Mohamed Mohamed
The article “Theorizing Transnational Migration” is essentially a debate on trans migrants, who the article says “are immigrants whose daily lives depend on multiple and constant interconnections across international borders and whose public identities are configured in relationship to more than one nation-state.” The article then looks at how the United States has reacted to these trans migrants politically in which the article seems to suggest US policies are making it difficult for the allegiances and loyalties of trans migrants.
Today, migrants remain to share strong ties with their home communities therefore producing a divide of loyalty between two societies. Previously though, the idea of assimilation was a strategy to prevent this divide in loyalty by making immigrants forgets about their ties with home communities. Moreover, the article mentions how transnational connections have inspired political change to home societies, giving the example of Haitians and Filipinos communities in the US (Page 58). Finally, at the end the article reads, “This particular emphasis on categories of legality has a dual thrust. The debate is as much about confining immigrant loyalties to the U.S. as it is about reducing the flow of immigration.” Which shows the US political response in dealing with immigrants.
The “Black is the Color Of the Cosmos” on the other hand speaks about black people’s complex identity. The article speaks about the Black diaspora and how the modern factors associated are Atlantic slave trade and colonialism. The article continues to compare different types of people of African descent and how different they have become due to the Black diaspora.
Finally I would like to share a quick reflection on Brown Girl, Brownstones. What I found most fascinating about the novel was the great influence society and where one comes from has on one’s identity. Selina has tried, through rebellious action, to find an identity that was strange to her origin but at the end she failed. The racism of Margaret’s mother was Selina’s way of figuring out that there was no escape from cultural identity. That people will always categorize you based on the nature of your appearance and label you with an identity based on that category. It is almost impossible, as Selina found out, to label yourself with an identity that is unique to you and that society will accept.
