Transnational Communities- not your grandfather’s diaspora -
Alvaro LimaOutubro , 2014
AGENDA:
I. Immigration Studies – A Brief Background
II. What is Immigrant Transnationalism?
III. Drivers of Transnationalism
IV. Traditional versus Transnational Lenses
V.Some Implications of Transnationalism
VI. Measuring Transnationalism
VII. Transnational Entrepreneurship – A New Research Front
VIII. Transnational Innovation Portfolio
Traditionally migration studies have been concerned with understanding the origins and the impact of cross-borer flows;
These flows have been understood mostly as a one way movement from sending countries to receiving countries;
Immigration policies have been almost entirely focused on procedures and prohibitions governing admissions (who? how many? and what kind of immigrants should be admitted?).
Immigration Studies – A Brief Background
ADMISSION: Who? How
many? What kind?
There is a widespread belief that migration is caused by poverty, economic stagnation, and overpopulation in the countries of origin unrelated to receiving countries’ foreign policies, economic needs and broader international economic conditions;
While overpopulation, poverty, and economic stagnation all create pressures for migration, there are systematic, structural relations between receiving countries’ policies and migration flows with worldwide evidence of a considerable patterning in the geography of migrations.
poverty
stagnation
overpopulation
etc… WHY?
CountryTotal
Population (millions)
Population from
Developing Countries (millions)
Percent of Total
Population
Top Five Source
Countries (percent of
total)
Top Five Source Countries
United States
Spain
France
UK
Netherlands
Portugal
Japan
281.4
40.8
58.5
58.8
16.0
10.4
127
28.4
1.5
3.7
3.0
1.2
0.5
1.2
10.1
3.7
6.4
5.1
7.6
4.5
1.0
45.2
44.2
20.4
30.1
48.6
62.8
69.6
Mexico, Philippines, Puerto Rico, India, China
Morocco, Ecuador, Colombia, Argentina, Venezuela
Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Turkey, Vietnam
India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Jamaica, South Africa
Suriname, Turkey, Indonesia, Morocco, Netherlands Antilles
Angola, Mozambique, Brazil, Cape Verde, Venezuela
North Korea, South Korea, China, Brazil, Philippines
Foreign-Born Population of Rich OECD Countries from Developing Countries
Source: Let Their People Come, Lant Pritchett, 2006
Immigrant integration policies (education, training, placement, ESOL, health care, entrepreneurship, citizenship, etc..) are skeletal, ad hoc, under-funded and dominated by the ideology of assimilation – the great melting pot of nations;
labor market
language acquisition
housingeducation
etc…
As Nathan Glazer puts it, “the settlement, adaptation, and progress, or lack of it, of immigrants is largely, in the U.S. context, up to them.”
Re-integration policies for those returning are generally inexistent making the re-settlement process prone to failure feeding back emigration:
labor market
housing
education
etc…
Regular, frequent engagement in economic, political and socio-cultural activities in both countries:
What is “Immigrant Transnationalism” ?
Drivers of Transnationalism
Developments in the means of transportation and communications have changed the relations between people and places (costs);
International migrations have become crucial to the demographic future of many developed countries;
Global political transformations and new international legal regimes weakened the state as the only legitimate source of rights;
Fostered by global consumption, production, and immigration, cultural hybridization are substituting folkloric romanticism and political nationalism enshrined as essences of national cultures;
10
Traditional Lenses:
immigration conceptualized as a bipolar relation between sending and receiving countries (moving from there to here)
emigration is the result of individual search for economic opportunity, political freedom, etc.
migrants are assumed to be the poorest of the poor
immigrants occupy low-skilled jobs in agriculture, construction, and manufacturing
Immigrants steadily shift their contextual focus, economic and social activities to receiving country
immigration should not bring about significant change in the receiving society
Transnational Lenses:
immigration conceptualized as flows of cross-border economic, political and social-cultural activities (being here and there)
emigration is the result of geopolitical interests, global linkages, and economic globalization
migrants are not the poorest of the poor nor do they come from the poorest nations
growth in the service and technology-based jobs create opportunities for low as well as high skilled migrants
After the initial movement, migrants continue to maintain ties with their country of origin
immigration creates hybrid societies with a richer cultural milieu
Traditional versus Transnational Lenses
Some Implications of Transnationalism
Portability becomes crucial for transnational migrants – education and certification processes; investment and retirement schemes, health insurance, etc.;
The concept of “community,” “society,” as well as “the local,” must be redefined as space of flows (relationships), pluri-local and nation-state-boarder spanning, instead of bounded geographic places – geographic and social container spaces;
Transnational immigrant entrepreneurs’ contributions to the economy have to be recognized as such and not as just “ethnic;”
Nation-state ideals of identity in both sending and receiving countries are challenged by transnational practices – double citizenship;
States must re-conceive immigration and adapt their policies and practices to accommodate transnational realities;
Measuring Transnationalism
The Six Ts of Transnationalism
Source: Transnational Engagement, Remittances and their Relationship to Development in Latin America and the Caribbean, Institute for the Study of International Migration, Georgetown University, Manuel Orozco, Principal Investigator, 2003.
$875
$398
$331
$218
$-
$100
$200
$300
$400
$500
$600
$700
$800
$900
Brazil
EcuadorMéxico
Guatemala
Guyana
Dominican R.
Colombia
Nicaragua
El Salvador
HondurasCuba
Monthly Remittance by Nationality
$278 $274
$192 $188 $185 $177
$113
ABOVE AVERAGE
BELOW AVERAGE
AVERAGE = $294
45.4%
20.5%17.8%
5.1% 4.9% 3.7%1.6% 0.8% 0.2%
0.0%
5.0%
10.0%
15.0%
20.0%
25.0%
30.0%
35.0%
40.0%
45.0%
50.0%
Foods and spices
Videos, DVDs, C
Ds
Clothing
Newspapers/magazines
Books
Alcohol
Cigarettes
Craft Items
Others
Purchasing of Nostalgic Products Among Brazilians
37.6%
28.9%26.0%
5.5%
1.6%0.3%
0.0%
5.0%
10.0%
15.0%
20.0%
25.0%
30.0%
35.0%
40.0%
Does nothave / NR
Checkingaccount
Savingsaccount
Credit card Investmentaccount
Foreigncurrencysavings
Financial Accounts in Country of Origin - Brazil
MEASURING TRANSNATIONALIS
M
46.6%
36.80%
27.0%
22.7%20.0%
15.3%14.0%
10.3% 9.1%
5.7%3.7%
0.0%
5.0%
10.0%
15.0%
20.0%
25.0%
30.0%
35.0%
40.0%
45.0%
50.0%
GuyanaBrazil
Ecuador
Honduras
Colombia
Nicaragua
Dominican R.
MéxicoCuba
El Salvador
Guatemala
Help Beyond Remittances
AVERAGE = 19.2%
ABOVE AVERAGE
BELOW AVERAGE
14
26.3%
12.4%
10.0%
6.7%5.0%
4.0% 3.5% 3.3% 2.8% 2.4%
0.0%0.0%
5.0%
10.0%
15.0%
20.0%
25.0%
30.0%
GuyanaBrazil
Ecuador
Honduras
Colombia
Nicaragua
Mexico
Dominican R.
Guatemala
El Salvador
Cuba
Support of Hometown Associations
AVERAGE = 6.7%
ABOVE AVERAGE
BELOW AVERAGE
MEASURING TRANSNATIONALIS
M
MEASURING TRANSNATIONALIS
M
Transnational entrepreneurship “Keeping Feet in Both Worlds”
“…the many social connections and organizations that tie migrants and non-migrants to one another create a border-spanning arena that enables migrants, if they choose, to remain active in both worlds…”
Transnational entrepreneurs have played an important role in facilitating international trade, investment, and “diaspora tourism;”
There is a remarkable disparity between the dynamism of transnational enterprises and governmental misunderstanding or ignorance of the phenomenon;
Transnational entrepreneurs are a heterogeneous group coming from many countries, crossing ethnic, immigrant, and minority boundaries, and possessing different motivations and experiences:
The current market capitalization of publicly traded immigrant-founded venture-backed companies in the United States exceeds $500 billion, adding significant value to the American economy.
About 50% of Indian and Chinese entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley “have set up subsidiaries, joint ventures, subcontracting, or other operations in their native countries” (Saxenian, Mtoyama, & Quan, 2002:37);
For instance, 39% of the 289 companies located at the Hsinchu science-based industrial park near Taipei were started by U.S.-educated Taiwanese engineers with professional experience in Silicon Valley. Seventy of the firms maintain offices in Silicon Valley to obtain workers, technology, capital, and business opportunities;
Likewise, India’s technology-oriented diaspora stand behind much of the FDI in the country’s emerging technology hubs of Bangalore and Hyderabad;
About 60% of Hispanic immigrant entrepreneurs in the U.S. are transnational (Portes, Haller, & Guarnizo, 2002);
Migrant-founded venture-backed public companies today employ an estimated 220,000 people in the United States and over 400,000 people globally.
Preliminary research suggests 4 distinct types of immigrant transnational enterprises (Landolt et. al. 1999):
Circuit firms - involved in the transfer of goods and remittances across countries ranging from an array of informal international couriers to large formal firms;
Cultural enterprises - rely on their daily contacts with the home country and depend on the desire of immigrants to acquire and consume cultural goods from their country such as shows, CDs, newspapers, videos, etc.;
Ethnic Enterprises - are small retail firms catering to the immigrant community which depend on a steady supply of imported goods, such as foodstuffs and clothing from the home country;
Return migrant enterprises - are firms established by returnees that rely on their contacts in the United States. They include restaurants, video stores, auto sales and repairs, office supplies, etc.;
Transnational entrepreneurs do better economically than their waged co-ethnics and pure local immigrant entrepreneurs (Portes and Zhou 1999; Logan, Alba, and McNulty 1994; Wilson and Martin 1982):
Activities Linking Immigrants to Their Home Countries by Type of Economic Adaptation
Activity
Employee/ Wage Worker
%
Ethnic Entrepreneur
%
Transnational Entrepreneur
%
Imports Goods from Abroad 8.2 9.9 31.9 Exports Goods 6.5 8.9 18.1
Invests in Business in Home Country 5.9 11.7 26.4
Invests in Real Estate in Home Country 20.7 28.2 41.9
Has Been an International Courier 10.1 8.3 23.6
Hires at Least One Employee in Home Country 0 30.8 42.2
Frequency of Business Travel Abroad:
At least twice per year 7.1 17.3 28.4 Six times or more per year 0.9 6.1 14.6 Source: CIEP, 1998
Source: The Comparative Immigrant Entrepreneurship Project (CIEP); Center for Migration and Development (CMD); Princeton University.
Ethnic Entrepreneur (% )
Transnational Entrepreneur (% )
Some Implications of Transnational Entrepreneurship:
Transnational entrepreneurship is a promising form of integration;
Transnational integration and transnational entrepreneurship are highly relevant to modern workings of global and gateway cities;
Transnational integration and transnational entrepreneurship provide opportunities for business, social entrepreneurs, and governments;
Finally, the model presented can be generalized to include ethnic and non-ethnic forms of social settlement and connections spanning multiple borders.
Transnational platform
New Possibilities – Transnational Platform(s)
Transnational platform
First Generation Innovation Portfolio
Digaai.com
Transnational Index
Diaspora Capital Services
Educational Delivery & Partnership Models
Health Care Management & Insurance Provision
Social Security
Political Representation
itBrazil
Japan
United States
Portugal
Angola
Spain
Paraguay
Brazilian Transnational Community
Digaai Transnational Platform
capture everyday life practices
capture social practices
capture economic activity
(PHASE I)
SEARCH AGGREGATE ARCHIVE CURATE
PHASE II
DATAVERSE
…
SLIDESHARE
…
it
Brazilian Transnational Community
capture everyday life practices
capture social practices
capture economic activity
(PHASE I)
SEARCH AGGREGATE ARCHIVE CURATE
(PHASE II)
MASHUPS JOURNALING TAGGCLOUDS …
Gen
eral
Mod
el
Transnational Platform Model
WIKI
…
DATAHUB
…
DATAVERSE
…
SLIDESHARE
…
Conectando brasileiros mundo afora
www.digaai.com
http://exaptive.com/
Data visualization of Brazilian Immigrant newspapers
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