males (adjusted odds ratio (AOR): 3.68; 95% CI: 2.19-6.19), tattooed persons (AOR: 1.56; 95% CI: 1.04-2.33) and those who injected drugs in the past 6 months (AOR: 2.11; 95% CI: 1.29-3.43) were significantly more likely to report past 6-month police/army victimization. Recent feelings of rejection (AOR: 3.80; 95% CI: 2.47-5.85) and being denied employment (AOR: 2.23; 95% CI: 1.50-3.32) were also independently associated with police/army victimization. CONCLUSION Structural interventions aimed at reducing stigma against vulnerable populations and increasing social incorporation may aid in reducing victimization events by police/army in Tijuana. Police education and training to reduce abusive policing practices may be warranted.

Culling the Masses: A Rejoinder

ABSTRACT Pre-arrival integration tests used by European countries suggest discriminatory measures subtly persist in immigration laws. This paper draws on a comparison across the Americas and Europe to identify and explain historical continuities and discontinuities in ‘assimilability’ admissions requirements. We attribute legal shifts at the turn of the twenty-first century to the institutionalised delegitimisation of biological racism and the rise of permanent settlement immigration to Europe. Efforts to reduce Muslim immigration largely motivate contemporary European policies, but these policies test putative individual capacity to integrate rather than inferring it from a racial group categorisation, as did historical precedents in the Americas.

The State and the Grassroots: Immigrant Transnational Organizations in Four Continents

This article was downloaded by: [University of California, San Diego] On: 26 April 2015, At: 07:27 Publisher: Routledge Informa Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registered office: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK Ethnic and Racial Studies Publication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rers20 Culling the Masses: A Rejoinder David Cook-Martin & David FitzGerald Published online: 22 Apr 2015. Click for updates To cite this article: David Cook-Martin & David FitzGerald (2015) Culling the Masses: A Rejoinder, Ethnic and Racial Studies, 38:8, 1319-1327, DOI: To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01419870.2015.1016076 PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE Taylor & Francis makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all the information (the “Content”) contained in the publications on our platform. However, Taylor & Francis, our agents, and our licensors make no representations or warranties whatsoever as to the accuracy, completeness, or suitability for any purpose of the Content. Any opinions and views expressed in this publication are the opinions and views of the authors, and are not the views of or endorsed by Taylor & Francis. The accuracy of the Content should not be relied upon and should be independently verified with primary sources of information. Taylor and Francis shall not be liable for any losses, actions, claims, proceedings, demands, costs, expenses, damages, and other liabilities

The Latino Threat: Constructing Immigrants, Citizens and the Nation

Reviews 779 Overall, their book breaks new ground on the topic of transnational policy networks, revealing how power works through these technocratic, expert-driven networks. Fast Policy is a brisk, engaging read, full of ana- lytically rich and empirically driven sub- stance that teaches us much about new experiments of statecraft, their lure and agendas as they travel, and the tensions which arise as they confront the structural inequities that they are often designed to mask or ignore. The State and the Grassroots: Immigrant Transnational Organizations in Four Continents, by Alejandro Portes and Patricia Ferna´ndez-Kelly, eds. New York: Berghahn Books, 2015. 338 pp.