Anthropology and Migration; Essays on Transnationalism, Ethnicity, and Identity

262 Pages·2003·9.98 MB·English

by  Caroline Brettell

· J
,;
Anthropology
an d Migration
Essays on Transnationalism ,
Ethnicity, and Identltv
Carol ine Btettell
ANTHROPOLOGY
AND MIGRATION

ANTHROPOLOGY
AND MIGRATION
Essays on Transnational ism,
Ethnicity, and Identity
Caroline Brettell
PRESS
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Brettell, Caroline.
Anthropology and migration: essays on transnationalism, ethnicity, and
identity / Caroline Brettell.
p.cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN: 978-0-7591-0320-7
1. Portuguese-Foreign countries-History. 2. Portugal-Emigration and
immigration-Social aspects. 3. Return migration-Portugal-History. 4.
Identity (Psychology)-Portugal. 5. Ethnicity-Portugal. 1. Title.
DP534.5.B742003
305.86'9'009-dc21
2003006176
Printed in the United States of America
§TM The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of
American National Standard for Information Sciences-Permanence of Paper
for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.
Contents
List of Tables vii
Introduction: Anthropology, Migration, and the
Portuguese Diaspora ix
PART I: SITUATING THE ANTHROPOLOGICAL
PERSPECTIVE: MACRO, MESO, AND MICRO
APPROACHES TO THE STUDY OF MIGRATION 1
1 The Emigrant, the Nation, and the State in
Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Portugal:
An Anthropological Approach 9
2 Migration Stories: Agency and the Individual
in the Study of Migration 23
PART II: RETURN MIGRATION, TRANSMIGRANTS,
AND TRANSNATIONALISM 47
3 Emigrar para Voltar: A Portuguese Ideology
of Return Migration 57
4 Emigration, the Church, and the Religious Festa
in Northern Portugal 75
v
vi / Contents
PART III: CITIES, IMMIGRANT COMMUNITIES,
AND ETHNIC IDENTITY 101
5 Is the Ethnic Community Inevitable?:
A Comparison of the Settlement Patterns
of Portuguese Immigrants in Toronto and Paris 109
6 Ethnicity and Entrepreneurs:
Portuguese Immigrants in a Canadian City 127
PART IV: GENDER AND MIGRATION 139
7 Emigration and Household Structure in a
Portuguese Parish, 1850-1920 153
8 Women Are Migrants, Too: A Portuguese Perspective 185
9 Conclusion: Toward a Comparative Understanding
of Migration 197
References 201
Index 233
About the Author 239
List of Tables
Table 3.1. Portuguese Legal Immigration to France, 1946-1975 58
Table 4.1. Rates of Migration and Sex Ratios in Lanheses,
1864-1970 77
Table 4.2. Portuguese Emigration by District of Origin,
1950-1974 79
Table 4.3. Residents of Lanheses Living in France, 1975 79
Table 4.4. Baptisms in Lanheses for Children Born in France
to Native Lanhesan Parents, 1967-1977 82
Table 4.5. Receipts and Expenses for Special Festas
in Lanheses, 1964-1978 86
Table 5.1. Portuguese Immigration to Canada, 1946-1973 111
Table 5.2. Portuguese Immigration to France, 1946-1979 111
Table 5.3. Foreign-Born Population of Metropolitan Toronto
and Some Proximate Suburbs, 1971 113
Table 5.4. Distribution of the Foreign Population of Paris,
by Arrondissement, 1975 117
VII
viii / List of Tables
Table 5.5. Distribution of Portuguese Immigrants in Paris,
by Sex and Arrondissement, 1975 118
Table 7.1. Distribution of Household Types in Lanheses,
1850-1920 160
Table 7.2. Coresidence of Single Women, by Age, 1850-1920 164
Table 7.3. Coresidence of Married Women, by Age, 1850-1920 170
Table 7.4. Simple and Multiple Households with Male
Absences, 1850-1920 174
Table 7.5. Female-Headed Households, by Age and Type,
1850-1920 175
Table 7.6. Coresidence of Widows, by Age, 1850-1920 177
Introduction
Anthropology, Migration,
and the Portuguese Diaspora
Anthropology, as a discipline, came relatively late to the study of migra
tion as a social, political, economic, and cultural process. Indeed, anthro
pologists often chose not to write about it, even when it was happening
right in front of them, because it did not fit the timeless and bounded
idea of culture that framed their analyses. For example, while it has been
estimated that approximately 52 percent of the Chambri (Tchambuli)
men between the ages of fifteen and forty-five were working as migrant
laborers and therefore absent from the Papua New Guinea village where
Margaret Mead was living in 1933, she "did not take these articulations
with the larger system into consideration" (Gewertz and Errington 1991,
87). Similarly, although George Foster (1967) acknowledged that some
residents of the Mexican village of Tzintzuntzan, where he carried out
field research in the mid-1940s, were involved in the bracero program, he
leaves the significant impact of migration out of his model of the "image
of limited good."
However, by the late 1950s and early 1960s, it became apparent to
many anthropologists that migration should receive more systematic at
tention as a topic for research. Initially the emphasis was on rural-urban
migration, the demographic factor that most contributed to the exponen
tial growth of cities such as Mexico City, Cairo, Jakarta, Lagos, Nairobi,
Lima, Sao Paolo, and Rio de Janeiro. Migration was a manifestation of a
pervasive transformation from a rural agrarian base to an urban indus
trial base in the economies of most developing countries (Safa 1975). In
the emerging cities of South and Southeast Asia, Africa, and Central and
South America, rural villagers were finding employment as unskilled or
semiskilled workers and were living in neighborhoods with people of
ix