The political theory of migration has largely occurred within a paradigm of methodological nationalism and this has led to the neglect of morally salient agents and causes. This article draws on research from the social sciences on the transnationalism, globalization and migration systems theory to show how methodological nationalist assumptions have affected the views of political theorists on membership, culture and distributive justice. In particular, it is contended that methodological nationalism has prevented political theorists of migration from addressing the (...) roles of non-state agents and of transnational economic, social and political structures. These agents and structures contribute to the asymmetrical distribution of goods and opportunities and thus have important implications for debates about migration and distributive justice. (shrink)

The article intends to present untold narratives from Filipino overseas migrant workers that the author personally encountered and interviewed. Literature that primarily focuses on their quotidian lives is rarely discussed and written. The author used travel memoir as a primary method to describe his journey reflections while not neglecting academic inquiry relying on existing works of literature (secondary sources) to validate his observations. The author gathered significant pathways from his travels to engage in a historical search on the distinct and (...) diversified cultures formed and transformed by Filipino overseas migrant workers. -/- The scope and limitations of this paper are centered on Filipinos dwelling in particular countries in the Southeast Asian region as follows: Malaysia (2014), Singapore (2014), Cambodia (2017), Brunei Darussalam (2016), and Europe - solely focused on Spain (2018). This paper intends to contribute to the flourishing discipline of Diaspora Studies. Furthermore, it strives to offer significant literature on a particular sectoral field, Women's Studies. The paper also produced testimonial narratives that describe the intersectionality of Filipino women as migrant workers, except for the case of workers in Brunei Darussalam. -/- The author has ascertained a multitude of insights, realizations, and overlying themes. For instance, Filipino overseas migrant workers in Malaysia experienced common themes of violence and struggles; determining Filipino spaces in Singapore; establishing Filipino identity and culture in Cambodia; realized opportunities and challenges from the phenomenon of transnationalism of some migrant workers in Spain; and coping mechanisms of some male migrant workers in Brunei. On the one hand, such writings may not be considered groundbreaking work on the creation of academic narratives. On the other hand, the author contends such themes of opportunities, struggles, and sacrifices of Filipino migrant workers narratives are diachronic - continuous through time. (shrink)

This paper shall begin by exploring the work of R. Bourne and his concept of transnationalism. The case shall be made for its advantages in contrast to the melting-pot theory but this essay shall further argue that it alone is not a sufficient alternative. Instead, the paper shall shift its focus to H. Kallen and his notions of cultural pluralism. In conjunction with one another, they will be used to argue against the melting-pot theory and more specifically, against Samuel (...) Huntington and his assertions regarding contemporary Mexican and Latino immigrants. (shrink)

A central assumption in much contemporary scholarship is that a central shift has taken place over the course of the last four decades: a shift from a world largely centered on public authority to a world that is increasingly dominated by private authority. The central expression of this shift is seen to be a concurring move from public to private law and thus from legislation to contract as the central legal instrument structuring economic as well as other social processes. While (...) developments in this direction can certainly be observed, this article provides a more nuanced perspective. Outlining a long-term historical perspective, this article reconstructs the manifold and volatile dynamic between institutionalized forms of public and private authority. It does soon the basis of the argument that, in the course of this evolutionary process, the very function and meaning of both public and private authority has been fundamentally altered. This alteration implies the transformation of both dimensions into functionally limited and more specific phenomena. With this background, it becomes possible to argue that societal evolution is characterized by a dual expansion of both public and private forms of authority. The starting point is an understanding of authority as condensed power. Asymmetric relations implying either direct or indirect forms of domination are observable throughout society and are as such an intrinsic element of all social relations and processes. Authority is, however, based on a particular institutionalization of power, typically delineated and condensed with the help of legal instruments. Under radical modern conditions, law becomes constitutive for authority to the extent that one might argue that no form of authority exists outside its legal form. With this background, the article argues that the pre-1945 world at the local, national, and transnational level of world society was characterized by a relative dominance of private forms of authority. The process leading to state-based modern public law gaining not only a formal but also a factual capacity to structure societal processes was a century-long process: a process which implied an epic struggle aimed at undermining and eradicating alternative centers of public and private authority in society. It was, however, a first in the mid-twentieth century that an outright breakthrough of this claim and aspiration could be observed. The implied a respecification of public and private authority that remains central to our understanding of authority to this day. (shrink)

Review of Ruben Andersson,Illegality, Inc. (Oakland, CA: University of California Press, 2014)and Amy Nethery and Stephanie J. Silverman(eds.), Immigration Detention: The Migration of a Policy and its Human Impact.(London and New York: Routledge, 2015).

Third World and transnational feminisms have emerged in opposition to white second-wave feminists’ single-pronged analyses of gender oppression that elided Third World women’s multiple and complex oppressions in their various social locations. Consequently, these feminisms share two “Third World feminist” mandates: First, feminist analyses of Third World women’s oppression and resistance should be historically situated; and second, Third World women’s agency and voices should be respected. Despite these shared mandates, they have diverged in their proper domains of investigation, with transnational (...) feminism concentrating on the transnational level and Third World feminism focusing on local and national contexts. Further, their respective positions regarding nation-states and nationalism have been antithetical, as leading transnational feminists have categorically rejected nation-states and nationalism as detrimental to feminism. In recent decades, transnational feminism has become the dominant feminist position on Third World women, overshadowing Third World feminism, and the dismissal of nation-states and nationalism as irrelevant to feminism has become fashionable. Against this current trend, this article argues for the relevance of nation-states and nationalism for transnational feminism and the urgency of reclaiming Third World feminism. (shrink)