Michel S. Laguerre

Refugees and Immigrants

During the past four decades, from the beginning of the dictatorial regime of Francois ‘Papa Doc’ Duvalier in 1957 to the end of the term of the first democratically elected president of the republic, Jean Bertrand Aristide, in 1996, tens of thousands of Haitians left the island and resettled in New York, Miami, Chicago, Boston, Los Angeles, Washington DC, New Orleans, and other American cities.

Parliament and Diaspora in Europe

Contents List of Tables Preface and Acknowledgments List of Abbreviations Introduction: A Parliament Reflective of the Nation and Its Diaspora Research for This Book Plan of the Book 1. Parliament and Diaspora The Cosmonational Parliament Model Conceptualizing Parliament and Diaspora in Theory Dual Citizenship Voting Rights and Voting Abroad Diaspora Parliamentary Representation Transnational Politics of Diaspora Parliamentary Representation Representing the Crossborder Nation or Cosmonation 2. Italy: Diaspora Parliamentary Representation Italian Politics and Diaspora Representation Crossborder Legal Regime Crossborder Support Structures Operational Performance Practices: Electoral Campaigns Party Distribution of Diaspora MPs Crossborder Occupational Travel Practices Representation Without Taxation External Constituency as Potential Swing Vote Transnational Jurisdictional Boundaries Parliamentarians of Italian Origin in Hostland Parliaments Diaspora, Homeland, and Ethnic Parliamentarians Hostlands and Diaspora Parliamentary Representation Conclusion 3. France: Diaspora Parliamentary Representation Background Literature Genealogy of the French Diaspora Parliamentary Representational Practice Diaspora Electoral College Senators of the Diaspora Electoral Campaigns Abroad Diaspora Senatorial Elections Travel Abroad Voting Abroad Taxation Information Technology Public Policy Conclusion 4. Croatia: Diaspora Parliamentary Representation Cosmonational Croatian Politics Parliament and the Transnational Question A State-Constructed Typology of the Diaspora Crossborder Legal Parameters Electoral Campaigns Voting Abroad and Election Outcomes Party Distribution of Diaspora Representatives Travel Abroad Taxation Parliamentary Debate on the Diaspora Representation Question Analytical Observations Transnational Parliament of the Cosmonation 5. The Cosmonational Politics of Diaspora Parliamentary Representation French Cosmonational Debate Over Diaspora Parliamentary Representation Eligibility Requirements Cosmonational Redistricting Politics Campaign Contents of Diaspora Parliamentary Candidates Voter Registration and Turnout Connecting with Constituencies Abroad Diaspora Parliamentarians and the Legislative Process Profile of Diaspora Voters Profile of Diaspora Parliamentary Candidates Diaspora Parliamentary Representation Beyond the Three Cosmonations 6. Conclusion: Parliament of the Cosmonation Diaspora Day of the Cosmonational Parliament Diaspora Day as Cosmonational Day Cosmonational Publicity A Day Par Excellence in the Life of the Cosmonation Concluding Remarks Notes References Index

Information technology and development: the Internet and the mobile phone in Haiti

This paper examines the ways in which the information technology (IT) sector has contributed to the growth of the Haitian economy. It pinpoints four areas in which the impact is most visible: (1) the employment that the growth of the IT industry generates in both the informal and formal sectors of the economy; (2) the sizable amount of taxes that it disburses to the coffers of the state; (3) the crucial communication services that it provides to the business community (e.g. banking); and (4) the remittances flows that it facilitates.

Virtual Time: The Processuality of the Cyberweek

Just as virtual space serves as one aspect of the infrastructure of the digital city and serves as the site of its characteristic social formations, virtual time rhythms the practices of the digital city’s inhabitants in ways related to, yet different from, the rhythms imposed by the temporal conventions of the real city. Virtuality thus requires a reconceptualization of time and the various units of the civil calendar—the day, week, month, and year. It requires a concept of virtual time, as distinguished from both so-called “real” or “objective” time and from the divisions of the civil and religious calendars.1 Here, to map out the sociological dimension of virtual time in the digital city, I select the virtual week as the unit of analysis—the cyberweek. Unlike the civil week, the cyberweek is characterized by what might be called “cybertiming” and “flextiming,” consequences of the ways in which computers have modified both when and where work and nonwork activities are carried out.

Urban poverty in the Caribbean : French Martinique as a social laboratory

List of Figures and Maps - List of Tables - Introduction - Urban Poverty and Social Reproduction - The Ecology of Urban Poverty - The Urban Household as a Multi-Product Firm - Domestic Workers - The Grocery Store as an Exploitative Niche - Savings Associations - Immigrant Households as Overseas Subsidiaries - Concluding Remarks - Bibliography - Index

The Multisite Nation

This chapter provides a brief exegesis of the multiple meanings of “multisite nation” and “nation reunification” in an effort to identify and specify the parameters of the object of study. Additionally, it discusses research methods used in the collection of data and singles out countries of origin of informants. The strategy was not to exclusively focus on a specific country and its immigrants, but rather to identify and select countries in various phases of cosmonationalization so that their varied experiences could enrich the scope of the investigation and provide a basis for comparative analysis.

Diasporic Globalization: Reframing the Local/Global Question

Because of the recent interest on the globalization process generated by global restructuring, the local as the site where this change occurs has emerged as a principal entity for study. Divergent opinions have developed that either downgrade the importance of the local and focus instead on flows, transnational social structures, and translocal spaces or that highlight the centrality of the local as a cause or as a result of globalization, thereby maintaining the traditional focus and emphasis on place as either container, process, or setting.4

The Digital Office

The previous chapter examined the local and global parameters of telecommuting as a social practice within the context of IT. This chapter shifts the focus to the nascent institution that supports such a practice. With the advent of IT, the traditional office, which has been the backbone of industry, government agencies, and the academy, is going through a momentous transformational change. While a good deal of empirically grounded literature exists on the traditional office, the evolving literature on the digital office or virtual office is more timid in its claims, partly because it is made up in large part of impressionistic, futuristic, and speculative pronouncements. It is not easy to make sense of a large amount of this literature because of the lack of empirical data and case studies pertaining to specific areas that could sway an interpretive analyst in one direction or another.

Conclusion: The Postdiaspora Condition

The Conclusion discusses the postdiaspora condition in its homeland, host land, and multisite contexts and explains why it is perceived differently when viewed from the perspectives of the homeland, host land, immigrant, or cosmonation, representing different scales of analysis. It interprets diaspora as a carrier of inequality because of the subaltern status it projects in its relation to the host land. In contrast, the chapter presents postdiaspora as emancipatory because of the equality dividend it projects. It then discusses the need to denaturalize diaspora subalternity, stressing that it is not intrinsic to the natural order of things. It further compares and contrasts diaspora and postdiaspora. Finally, it addresses the communal dimension of postdiaspora, the enactment of postdiaspora identity performances, the rise of postdiaspora consciousness, and the deployment of the postdiaspora condition.

The Cosmonational State

In Chapter 6, the deployment of the cosmonational state is studied in tandem with the rise of the postdiaspora condition, explaining how the former provides a context for the sustenance and flourishing of the latter. After reviewing literature on the interface of state and globalization, it discusses state remaking by way of the transformation of the nation-state into a cosmonational state. Then, it examines new metaphors developed that are reflective of the cosmonational state, identifies characteristics of the cosmonation-centric state, discusses the production of cosmonational laws, and shows how voting abroad is seen as a mechanism that symbolizes the extraterritorial expansion of the state. It goes on to explain how state administrative services provided exclusively to the inhabitants of the nation-state are now extended to the extraterritorial emigrant population. Additionally, this chapter explores the complexity of the governance of the cosmonational state and compares family reunification and nation reunification with cosmonational reunification.