Making Miami: A Case Study in Communication and the Construction of Transnational Spaces Presented by Sallie Hughes [email protected] Research Team: Elizabeth

Making Miami: A Case Study in Communication and the Construction of Transnational Spaces

Presented by Sallie [email protected]

Research Team:

Elizabeth Aranda, University of South Florida

Elena Sabogal, William Paterson University

Sallie Hughes, Yvette Bueno, Rosa Chang, Jesús Arroyave

and Maria Elena Villar, University of Miami

Informing Concepts Transnational Spaces

– A reconfiguration of cognitive and/ or emotive connectedness so that life can be lived in more than one place at the same time; or “simultaneity” (Levitt and Glick Schiller 2004)

Transnational Living – a process by which migrants (or other Cosmopolitans with

global exposure), through their daily practices and relations, create social fields that cross national boundaries (Basch, Glick Schiller and Szanton Blanc 1994)

Transcultural Identities– Incorporation patterns that retain cultural traits associated

with one’s ethnic identity while also acquiring traits necessary for “success” in the new land. Have been found to aid upward mobility and socio-psychological well-being (Aranda 2006).

Outline

Structural Emergence of Miami as a World City

Immigrant Experiences With Transnationalism Within Miami– How, why and to what effect do immigrants

construct transnational spaces Implications

Miami-Dade County

More People Born Outside US Than Inside– Almost one-fifth of population entered US between 1990-2000

(as of 2000) Latin American-Origin Population Dominant and Increasing

– Still Cuban Majority, But National Diversity is Growing Language Use

– About equal percentages of Spanish-dominant, English-Only and Bilingual Households; Creole speakers are next largest category

Changing Economic Structure– Miami (city) has highest poverty ratio and largest standard

deviation of per capita wage of 50 most empoverished U.S. cities (pre-Katrina)

– Job growth has been in high-wage production services and low-wage personal services. Immigrants notable in both sectors, depending upon legal status, language skills and educational attainment. Evidence of middle class out migrations.

U.S. Census 2000, 2005

Nativity, Miami-Dade County 2000

Native-Born Foreign-Born

Total Population

Total In Florida Other States

Total Entered 1990-2000

Naturalized Citizen (1990s cohor only)

Not a citizen (1990s cohort only)

1,105,597 666,190 370,273 416,059 50,4451,147,765 365,6142,253,362

Increase in Latin American-Origin Population in Miami-Dade County (in Percents)

U.S. Census Bureau. 1960. Census of Population. Vol. I Characteristics of the Population, Part II, Florida. 1970. Census of Population, General Social and Economic Characteristics, Final Report PC(1)-C11 Florida. 1980. Census of Population, Vol. I Characteristics of the Population, PC 80-1-B11, Florida. 1990. Census of Population, Public Law 94-171, Florida. 2000. Census 2000, Summary File 1.

Washington D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office. Miami-Dade County Department of Planning and Zoning, Research Section. 2001.

Hispanic

Black, Non-Hispanic

White & Other Non-Hispanic

1960 5.30 14.70 80.001970 23.60 14.70 61.701980 35.70 16.70 47.601990 49.20 19.10 31.702000 57.30 19.00 23.70

Diversity in Latin American Population

U.S. Census Bureau. 1990. Census of Population, Summary Tape File 1A & Summary Tape File 4A. 2000. Census 2000, Summary File 1. 2003. American Community Survey, Table PCT006. Internet. Available from http://factfinder.census.gov. Miami-Dade County Dept. of Planning & Zoning, Research Section, 2001 & 2005.

2003

% all Hispanics in 1990

% all Hispanics in 2003

% point change

Cuban 710937 59.2 50.8 -8.3Puerto Rican 93373 7.6 6.7 -1.0Mexican 58966 2.4 4.2 1.8Dominican 52872 2.5 3.8 1.3Central American 184374 12.5 13.2 0.6South American 243526 11.4 17.4 6.0Other Hispanic 54926 4.7 3.9 -0.7

Language Spoken at Home Miami-Dade County, 2000

32%

28%

31%

9%

English Only

BilingualSpan/Engl

Spanish, LittleEnglish

Other

U.S. Census, 2000

Miami’s Development Path

World Cities and the Caribbean City System– Miami, the “capital of the Caribbean”

Cultural innovation is driving development– Miami, “the Hollywood of Latin America”– Cultural industries include broadcast media, new

media, music, arts, fashion, magazines, and celebrities-linked tourism.

World Cities and the Caribbean City System

Miami developed because of its particular position in the geopolitical strategy of a core state– The center of command and control in the U.S.

military strategy to confront alternatives for Caribbean development, first from Cuba (1960s) and then Central America (1980s)

– The physical embodyment of “symbolic showcases” of capitalism during the Cold War, housing the successful Cuban exile enclave and coordinating the CBI

• Ramón Grosfoguel. 2003. “World cities in the Caribbean. Miami and San Juan.” In Colonial Subjects. Puerto Ricans in Global Perspective (Berkeley: UC Press)

Cultural production and hybridity drive Miami’s development today The financial and physical infrastructure left from the Cold War

and U.S. tourism era are insuffucient to explain Miami’s transnational development.

Miami’s current multinational articulations are driven by transnational industrial cultural production of a pan-Latino, pan-Latin American ethos.

New Miami migrants are transnational, and do not fit assimilationist nor identity politics familiar to US scholars of race and ethnicity. They have developed a new sense of cultural citizenship, or belonging.

Yudice’s middle and upper class informants characterize Miami as an "open city" that is friendly to new migrants.

However, the hype of multicultural Miami is like the myth of racial democracy in Latin America -- it embraces the prosperous.

» Adapted from George Yudice. 2003. “The Globalization of Latin America: Miami”.

In The Expediency of Culture (Duke UP)

Research Questions

RQ1: How do immigrants in Miami construct transnational spaces, lives and identities?

RQ2: What roles do intra-personal, inter-personal and mediated communication play in the construction of transnationalism?

RQ3: What does the construction of transnationalism in Miami suggest about the city’s future development and whether transnationalism is sustainable?

Qualitative Method Dominicans

– Professionals, sometimes working in lower status jobs– Interviewed in two focus groups (n = 20) – First investigator’s findings cross-checked with

independent analysis of additional 12 in-depth interviews. Both researchers reached similar conclusions.

Puerto Ricans– Mostly working professionals; 15 island born or raised

there, 5 U.S. born and raised mostly in the Northeast U.S.

– Interviews (n=20)– Differences with Dominicans

• Dual citizens with no legal status problems and are more likely to be English dominant.

Analysis

Qualitative, thematic analysis of transcribed discussions and interviews– researchers seek to understand how participants

themselves build meaning

Coding and interpretations are conducted independently by co-authors as a form of verification– Differences are discussed and resolution deepens

researchers’ understanding

Findings Miami attracts Latin American immigrants because of a

perceived cultural affinity that helps them recreate their homelands in the United States, but because of geopolitically derived legal frameworks and linguistic heritages, the context does not affect all groups equally.– Cultural affinities could not remove the structural obstacles to

well-being, including immigration status and equal access to public services and economic opportunities

– But cultural affinity helped them to ease emotional burdens of migration and remain in the U.S., increasing the likelihood transnationalism is a sustainable phenomenon

Immigrants in Miami use interpersonal, intrapersonal and mediated communication to create transnational spaces that emotional responses certify as authentic.

Cultural Affinity…

Miami’s cultural context stimulated perceptions of:

1. Cultural Belonging• Language• Family ties• Human warmth, or acceptance

2. Physical Proximity• Climate• Beaches • Residential architecture

3. Geographic Proximity


“The best that Miami has is that it appears like the Dominican Republic, in the sense of the climate, the beach. Us Dominicans, on the weekend we go to the beach that is nearby and like he said, the houses. There are houses just like that in the Dominican Republic. And also when I first came through on vacation and I loved it, it seemed fine, because there is no problem with communication, with the language. Here when you go into a store you don’t have to think. When you shop in New York, you have to think in English to ask the person how much does this cost, or that. Here you don’t have to worry about that. Here you have the language, the climate just like the Dominican Republic, and the identification that we are all Latinos, and we Hispanics are Hispanic majority.” -- Lourdes


“I had come here (to Miami) and I felt the same way. People are more friendly here. It makes it easier to be in the United States. When you land in places like New England, the first day I arrived there and rented a car, a woman said - there are a lot of Irish there, and English, with strong temperaments -. When I put the date with the day before the month, they put the month and then the day, the woman said, “what did you put here?” And I said “in my country we put the day first.” And the she tells me, “now you are in America!” These types of comments. They are always insulting you. For example when they see I look more American than Hispanic but I had an accent they would ask, “where are you from?” And, I, “Dominican.” Oh, you noted the difference, the rejection. I’ve lived all over, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Maryland, Virginia… and when I came here to Florida, Florida is cosmopolitan. People are from all over, from Peru, from Ecuador. We accept each other and exploit each other everyday.”

- JaimeNote: Italics = stated in English


*

“What most interested me in coming here was that we had Beatriz’ family here. I also have family here too. And also the proximity of Santo Domingo. I mean it’s just an hour and 45 minutes away. I mean, even though I am in the United States, I still have a direct connection to my family and the Dominican Republic. And, of course, like everyone says, the language and all of that.”

-Luis

Cultural Affinity…Puerto Ricans also perceived Miami’s “warmth” in cultural terms that included language, physical proximity and acceptance. Teresa, for example, moved from Boston to raise her children in a more Latino environment.

V: What brought you to Miami, why did you choose to come here? T: Because I have two children. I lived in Boston for 13 years. A lot of cold, few Hispanics of different social classes, and different opportunities for Hispanics, and I wanted to my sons to grow up bilingual. The heat is similar to Puerto Rico, but there are more opportunities than in Puerto Rico.

Similar to Jorge, Teresa's inability to “fit” into the racial structure of Boston also shaped her decision to find a place that was more accepting.

T: The interesting thing is that when I went to Boston, being black, the black people there didn’t accept me at the beginning because they said that I wasn’t really black because I was Hispanic and my best friend was white and the whites obviously didn’t accept me much because they didn’t know really how to decipher me because I was Hispanic but my best friend was white and they didn’t know where to put me….

Puerto Rican Difference - Bilingualism While Puerto Ricans expressed similar feelings about the importance of Miami’s cultural context, the fact that English is spoken as well as Spanish allows them to be English-dominant and still embrace their Latino culture. María, who was raised in New York and Puerto Rico before coming to Miami, explained that the bicultural nature of the city attracted her family, particularly the fact that they could be English-speaking in a Latino environment. María’s quote illustrates the importance of feeling comfortable that participants of both nationalities expressed. To feel comfortable, English-dominant Puerto Ricans seek a place “in-between”.

– “It’s tropical, it’s nice, the weather, the clean [environment], everybody spoke English. My parents thought we would feel comfortable here and it was very Latin because of the Cubans. They thought it was a good mix. It was in-between [emphasis added].”

- María

Limitations to Cultural Affinity

Power Hierarchies Rooted in Geopolitical History Block Seamless Transnationalism, Especially for Dominicans– Legal obstacles

• Slow migration of Dominican families, separations for years

• Difficult to transfer professional status– Wichi: “I was an industrial engineer in Santo Domingo.

Here I am just another number.”

– Isolation of (undocumented) immigrant– Disruption of pan-Latino solidarity

• What unites Latinos is cultural: language, music• Cuban community dominant in government, economic

opportunities, and media representations• There is a perceived intra-ethnic hierarchy, rather than

solidarity across Latinos or among non-Cubans

Limitations to Cultural Affinity

What happens is that it is very difficult to get accustomed to a new culture. For example, I have my home there and I have my home here. Now I don’t lose the realization that in this country I will always be a foreigner. And the Constitution of the United States and what we are living after September 11, well, it confirms even more that I am a foreigner in this country.

-Luis, Dominican

Like Wichi said, many times what most unites us is music, whatever is cultural, that’s where the different Hispanic communities interact with one another. And it makes you feel good.

-C, Dominican

The success of this (Dominican) community will come when the authorities of this city are diversified into different communities. The success of this (Dominican) community will come when each community has representation in local government. Because at this moment all of the state agencies, and city agencies, are controlled by only one community. When this community begins to have a city council member, a mayor, a police representative, a fire official, this city is going to change.

-- Pedro

Limits to Cultural Affinity… Participants described an intra-ethnic power

hierarchy with agreement that Cubans were on top. However, Puerto Ricans had advantages because of their legal status and language abilities. Race was not mentioned as a national marker.

F: I think that also, at least, when you go to the Northeast U.S., Massachusetts and New York, where I have most lived, when you see the Hispanic culture, it is Hispanic because the Anglos are those who are above and after them the rest of the world. Well, the Anglos and the Asians and after that the rest of the world. And when you see a Colombian, Guatemalan, Salvadoran, everything is good, cool. But here in Miami since the majority is Hispanic, then the pyrimid becomes the Cubans and the rest of the world. There’s more competition and a lot more culture clash even if you are an educated person, like in discussions with office clients from Venezuela, Mexico, Nicaragua. It’s like a competition about who is better because the circumstances in Puerto Rico are better although we are all here for the same thing, more or less. Some for political things and some not, but we are all here for better opportunities.

Maria: Since I arrived the Cuban culture dominates, but that is changing. When I arrived people said, the Puerto Ricans are brutos, the Puerto Ricans, this and that. I never said anything against anybody and they said those things. But this has been changing a lot because a lot of different groups have arrived, and it is always the last group to arrive that likes to discriminate against the next one….

Emotion, Communication and the Construction of Transnational Spaces

To evoke the homeland, informants used– Material and ritual contact– Mediated contact – interpersonal and mass– Interpersonal communication with similar others– Intrapersonal communication

For transnational space to have coherence, informants suggest that homeland re-creations need to be confirmed by a positive, affirmative emotional response

Affect and the Construction of Transnational Spaces

“Before I had my feet planted one there and one here, but then I decided to plant both my feet here in Miami. That doesn’t mean I have forgotten my country. Because I believe there is no one more Dominican than me. There’s not, because you go to my house and even the magazine “Maggie” I’ve brought from Santo Domingo, because here the ones they sell just aren’t the same.”

-- Marilyn


“This is a country of pressures, I would say. Not so much here in Miami. Here in Miami I have found another kind of human warmth, different from New York. New York is totally terrible, complete depression. But now that I am here, I feel more at home, I feel as if I was in my country. I have more family here, more human warmth, and a better quality of life. So, depression doesn’t attack me as much here.”

- Marineli


“I was raising my son and suddenly the decision is made to come here and there is a physical bond, a personal bond, that is going to break… I didn’t want him to feel it so much. So that’s why I stay in touch. He is 8 years old… I call everyday. I ask him, “how are you? What did you do today? They said you did this or that thing at school. What did you have for supper? Did you eat your meat?”

- Carlos


“The truth is Miami has a lot to offer. But the worst enemy you have in reaching your goals is by allowing yourself to be swept away by sentimentality. I say, “this is made for thinking, and that is made for feeling.” Because as a result I had a terrible ulcer in New York. In New York, because I was too sentimental, I had to learn to put things in their places. If I hadn’t I would have gone into an enormous depression.”

- Marilyn


I read news everyday. I watch the Dominican channel every day. I listen to Dominican programs on Sundays. I am 100 percent in contact with the Dominicans. Sometimes I get bored, but I take the radio to the beach to hear it. I take the radio to listen and I find out about everything that is happening in the Dominican Republic, the latest thing, what’s happening in politics. A Dominican likes politics a lot. He enjoys knowing what’s going on and that’s what all of us here talk about.

-- Luís

Implications Transnationalism’s relationship to borders

– Relations between bounded nation states shape how immigrants experience and construct transnationalism depending on the new country’s relationship to the immigrant’s country of origin.

– Measures to enhance U.S. regional “security” created a hierarchy within Miami that differentiates immigrants’ experiences and potentials for creating transnational lives.

Is transnationalism sustainable?– Yes. The creation of transnational spaces increases the

likelihood of “successful” immigration by supporting immigrants’ psychologically and emotionally. But we have only studied the first generation.

– What happens beyond the second generation needs study. • Other studies suggest transnational connectedness diminishes and

incorporation becomes more akin to notions of assimilation with ethnic identities expressed symbolically through holidays, food, and music.

• But they were conducted outside of Miami or prior to Latino cultural dominance in Miami.

– Everyday experiences suggest cultural and linguistic hybridity is widespread and deeply rooted in today’s Miami.

An oil change in Miami

Young Clerk: Name? (Shouts to a mechanic – verifica si tenemos el filtro aquí o si tenemos que enviar por ello…)

Client: Sallie Hughes, Sallie spelled with an “ie”.

Young Clerk: Oh, that’s unusual. It’s pretty. Client: Muchas gracias. Hay algunas en el

país, si las buscas en el Internet. Young Clerk: Hablas español. ¡Qué bien! OK,

so the oil change and tune up are going to cost you…

Client thinks: ¡Me están robando!

– For further discussion, see: • Elizabeth Aranda, “Puerto Rican migration and Settlement n

South Florida: The Importance of Transnational Socio-Cultural Spaces.” American Sociological Association, New York City, 2007.

• Yvette Bueno, “Ethnic Identity Maintenance and Immigrant Communication Patterns: Dominicans in South Florida.” Western States Communication Association, Denver, Feb. 2008.

Documents

Making Miami: A Case Study in Communication and the Construction of Transnational Spaces Presented by Sallie Hughes [email protected] Research Team: Elizabeth