Journal Reading Reflect
Ethnic Studies in the Age of Transnationalism by Agnes Lugo-Ortiz, Robert Warrior, R. Radhakrishnan, Juana María Rodríguez and Mark A. Sanders
The article critically analyzes the themes brought about by ethnicity and transnationalism. These two concepts become relevant, especially in the study of the history of the United States of America. From the article, my understanding is that the globalized world of today has embraced and acknowledged societies as having features of different manifestations and constitutes cultural diversity. On the other hand, transnationalism depicts that there exists a stable interpersonal relationship among migrants in a given country border. As a result, such a relationship affects a wide range of phenomena, such a sense of belonging. Ethnicity should not be put against transnationalism. Instead, as Juana Maria Rodrigues puts it; “Multiple frames of inquiry are required to understand the complexities of racialized signification practices that animate the cultural worlds in which we live and study.”
Race and the Shaping of U.S. immigration policy by Donald S. Dobkin
From the article, it is evident that different factors in history have significantly influenced the coming up of the immigration policy in the U.S, in relation to race. As a result, race can be argued to have been the dominant cause to the now restrictive immigration policy, which has its shortcomings not only to the international image of the country, but also the economy. Therefore, the “vestiges of historical racism” continue to prosper in the form of restrictive immigration policy.
One of the historical factors, as described in the article, is the order model of “white supremacy” as described by Desmond King and Rodgers Smith. According to them, the country “has been pervasively constituted by systems of racial hierarchy since its inception.” They argue that racial issues caused the ultimate result of slave orders. While there have been a couple of huge steps made in the coming up of the current immigration policy from the times of slavery, it is pretty clear that most immigrants being people of color, the country has made it difficult for them and thus the policy is seen to be very restrictive. On its effects, the economy of the country has indeed been affected. For instance, foreign investors, especially from Asian countries, (like Hong Kong) choose to go to other countries like Canada instead of the U.S.
Trafficking in Women by Lois Chiang
Trafficking in women is not a regional issue, but rather a global concern. Also, it is not only women from rural areas that are targeted but also those from urban areas. For example, there have been women abducted from the urban areas of U.S, England, Scotland, Paris and Montreal, as the other of the article discusses. From these facts, regionalism does not entirely affect trafficking in women as others might think, but instead, there are other factors that play a vital role in women trafficking.
Aspects of women trafficking “occur in every country.” The vulnerability, therefore, stems from the status of women. The vulnerability arises from factors such as poverty, poor level of education, mental retardation and family retardation. As a result of trafficking, women end up into forced marriages and forced prostitution. From logical reasoning, these can only be described as abuse of human rights. While international laws try to safeguard the rights of women through different conventions and covenants, states should up their game in protecting their own women against this dangerous vice.