The politics of cross-border engagement: Mexican emigrants and the Mexican state

Reacting to migrants’ many, ongoing involvements with their home communities, sending states have increasingly adopted policies designed to resolve the problems of citizens living abroad and to respond to expatriates’ search for engagement, doing so in ways that best meet home state leaders’ goals. This article seeks to understand the factors shaping this interaction between sending states and emigrants abroad by studying two contrasting aspects of the Mexican experience—expatriate voting, a relatively new development, and provision of the matrícula consular, a long-standing component of traditional consular services, though one that has recently been transformed. Focusing on the complex set of interactions linking migrants, sending states, and receiving states, the article identifies the key differences and similarities between these two policies. Both policies suffered from a capacity deficit inherent in sending state efforts to connect with nationals living in a territory that the home country cannot control; both also generated conflict over membership and rights. Nonetheless, Mexico’s efforts to resolve the immigrants’ identification problems in the receiving society proved useful to millions; by contrast, a tiny proportion of emigrants took advantage of the first opportunity to vote from abroad. These diverging experiences demonstrate that sending states can exercise influence when intervening on the receiving society side, where the embeddedness of the immigrant population provides a source of leverage. By contrast, the search to re-engage the emigrants back home encounters greater difficulties and yields poorer results, as the emigrants’ extra-territorial status impedes the effort to sustain the connection to the people and places left behind. In the end, the article shows that extension to the territory of another state yields far more constraints than those found on home soil as well as unpredictable reactions from receiving states and their peoples, not to speak of nationals who no longer perceive the migrants as full members of the society they left.     

The Past is Ever Present: Transnationalism Old and New – Italian and Mexican Immigrants in the US

The paper focuses on what is old and what is new in transnationalism by analyzing extraterritorial attempts of the Italian and Mexican governments. During the large southern/ eastern European immigration to the US from 1890 to the 1920s, Italian immigrants reached 24 percent of the immigrant wave. Mexican documented and undocumented immigrants from the 1980s until 2010s made up 30 percent of the immigrant wave almost a century later. Transnational immigrants live in a country in which they do not claim citizenship rights and claim citizenship rights in a country they do not live in. Therefore migration and immigrant policies challenge both sending and receiving states. Foreign governments are limited in the policies and practices that they can enforce. A comparison of state policies from Italy and Mexico challenges the fact that transnationalism is significantly different and new.     

How to Reverse the Italian Brain Drain: A Master Class from Australia

This article discusses the limits of Italian immigration policies and their effects on the Italian market of highly skilled individuals. Italian statutory provisions aimed at regulating immigration focus on limiting immigration without a reasoned distinction being made between skilled and unskilled immigrants. The first part of the article argues that a combination of historical and sociological factors makes Italy uncompetitive in the global market of highly skilled individuals. The second part suggests two pilot schemes for policies that might help in addressing the issue. First, the introduction of a medium‐/long‐term visa for highly skilled individuals, and second, the establishment of private multinational universities modelled on the European Institute (EI) in Florence. These new institutions would open up the academic job market to overseas researchers and, at the same time, would provide a more solid base for the retrieval of Italian academics working abroad.     

Competing for Lebanon's Diaspora: Transnationalism and Domestic Struggles in a Weak State

Just as state strength influences relationships between state and society and among social forces within a national territory, so does it shape relationships between states and their emigrants and diasporas across territorial borders. Scholars debate how transnational migration affirms or challenges the dominance of the nation‐state. When sending states are weak, however, diaspora–homeland linkages can undermine the role of the state in a way that is not transformative, but sustaining of the status quo. Examining Lebanon, this paper explores how domestic actors extend their struggles to vie over and through kin abroad. Three realms of competition are paramount: demography, votes, and money. The resulting transnational outreach reproduces a politics in which both expatriates and the state function as resources as much as actors.     

Youth,Mobility, and the Emotional Burdens of youxue (Travel and Study): A Case Study of Chinese Students in Italy

Based on fieldwork in China and Italy, this article examines the affective dimension of middle-class Chinese students’ youxue (travel and study) practices in Italy. With the liberalization of state policy in China’s self-funded study abroad market and the proliferation of educational intermediaries, youxue has become a special type of educational consumption that caters to the middle-class Chinese family’s desire for transnational mobility and cosmopolitan life styles. The blurring of the line between travel and study points to the open-ended and multi-linear nature of transnational student mobility. However, due to the limitations and pitfalls in international education policies in both the sending and the receiving countries, Chinese students’ youxue experiences in Italy are marked by notable contradictions between mobility and immobility, hopes and frustrations, self-appreciation and self-reproach.     

The Implementation of Voting from Abroad: Evidence from the 2014 Turkish Presidential Election

Voting from abroad (VFA) is a complex norm and practice due to the multilevel processes, structures and actors involved. This article explores the reasons behind the eventual adoption of this practice within the context of a long and well‐known history of emigration in Turkey. During the 2014 Turkish presidential election, emigrants from Turkey were finally allowed to participate from abroad even though legislation giving them this right has been in place since 1995. Based on archival research and fieldwork in Germany and the United States, this article discusses the varying relevance of three central explanatory factors to the implementation of VFA: emigrant lobbying, the electoral expectations of potential benefit by the governing party, and the presence of broader, state‐led diaspora engagement policies. The first of these is important but insufficient, whereas the second factor is necessary. Moreover, the presence of broader, state‐led diaspora engagement policies is a mediating factor. This article finds that specific actors like political parties may play the crucial role, highlighting the need for critical examination of their role in the implementation process.     

From Limited to Active Engagement: Mexico’s Emigration Policies from a Foreign Policy Perspective (2000–2006)

Mexico’s emigration policies – including the state’s engagement with the diaspora, the discourse in relation to emigrants, the responses to U.S. migration policies and legislation, and the priority given to the issue in the national and bilateral agendas – have undergone a process of transformation since the late 1980s and particularly after 2000. From a history of generally limited engagement in terms of responding to U.S. policies and a traditional interpretation of consular protection activities, Mexico has gradually developed more active policies in relation to the diaspora and began a process of redefining its position on emigration. In addition to the processes of political change in Mexico and the growing impact of migrants’ transnational activities, changes in Mexico’s emigration policies are also a result of transformations in foreign policy principles and strategies, mainly as a result of the evolution of U.S.‐Mexico relations since the late 1980s and particularly since NAFTA. These findings demonstrate the significance of international factors – namely host state – sending state relations and foreign policy interests, discourse, and traditions – in the design and implementation of migration policies and the need to develop multi‐level analyses to explain states’ objectives, interests, and capacities in the management of migration.     

National Narratives and Migration: Discursive Strategies of Inclusion and Exclusion in Jordan and Lebanon

National narratives play a key role in state consolidation and identity construction. This article proposes four factors that may affect how a regime chooses to portray the role of migrants and migration in official historical narratives: the relationship of emigrants to the colonial versus the post-independence state; the relationship between migration and sending state economic development; and the relationship between migrants and the home state elite – either benign neglect or instrumentalization. Taking Jordan and Lebanon as cases, the presentation examines school textbooks as key sources of the national narrative to discern their treatment of major population movements. It concludes with an evaluation of the four factors, finding greatest support for that of instrumentalization.     

An American Wordless Picturebook in Italian Classrooms: Inspiring Global Connections of People,Places, and Environments

What happens when five teacher candidates and their professor bring a wordless picturebook into Italian classrooms? This article presents a grounded discussion of our immersive experiences from the United States and the minilessons they taught stemming from a piece of children's literature through our study abroad program in Italy. The opening of Italian classroom doors provided reflective observations of the critical and creative thinking processes of more than 200 Italian students (ages 7–16). We (one professor and five early childhood and special education teacher candidates) taught minilessons in five Italian schools during a monthlong study abroad program offered by our university (further described in Author 1, 2017). Although this project was conducted in Italy, we have since used this minilesson successfully in our own classes, and we invite you to adapt our use to fit your teaching.     

Diasporic Memberships in Historical Perspective: Comparative Insights from the Mexican,Italian and Polish Cases1

This article compares the evolution of diaspora‐sending state relations for Mexico, Italy, and more briefly, Poland during their peak periods of out migration. I argue that sending‐state diaspora relations evolve through the state's changing relations with the global system, their domestic politics, and migrants' ability to act politically with respect to the homeland. This research shows the state helping to create diasporic or transnational space. It also contributes to the analytical work of fleshin out examples of transnational life in history, and examines a case (the Polish one) where the global system and other conditions combine to overwhelm transnational life.     

Back to the South: Social and Political Aspects of Latin American Migration to Southern Europe

When migration from the Latin American and Caribbean countries to Europe is studied, a preferential stream can be noted towards southern Europe. There would also appear to have been a remarkable growth in the volume of flows in this direction in recent years. The flows themselves vary: in the case of Spain, nationals from Ecuador, Colombia, Peru and Argentina predominate; Portugal is the recipient of Brazilians; and Italy mainly plays host to nationals from Peru and Ecuador. These flows reveal the importance of various factors: economic push and pull mechanisms; the former presence in the region of Spain and Portugal as erstwhile colonial powers; the earlier waves of emigrants in that direction from Spain, Portugal and Italy; a relatively more favourable social reception; and political initiatives that favour the new sending countries. In other words, economic gaps, former historical links, cultural and linguistic affinities, family ties and diplomatic channels suggest that a special route exists for migrants from Latin America. The topics that will be expanded upon in this paper include the factors explaining recent immigration to southern Europe; the economic incorporation of immigrants; the social framework of flows, including reactions from local populations; and the tentative and multiple policy responses to immigration. Conclusions indicate that the potential for movements from Latin America, resulting from both previous and current links, has proved to be a favourable response to the need for immigrant workers in the case of southern European societies. Despite the familiar path (albeit in the reverse direction), the economic incorporation of immigrants has mainly occurred in the low‐ranking jobs, as was the case with other inflows. This stemmed from market needs, state failures and the importance of the family. However, given the numerous links between Latin America and southern Europe, the social and policy responses adopted towards these immigrants seem to have been more beneficial than towards other groups.     

历史文化名城保护呼唤“理性回归”

进入21世纪,中国历史文化名城、古城的保护要实现理性回归,并使保护形成一种真正地传承和发展民族、地方文化的观念,深入到政府和百姓的心中,除了要消除模糊的认识和误区外,更要有政策引导和法律保障,有必要从法律层面进行一系列的制度建设,要更多地学习国外经验,发动和启示更广泛的民间公众力量参与,使弘扬和保护成为中国民众的一种文化自觉,在中国创造一个历史文化名城、古城保护的全民化时代。     

The framing of return from above and below in Ecuadorian migration: a project,a myth,or a political device?

Although return migration is a significant topic in current policy, the competing interests of sending and destination countries in promoting it and the prospects of making return strategies ‘from above’ a viable and desirable option for migrants are relatively neglected topics. In this article, I explore the distinct agendas, meanings and expectations underlying the prospects of return migration from Ecuador to Italy. I approach this recent migration flow through ethnography and an institutional analysis of the policy strategies and discourses emerging in the source country. The Ecuadorian government has recently developed a Plan Retorno aimed at facilitating emigrants’ return and economic reintegration. The narratives of Ecuadorian migrants generally reveal a deep‐rooted expectation to return home. While initially hoping to return home ‘soon’, however, migrants systematically tend to postpone their homecoming. When it does take place in the short term, it is likely to be through migration ‘failure’ rather than an actual accomplishment of their earlier objectives. Given the distinct interests and expectations driving them, it is possible to assess the relationship between the two approaches to return. I conclude that return migration, irrespective of its actual accomplishment, is relevant to a better understanding of emigrant policies and of immigrant life trajectories overseas.     

Speaking French in Portugal: An analysis of contested models of emigrant personhood in narratives about return migration and language use

I address how the offspring of Portuguese emigrants in France, Luso‐descendants (LDs), interpret their language practices and identities relative to models of language and personhood from their ‘sending’ society. Specifically, I examine how LDs tell each other narratives about having been identified as an emigrant in Portugal, based on French‐influenced speech. In telling each other these stories, LDs position themselves relative to two models of language and personhood. The first diasporic model interprets LDs' French as willful abandonment of an essential Portuguese identity. The second transnational model interprets LDs' French as the legitimate result of extended residence abroad. I examine how participants explicitly and/or implicitly invoke both models, through the relationship between narrating and narrated participants' language use. I conclude by asking about LDs' awareness of their simultaneous adherence to multiple models of language and identity.     

The digitization of diaspora engagement: managing extraterritorial talent using the internet

In this article, I examine how the government of the People's Republic of China (PRC) seeks to manage its skilled emigrants in the information age; I investigate the rationales, techniques and imageries underlying the use of the internet by the state. For the research, I used interviews, participant observation and documentary analysis to explore the case of London‐based Chinese professionals and their contacts with the PRC government. The findings demonstrate that two modes of internet use mainly manage these skilled emigrants. First, digitized diasporic associations play a key role in brokering the influences of the government among the diaspora. Second, the PRC government has set up websites to collect and manage information on skilled emigrants pertaining to their labour market potential. A nationalistic discourse of a caring and protective state of origin surround both governing practices. Nevertheless, some emigrants resist these internet‐mediated governing practices, through distrust and a calculated rationality underscored by a neoliberal logic.     

New Chinese Migrants in Italy

Italy joined the group of European nations with a positive migratory balance in 1980, but now the presence of an immigrant workforce is definitely embedded in the Italian development model. The shift from a net emigration to net immigration country occurred when the internal migration from southern Italy, which had provided the factories in northern Italy with the necessary manpower for their economic development, was coming to an end, and productive decentralization was beginning with the re‐emergence of small businesses. Twenty years later, small dynamic businesses that are mainly clustered in industrial districts specializing in local production are a distinctive feature of the Italian economy to the extent that among industrialized countries Italy counts the largest number of small businesses and the lowest number of employees per business (Accornero, 2000). Starting from the 1980s, opportunities for a low‐skilled labour force opened for new migrants mainly in these productive activities. In addition, throughout the 1980s and the 1990s niche opportunities for self‐employment in workshops producing for Italian suppliers were also appearing or expanding. Among other migrant groups arriving in Italy were those of Chinese origin. The crucial time for the recent migration flow from China to Italy — either directly or via other European countries, such as France and Holland — can be dated from the early 1980s. Since then, a succession of unskilled workers originating almost exclusively from the south‐eastern Chinese province of Zhejiang arrived in the country, after the family‐based chains of emigration that had almost come to a halt during the years of the Cultural Revolution had again been revitalized. The number of immigrants of Chinese origin has grown rapidly over the last 20 years, as has the number of businesses owned by the Chinese. By today, the Chinese migrant community shows the strongest entrepreneurial aptitude, and, according to recent national data, account for the largest number of small business owners among non‐European Union (EU) immigrants in Italy. Unlike the situation in most of the western European countries, such as Great Britain and the Netherlands, where the Chinese are active mainly in the catering service, in Italy their main areas of activity are the production of ready‐to‐wear garments, leather garments and bags, and woollen sweaters. Until recently, these seemed to be the only productive sectors open to Chinese immigrants. However, new trends are emerging in the employment patterns of the Chinese in Italy. The two most striking new features are the expansion from performing only simple manufacturing tasks for Italian suppliers to actually managing the entire productive process in the garment sector, and the growing employment in Italian firms, especially in the dynamic industrial districts where migrants of other origins were already working in large numbers.     

‘Does your granny eat grass?’ On mass migration,care drain and the fate of older people in rural Albania

Older people have been the main social casualties of the collapse of the Albanian communist system and the ensuing mass emigration of younger generations since 1990. Some have had to forage for survival on a near‐starvation diet, making broth from grass and weeds. For others, remittances from emigrant children ensure adequate material well‐being, but a loss of locally‐based trans‐generational care and of intimate family relations occurs. Rates of emigration have been highest in the southern uplands, where our fieldwork took place. Migration has been mainly to Greece, but also to Italy and elsewhere. Interviews with elderly ‘residual households’ ‐ single people and couples ‐ reveal stories of loneliness and abandonment; cross‐generational rupture of hitherto tight family structures is seen as emotionally painful because of the impossibility of enjoying mutual benefits of care sustained by geographical proximity. Profoundly upsetting is the denial of the practice of grand‐parenting, which the older generation see as their raison d'être. Cost of travel, visa regimes and emigrants’ irregular status conspire to prevent international visits. Finally, we examine various strategies of overcoming the ‘care drain’ produced by this situation, one of which is for older people to try to join their migrant children and grandchildren abroad.     

Beyond Guilt and Stigma: Changing Attitudes among Israeli Migrants in Canada

Over 60 years ago, the Jewish nationalist movement known as Zionism culminated in the creation of the State of Israel. Millions of Jews immigrated to Israel over the twentieth century, a process known as aliya (literally, “going up”). Yet over the years, thousands of Israelis have also chosen to leave Israel in a movement termed yerida (“going down”). As the term suggests, this reverse migration has been highly stigmatized. During the 1960s and 1970s, emigrants were publicly disparaged in the Israeli media for having abandoned a struggling state. Consequently, Israeli migrants suffered strong feelings of guilt that often, hampered their integration process abroad, a phenomenon observed as late as the 1990s. This paper, however, reveals that feelings of stigmatization have greatly decreased among Israeli migrants in recent years. The study is based on research that I conducted in 2008–2009, involving nine months of participant observation in Vancouver’s Israeli community and 34 in‐depth interviews. Unlike in previous studies, most of my informants expressed no feelings of guilt over having left Israel. Of those who did, most framed their guilt as a longing for family and friends rather than the patriotic longing for the land as expressed by previous generations. Previous studies have also found that Israelis harbour a “myth of return”– a continuously expressed desire to return to Israel and a reluctance to accept their stay abroad as permanent. However, I have not found that the myth of return is still strong today, despite the continued prevalence of a strong sense of Israeli identity among Israelis abroad. I suggest that these changing attitudes are the product of shifting ideals in Israeli society that have developed as the state of Israel has matured. This paper thus serves to update the outdated image of Israeli migrants as it exists in the prevailing literature.     

Recent Trends of Emigration from China: 1982–2000

Using data from several Chinese censuses and surveys, we provide a new perspective for the study of international migration. Focusing on the trends of international migration from China and Fujian province between 1982 and 2000, several findings emerge. First, Fujian and Yunnan provinces became the leading immigrant‐sending provinces in China by 2000. Second, changes in socio‐economic selectivity among emigrants from Fujian province from 1990 to 1995 are also clearly revealed in our analysis. The shift from urbanites to rural peasants among the emigrant population is particularly noteworthy. Third, in the context of Fujian province, factors such as age, education, rural/urban status, and occupation (especially the service sector) are the most important predictors of emigration. The paper ends with a discussion of the prospects of assimilation of Fujianese immigrants in destination societies.     

The passage,settlement, and occupational characteristics of Louisiana's Italian immigrants

This paper explores the general pattern of Italian immigration to Louisiana and describes the occupational attributes of the immigrants in five settlements in the state. The data indicate that unlike the national scene Italian immigration to Louisiana peaked before the 20th century and drew immigrants mainly from Sicily. The great majority of these immigrants were recruited for work on the sugar plantations of southern Louisiana. However, in New Orleans the majority soon became small merchants involved in every aspect of the food industry. This comparatively rapid entrance of Sicilian peasants into the lower ranks of the middle class is explained by the size of the immigrant population, by their distinctive cultural values and social experiences in southern Italy and Sicily, by the custom of gambling, and by the friendly compatability of the host culture in southern Louisiana. Also, tight incontestable family loyalties, hard work, and the custom of thrift made it possible for these economic individualists to make their niche in the social and economic life of Louisiana.