Asian Migrants in New Zealand
Intergenerational Transnationalism: 1.5 Generation Asian Migrants in New Zealand1
Allen Bartley* and Paul Spoonley**
ABSTRACT
This paper explores some of the issues associated with the nature of contemporary transnationalism and the particular experiences and strategies of a specific cohort of migrants, the 1.5 generation. Based on a study of East Asian migrant adolescents to New Zealand, we argue that the experiences and strategies of this generation differ from those of their parents, the original decision-makers in the migration process, as well as from the historical experiences of earlier migrants. There is an ambivalence (in-betweenness) about settlement and attachment that raises some key questions about the assumptions of the immigration literature and of policy ⁄ political communities. The paper suggests that the 1.5 generation represents a particular group that deserves more attention in the migration and transnationalism literature.
TRANSNATIONAL MIGRATION ⁄ TRANSMIGRATION
In the early 1990s, cultural anthropologists Glick Schiller, Basch and Blanc-Szanton (1992: ix) proposed conceptualising transnationalism as the emerging phenomenon of migration, in which ‘‘migrants establish social fields that cross geographic, cultural and political borders.’’ Their work and theory focused primarily on the movement of people from the less developed countries to ‘‘centres of capital’’ (Glick Schiller et al., 1992: x). Portes and his associates (1999) took up the theme of transnational migration, and presented an argument as to why ‘‘transnationalism
* Faculty of Education, University of Auckland. ** College of Humanities and Social Sciences, Massey University. Ó 2008 The Authors Journal Compilation Ó 2008 IOM International Migration Vol. 46 (4) 2008 ISSN 0020-7985
Published by Blackwell Publishing Ltd., 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ , UK , and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA.
64
Bartley and Spoonley
from below’’2 could be
Allen Bartley* and Paul Spoonley**
ABSTRACT
This paper explores some of the issues associated with the nature of contemporary transnationalism and the particular experiences and strategies of a specific cohort of migrants, the 1.5 generation. Based on a study of East Asian migrant adolescents to New Zealand, we argue that the experiences and strategies of this generation differ from those of their parents, the original decision-makers in the migration process, as well as from the historical experiences of earlier migrants. There is an ambivalence (in-betweenness) about settlement and attachment that raises some key questions about the assumptions of the immigration literature and of policy ⁄ political communities. The paper suggests that the 1.5 generation represents a particular group that deserves more attention in the migration and transnationalism literature.
TRANSNATIONAL MIGRATION ⁄ TRANSMIGRATION
In the early 1990s, cultural anthropologists Glick Schiller, Basch and Blanc-Szanton (1992: ix) proposed conceptualising transnationalism as the emerging phenomenon of migration, in which ‘‘migrants establish social fields that cross geographic, cultural and political borders.’’ Their work and theory focused primarily on the movement of people from the less developed countries to ‘‘centres of capital’’ (Glick Schiller et al., 1992: x). Portes and his associates (1999) took up the theme of transnational migration, and presented an argument as to why ‘‘transnationalism
* Faculty of Education, University of Auckland. ** College of Humanities and Social Sciences, Massey University. Ó 2008 The Authors Journal Compilation Ó 2008 IOM International Migration Vol. 46 (4) 2008 ISSN 0020-7985
Published by Blackwell Publishing Ltd., 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ , UK , and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA.
64
Bartley and Spoonley
from below’’2 could be