Cultures of Migration: The Global Nature of Contemporary Mobility

Notes

notes introDuCtion Mojado, Spanish for “wet,” is used negatively (in the chapter epigraph) to refer to Mexicans who must cross the Rio Grande (the river separating Mexico and the United States along the Texas-Mexico border). The term is pejorative and defines the Mexican migrant as undocumented—he or she cannot cross the border legally and instead is forced to sneak across the river, getting wet—mojado—as he or she enters the U.S. The premise that all Mexicans in the U.S. are mojado, or illegally in the country, leads to the assumption that because Mexicans are illegal, they are dangerous. 1. Fear of immigrants is often organized into anti-immigrant laws, such as SB1070 in the state of Arizona in 2010. SB1070 demands (among other things) that anyone who looks like an immigrant to a law enforcement officer must be able to show papers that prove his or her status as being legally in the U.S. (for details see the full bill at http://www.azleg.gov/legtext/49leg/2r/bills/sb1070s.pdf ). Similarly , one can find dozens of examples from Europe where major political parties have increasingly promoted restrictive immigration policies, particularly in the last decade. 2. The United Nations reports that approximately 115 million migrants are currently living in developed countries (three quarters of the total are in 28 countries , with one in five in the U.S.) while about 75 million are in developing countries . The greatest increase in the number of international migrants over the last ten years has occurred in high-income destination countries, home to 41 million migrants (2006:13). Nevertheless, it is clear from the U.N.’s numbers that poorer countries host the vast majority of movers and in particular those forced out of their homelands as refugees. 3. It is difficult to estimate internal moves, particularly because these moves are often short term and can vary in distance. Even census data, which often detail the presence and absence of locally born individuals as well as those who have come to a place from outside, are not flawless. Typically, the numbers are a snapshot of 122 Notes to Pages 3–15 one particular time and note the mobility of local movers only at that given point, which is usually the date the census material was collected. 4. Government agencies are becoming more interested in tallying short-term migrations (i.e., less than one year but more than six months) within the overall count of international moves, as a recognition of increasing mobility, including long-distance, cross-border commutes (Sirkeci 2009). 5. Turks, Arabs, and Kurds (among others) are held to superficial national borders that were drawn at the end of World Wars I and II; these demarcations divided ethnic entities—an issue that we will return to in Chapter 4 and in our discussion of transnational space. 6. For details on the plight of the Uighurs, see Amnesty International’s 2004 report “People’s Republic of China: Uighurs fleeing persecution as China wages its ‘war on terror,’” AI index: ASA 17/021/2004, available at www.amnesty.org (accessed 10 March 2009). 7. The strengths and weaknesses associated with the specific individual contribute to perceptions of security and insecurity for that person; these factors may be personal (what the individual can or cannot do), communal (for or against others who exhibit strengths and weaknesses), or global (placing migrants in situations where they may have to defend themselves against unknown threats). Perceptions of strengths and weaknesses, security and insecurity may be short-term and fleeting , or long-lasting. Strengths and weaknesses can challenge local beliefs and cultures of migration. They can also serve as foundations for future actions. The positive place the migrant holds in his or her sending community can strengthen his or her position in the social life of the new community. Yet at the same time, new ideas that migrants often bring with them as they return from destination communities can challenge traditional cultural practices. 8. Researchers have shown that migrants can and do fall for the myths (i.e., excessive wealth and success stories of earlier fellow migrants) they hear about destinations and benefits. But even in these situations, the potential migrant is making a calculated choice to move—although unfortunately her or his calculations are based on fallacies and a lack of background on the true outcomes of movements. 9. The idea of “nonmovers” is vexing in itself and suggests that migration is the...