Workshop conducted by Peter Plastrik to the Network for Korean American Leaders (NetKAL).

1. LIVING HERE & THERE
The Emergence of
Transnational Space
Presentation for NetKAL
September 15, 2007
Peter Plastrik
Innovation Network for Communities

2. A TRANSNATIONAL BAR-B-Q
Hot Dogs
+
Bulgogi
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3. CULTURAL DIFFERENCES
WHICH SIDE ARE YOU ON?
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4. “Pulling Rank Gets Harder At One
Korean Company”
Wall Street Journal (August 2007)
• “SK Telecom overhauled its employee hierarchy in hopes of
spurring more risk-taking and creativity.”
• “It’s a major adjustment that highlights the tension between Asian
business traditions, which emphasize order and formality, and those
in Western countries, where the premium is on ideas and
innovation.”
• South Korean businesses “concentrate decision-making with top
executives to protect their power. The structure is connected to
both the military experience that all Korean men get and to
Confucian teachings about seniority.”
• “As the country’s growth naturally slows with size, many now feel
the need to adopt Western practices like decentralizing authority to
keep moving forward.”
• “Most of corporate South Korea remains tied to old traditions. At
Samsung, for instance, nonexecutive employees aren’t allowed to
directly communicate to anyone above their immediate boss.”
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5. Globalization of Culture
“Our first Bollywood film, “Saawariya,” directed
by Sanjay Leela Bhansali, will be released this
November in India and throughout the global
Indian diaspora.”
“Instead of a uniform, Americanized world, there
remains a rich and dizzying array of cultures, all
of them allowing thousands of movies and
television shows to bloom.”
Michael Lynton, chairman & CEO
of Sony Pictures Entertainment
(Wall Street Journal, September 4, 2007
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6. THE OLD IMMIGRANT STORY
“Give Us Your
Wretched and Poor”
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7. ALVARO LIMA’S STORY
“I am a Brazilian living in America, but my life is
more than just that of an immigrant. I am one of
the millions of immigrants who are choosing to
live transnational lives. We live, work, socialize,
play, and do politics here in and in our home
countries. We are both here and there, quite
unlike the past generations of immigrants who
left their homes and never looked back.”
From Living Here and There: How Immigrants Are Creating
Transnational Social Spaces that Are Transforming Nations and
Communities
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8. What is “Immigrant Transnationalism”?
 Regular, frequent engagement in economic, political and socio-cultural activities
in both countries;
 A characteristic of some and growing numbers of immigrants across all country
of origin. Research thus far suggests that transnational migrants represent a
relatively small but nevertheless significant proportion of immigrants (10 to 15%
for most immigrant communities studied);
Figure I: Transnational Immigrant Activities
Country of Immigration flows Country of
Origin Settlement
Transnational activities
 Some immigrant groups are likely to be more transnational than others and
within immigrant groups there are variations in scope and range of
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transnational ties; Alvaro Lima, August 2007
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9. Figure II. Transnational Immigrant Activities and Social Fields
Country of
Settlement Transnational
Social Field
Transnational Country
immigrants Non-migrants
of Origin
Transnational
activities embedded in
immigrants transnational
not embedded in social fields
transnational Non-Migrants
social fields not embedded in
transnational
social fields
 As immigrants engage in transnational activities, they build social
fields that link together their country of origin and their country(ies) of
settlement;
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9
Alvaro Lima, August 2007

10. Figure III: Transnational Social Fields and Activities
Transnational
immigrants
Transnational Activities Non-migrants
Economic embedded in
transnational
Political and social fields
Socio-Cultural
 Transnational social fields can be thought of as the result of a series of inter-
connected and overlapping transnational economic, political and socio-cultural
activities:
 Economic activities such as business investments, collective support for
development and monetary remittance are well documented economic
transnational activities. The World Bank estimates that migrants from developing
countries in developed countries sent home more than $223 billion in 2005 – a
figure more than twice the level of international aid. The development prospects
08/23/12 of these nations may become inextricably linked to the activities of their 10
respective diasporas; 10
Alvaro Lima, August 2007

11.  Political activities include actual membership in political parties in the country of
origin, voting in origin country’s elections, standing for political office, as well as
less formalized activities such as the transfer of political ideas and norms. For
example, if Jesus Galvis, a travel agent in New Jersey who ran for a Senate seat
in Colombia in 1997 had been elected, he planned to hold office simultaneously
in Bogota and in Hackensack, where he is a city councilor (Sontag and Dugger
1998);
 Social-cultural activities include social and cultural transactions through which
ideas and meanings are exchanged. Recent research has established the
importance of ‘social remittances’ or the transfer of social-cultural meanings and
practices that occur when migrants return to live in or visit their communities of
origin; when non-migrants visit those in the receiving country; or through
exchanges of letters, videos, e-mails, and telephone calls (Peggy Levitt, 2001);
 This is not to say that those who migrate and those who remain behind live in
an imagined, third, transnational space - they are all firmly rooted in a
particular place and time, though their daily lives often depend upon people,
money, ideas, and resources located in another setting;
 By transnational social fields therefore, we mean relatively stable, lasting and
dense sets of ties - political, economic, and social-cultural - reaching beyond
and across the borders of sovereign states;
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11
Alvaro Lima, August 2007

12.  Contexts of exit and modes of incorporation facilitate or impede, foster or
discourage, demand or preclude some or all of the cross-border activities:
Figure IV: Contexts of Exit and Incorporation
Context of Incorporation: Context of Exit:
 Inclusion & Exclusion Structures  Education Level
 Alien versus Citizenship Rights  Race and Ethnicity
 Government and Other Support Systems  Family Wealth
 Race and Ethnicity Structures  Urban versus Rural Origin
 Etc.  Government Support Structures
 Etc.
Transnational
Country of Social Field
Settlement
Transnational Country
Non-migrants
migrants Transnational
activities embedded in
of Origin
transnational
social fields
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Alvaro Lima, August 2007

13. YOUR TRANSNATIONAL
STORIES…
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14. Drivers of Transnationalism
 Developments in the means of transportation and
communications have changed the relations between people
and places (costs);
 International migrations have become crucial to the
demographic future of many developed countries;
 Global political transformations and new international legal
regimes weakened the state as the only legitimate source of
rights;
 Fostered by global consumption, global production, and
immigration, cultural hybridization are substituting folkloric
romanticism and political nationalism enshrined as essences 14
08/23/12 national cultures;
of 14
Alvaro Lima, August 2007

15. Traditional versus Transnational Lenses
Traditional Lenses: Transnational Lenses:
immigration conceptualized as a bipolar relation immigration conceptualized as flows of cross-
between sending and receiving countries (moving border economic, political and social-cultural
from there to here); activities (being here and there);
emigration is the result of individual search for emigration is the result of geopolitical interests,
economic opportunity, political freedom, etc.; global linkages, and economic globalization;
migrants are assumed to be the poorest of the migrants are not the poorest of the poor nor do
poor; they come from the poorest nations;
growth in the service and technology-based jobs
immigrant s occupy low-skilled jobs in create opportunities for low as well as high skilled
agriculture, construction, and manufacturing,; migrants;
After the initial movement, migrants continue to
Immigrants steadily transfer their contextual maintain ties with their country of origin;
focus, economic and social activities to receiving
country;
immigration creates hybrid societies with a richer
immigration should not bring about significant cultural milieu;
change in the receiving society;
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Alvaro Lima, August 2007

16. Some Implications of Transnationalism
 Portability becomes crucial for transnational migrants – education and
certification processes; investment and retirement schemes, health
insurance, etc.;
 The concepts of “local development” and “local community” must be
redefined as space of flows (relationships) instead of just geographic
places to accommodate transnational behavior;
 Despite transnational immigrant entrepreneurs’ contribution to the
revitalization of inner city neighborhoods across the U.S., they are
practically invisible to entrepreneurial support systems;
 Nation-state ideals of identity in both sending and receiving countries
are challenged by transnational practices;
 States must re-conceive immigration and adapt their policies and
practices to accommodate transnational realities;
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Alvaro Lima, August 2007

17. POTENTIAL RELEVANCE
• What does this mean for you (Korean
Americans 2.0)?
• What does it mean for NetKAL?
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18. A QUICK TRANSNATIONAL SURVEY
1) How often do you travel to your country?
2) How long do you usually stay?
3) How often do you call your family?
4) What is the average length of the call in minutes?
5) Which products do you buy that are made in your country? Foods and spices,
Alcohol, Cigarettes, Clothing, Books, Newspapers and magazines, Videos, DVDs,
CDs, Craft Items, Others
6) What kinds of economic activities do you maintain in your home country? Do you have
a savings account in a bank, a mortgage loan, own a small family business or
commercial business, a loan to maintain a business, a student loan, a pension plan
, make loans money to family for small investments, other
7) What type of financial accounts do you have in your country? [Check all that apply]
8) Beyond sending remittances, do you help your family with economic obligations in
other ways? If yes, what kind of obligations do you help with? Payment of real estate
loans (to pay property, house, or construction), Payment of loan to maintain business,
Payment of student loan, Charitable donations, Political contributions, Help with
pension plan, Other investment-related expenses (house repair, car purchase, etc.)
9) Do you support or contribute to hometown associations or clubs in the U.S. that help
your home country?
10) Do you vote in national elections in your country?
11) Do you watch TV or listen to radio programs that originate from your home country?
12) Do you send/receive e-mails from people in your home country?
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