Documenting Transnational Migration

by Antoun, Richard T.

• ISBN13: 9781845450373
• ISBN10: 184545037X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2005-07-30
• Publisher: Berghahn Books

Summary

Most studies on transnational migration either stress assimilation, circulatory migration, or the negative impact of migration. This remarkable study, which covers migrants from one Jordanian village to 17 different countries in Europe, Asia, and North America, emphasizes the resiliency of transnational migrants after long periods of absence, social encapsulation, and stress, and their ability to construct social networks and reinterpret traditions in such a way as to mix the old and the new in a scenario that incorporates both worlds. Focusing on the humanistic aspects of the migration experience, this book examines questions such as birth control, women's work, retention of tribal law, and the changing attitudes of migrants towards themselves, their families, their home communities, and their nation. It ends with placing transnational migration from Jordan in a cross-cultural perspective by comparing it with similar processes elsewhere, and critically reviews a number of theoretical perspectives that have been used to explain migration.

Table of Contents

Key to Transliteration of Arabic Letters and Symbols	vi
Tables, Chart, Map, Diagram	vii
Preface	ix
Introduction: Transnational Migration, the Themes Pursued in its Analysis, and the Jordanian Background of the Case Study	1	(34)
1. The Army as an Extension of Society and a Vehicle for Multicultural Exposure and Attitudinal Change	35	(44)
2. The Jordanian Diaspora in Arabia: Instrumental Circulatory Migration, Cultural Diversity, and Ethnic Stratification	79	(38)
3. Two Sojourners Abroad: Migration for Higher Education to England and Germany	117	(18)
4. Migrants to Greece: Living in the World, Integration, and Maintaining Ethnic Identity	135	(20)
5. The Quest for Education in Pakistan: The Variety of Experience in a Global Society	155	(20)
6. Longer Stay, Faster Change, Ruder Shock: Migrants to the United States, Coping with Mobility, Reinterpreting Tradition, and Evolving Identities	175	(72)
7. Fathers, Sons, Brothers, and the Village Community: Affirmation of the Moral Society in the Shadow of its Decline	247	(34)
8. Comparisons and Reflections on the Global Society	281