Socially-Constructed Societies and Cultures Among Transmigrants and

Socially-constructed Societies and Cultures Among Transmigrants and Transnationals: The Case of United States Migration History Migration, as a social activity, is a vital element considered not only for its importance in determining specific aspects of a country's socio-demographic characteristics, but in determining the psycho-demographic characteristics of societies and cultures within that country.

Indeed, it is evident that apart from serving as a catalyst in changing the social structure of societies, migration also helps change and bring dynamism to a the norms, traditions, and values held important by a society and culture. Take as an example the history of migration in the United States. Historical events such as the first and second World Wars have triggered the sudden increase in migration of people from different countries in the world.

Furthermore, migration also increased as an effect of the economic and political stability of the U.S., as compared to other countries in the world, which are either experiencing economic crisis or political instability, or both. In line with the occurrence of these events in the social landscape of the U.S., it is thus imperative and necessary to know and understand how migration has changed American society, particularly with its increase during the 20th century.

Thus, this paper studies the effects of international migration to the social and political climate of the U.S., which will be analyzed through theoretical perspectives suggested and based on discussions provided by four social scientists: Douglas Massey, Kim Matthews, Paul Kennedy, and Nina Schiller. Their analyses are discussed vis-a-vis Stephen Castles and Mark Miller's proposed migration theories and models presented in their book, "The Age of Migration." Castles and Miller, as well as Massey et. al.

focused on theoretical perspectives that best explain the phenomenon of international migration in the U.S. International migration, as a social activity in the study of demographics, is a "permanent change of residence involving movement from one country to another" (Weeks, 1996:598). In "The Age of Migration," Castles and Miller analyze the social change brought about by international migration through three primary models: the folk or ethnic, republican, and multicultural or pluralist models.

Castles and Miller (1993) utilized and discussed these models based on the social, economic, political, and cultural dynamics that happen among migrants in the U.S. The folk or ethnic model posits that migrants' "definition of belonging to the nation in terms of ethnicity," which prevents migrants from assimilating themselves within the American society.

The republican model, on the other hand, takes into consideration that migrants assimilate themselves in the society and culture of the U.S., although migrants are implicitly 'required' to comply and assume an identity that is mainly American in nature. Lastly, the multicultural or pluralist model is the primary model that Castles and Miller prescribes, since it illustrates the current state of international migration in the country. In this model, nation, for the migrants, is defined as a "political community," "with the possibility of admitting newcomers to the community..

while at the same time accepting cultural difference and the formation of ethnic communities" (39). The pluralist model of international migration takes into consideration the social, political, and cultural dynamics of American society with the occurrence of migration in the 20th century. Douglas Massey, in his discussion of migration theories in "Why does immigration occur: A theoretical synthesis," analyzes in detail the different theories that illustrates how economics and social changes determine the increase or decrease of migration changes within the country.

In his discourse, Massey centers his discussion on migration systems theory, which is derived from the world systems theory, which posits, ".. unequal political and economic structure were created and extended throughout the world.. By which noncapitalist and precapitalist regions were incorporated into the global market economy" (40). In this theory, countries are identified as belonging to the periphery, semi-periphery, and external arena, all of which contributes 'human labor' and other consumer markets to the core countries, which are characteristically more prosperous and stable in its economic, political, social, even military, sectors.

It is notable that Massey's thesis in his discourse centers its attention to the political and economic dynamics of migration, without any discussion of the social implications that international migration have contributed to American society (a core country) and the peripheral and semi-peripheral countries (mostly from the Asian and Middle Eastern regions). The pluralist or multicultural model is reflected in discourses written by Kennedy, Matthews, and Schiller.

In Paul Kennedy and Victor Roudometof's article entitled, "Transnationalism in a global age," the authors posits that "transnationalism communities and cultures need to be understood as constituting a much wider and more commonplace phenomenon" (1). Deviating from the socio-economic and political theory of Massey, Kennedy and Roudometof focus on the social and cultural developments of migration in the U.S. For the authors, migration is more than a demographic change, but a socio-cultural change as well, wherein migrants create their own society and culture in a foreign country.

The authors then define these social and cultural communities as their concept of "place," which is "an imagined or symbolic unity built around shared meanings. Locality.. is a purely symbolic notion of locality that becomes.. community formation" (24). Kim Matthews provides a similar argument with Kennedy and Roudometof's. In his article, "Boundaries of diaspora identity," Matthews reflects the multiculturalist or pluralist perspective of international migration by discussing the social, cultural, economic, and political adaptations of Central and East African-Asians in Canada.

Matthews goes further into determining the social and cultural communities developed among migrants by centering also on the identity-formation processes that take place among them as they gradually assimilate and establish their own sub-society within the American society. Matthews' research yielded the result that migrants, more than developing "imagined communities," develop their identities as migrants by combining values, thinking, behavior, and actions of both their native and new socio-cultural roots.

Nina Schiller also adopts the pluralist model in illustrating how "[t]he study of international migration is transformed into an investigation of migration as a transnational process" (94). Schiller in this statement shows that despite the geographic change that happen in migration, migrants are able to still.