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BARNARD
PROFESSOR ROBERT SMITH ARGUES DIASPORIC RETURN BENEFITS IMMIGRANT
COMMUNITIES AND ASSIMILATION
New
York, NY, March 25, 2003—Professor Robert Smith of the
Sociology Department gave the opening address at a conference,
"Agenda for Dialogue on Transnationalism and Community
Development" last Thursday, which was hosted by the Inter-American
Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation and CUNY Graduate Center.
The meeting
was designed to provide philanthropic institutions with an
overview of issues affecting transnational migrant communities,
and to help nonprofit organizations influence emerging grantmaking
agendas on this subject. The conference was structured as
a small working group with representatives from the Ford Foundation,
New York Foundation, Council on Foundations, New York and
New Jersey Regional Association of Grantmakers, New York City
Mayor's Office and several think tanks, in addition to representatives
of immigrant communities.
Professor
Smith provided a comparative framework of transnational life
among immigrants in historical and contemporary periods. He
talked about the impact of modern communications, travel technology,
ethnic identification in the U.S. and the modern human rights
regime on current transnational life. He urged participants
to shed conventional "globalthink" — a tendency
to assume all problems that result partly from globalization
require immediate global intervention, and recommended alternative
strategies. Smith proposed a Diasporic Peace Corp., which
leverages the expertise and resources of the diaspora to advance
economic, political and social development in immigrants'
countries of origin, and a program for U.S.-born second-generation
immigrants to return to their country of origin to conduct
community service.
Smith's
research demonstrates that diasporic return can transform
how immigrants view their own ethnicity and improve their
lives within the U.S. "Successful assimilation into the
U.S. is helped, and not hindered, by second generation return
to the parents' country of origin, " Smith stated. He
added, "Promoting membership in a diasporic community
is not incommensurate with assimilation. The bigger danger
lies in the negative assimilation pressures facing second-generation
immigrants in the U.S."
Robert
Smith is in Assistant Professor in the Sociology Department.
His research focuses on Mexican migration to the U.S. and
analyzes issues of transnationalization, immigrant incorporation
and state-diaspora relations.
Contact:
Petra Tuomi, Office of Public Affairs, 212-854-7907, ptuomi@barnard.edu
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