Foner’s “West Indian Migration to NY: An Overview” gives a broad range of topics that we have been discussing throughout the course. She first assesses the Caribbean population’s large influence over the city and their transnational nature. She distinguishes them from American or other ethnic blacks, and focuses mainly on Anglo-Caribbean peoples, which she includes Guyana and Belize. She then starts to analyze the economic/political situation in the Caribbean that lead into its transnational lifestyle. Basically, she describes the diaspora of immigrants who came to NY for better economic opportunities while maintaining ties to the homeland through trust networks. These ties are maintained through emerging communication/travel technology, which help communication, relationship, economic, and family problems. Another result is the spreading political influence globally, as Caribbean in NY participate and decide political issues within America and their homeland. But with transnationalism also comes with a sense of heightened nationalism and racial segregation as it focusing on differentiating people based on shared identity of language, culture, religion, and the sense of home. She also shows the diaspora’s marginalization as Caribbean people struggle as blacks within an existing black and stratified population.
Olwig’s “New York as a Locality in a Global Family Network” examines the often over looked sides of transnational migration by recording a Jamaican family’s progression internationally over multiple generations. She also states how New York acts as a hub for this globally spread population. Her theory challenges previous theories of assimilation and trans-nationalism as a more linear process. The Jamaican family has members in Jamaica, Britain, America, and Canada. They keep in touch through trust networks, sending children to Jamaica or jeans to Britain. They originally lived in Harlem and would move to various parts of Brooklyn. They have an Afro-European background and have, on average, lighter skin, so in America they usually tried to live in white, middle class communities, in which they did experience racism. However, when they move, the community would soon become more black and the family also felt uncomfortable. After two generations of NYC acting as the locality, the family began to disperse and NYC was no longer the hub. Family had moved back to Jamaica to build a hotel, went to Britain, went to other parts of the United States for job opportunities, or married a Canadian. This story shows how multi-faceted transnational can be, not just linear processes.
Tilly’s “Trust Networks in Transnational Migration” mainly focuses on Latin populations, but expressed the important function of trust networks and gave a more in depth analysis of its methods. Trust networks and remittances passed through these passages often support development within developing countries where major immigrant populations come from. These networks must be long term, based on trust and the risk factor involved, and shared identity- which results in increased nationalism and ethnic divides that may benefit or harm the groups based on race and class. It mainly operates on an honor system, hence the trust, with potential lost of trust and family if broken. The flow of money is essential,but also constitutes social insurance and power, allowing for several backup plans. As generations stay longer in new lands, these networks may disintegrate and traditional ethnic roles and beliefs are challenged within these once strong ethnic enclaves.
