Chris Wilfred S.

Estrada
GED105 – A55
Metacognitive Reading Report 2
Reading: Globalization from Below: The Rise of Transnational Communities
Author: Alejandro Portes

TRANSNATIONAL COMMUNITIES: A DRIVING FORCE

FOR CONTINUOUS TRANSFORMATION OF THE WORLD

Today, it can be observed that the world has faced a lot of changes that may
include the sudden shifts on networks and improvement in the world economy. In
response to globalization, people have idealized the formulation of communities that have
been a great impact on international trade relations and political borders. The definition
of transnationalism entails the progressions wherein immigrants establish and maintain
interconnected relations that would bind their current and origin’s arrangement thus
making a transnational community, a group of immigrants constructing multi-relational
bound in their settlement regardless of differences in many aspects.

Different processes that consist of social, political, and economic are discovered in
transnationalism that happens outside national borders and becomes a prominent
component of studies concerning migration (Villa-Torres et al., 2017). Since there are a
lot of processes involved in the creation and propagation of transnational communities,
there are also concepts that may be dealt with difficulties. One of which is the
transnational professional mobility that is part of the social processes. Transnational
professional mobility is much more complicated than it is because it has been related to
the point that Portes made which is the predictable social consequences. Different
arguments emerged from the social science field that gives attention to borderless
movement and a greater globalized professional workforce. It can be observed that
mobility may depend on transnational firms as time progresses based on certain
researches. Even though there are researchers that relate to transnational professional
mobility, the coverage, and occurrence of travels related to mobility are still unclear
(Spence et al., 2018).

Another discussion that seems to possess a gap is the politics in a certain society that may
include ethnic groups that have experienced changes in the community with the rise of a
transnational network. Portes explained that immigrant communities are uninterruptedly
growing at a continuous phase through gaps on legal matters and hidden channels. On the
study conducted by (Perreault, 2003), the networks that allow the use of services,
resources, land, and political institutions that have been linked to the Mondayacu
residents have experienced changes through time with the arrival of neoliberal reforms,
the emergence of influential transnational advocacy networks, and the changes in
international norms. Lastly, the economic process may include the differential economic
opportunities that are also a lot more complicated than it is. In the same study by
(Perreault, 2003), the policies and programs that were promoted on the community of
Mondayacu residents lessen or removed food, goods, and fuel subsidies, recognition of
farmers, and welfare, health care, and education funds. Aside from these, privatization of
land markets also happened and prices in agricultural sectors were controlled by market
forces that lead to economic and social crises. These changes in the economy of the
community clearly show that the topic is not as simple as it is.

Based on the points that Portes made, insights can be clearly drawn, and
applications of insights are evident in certain researches. First, capitalism is related to the
emergence of transnational communities. Stable employment can be masked by higher
income, as well as high-quality jobs, higher return to human capital, and the diminishing
disparity in the economy between the natives and immigrants (Vacca et al., 2018). It can
be observed that on the continuous growth of transnational communities, there is also a
continuous growth in capitalism. Arguments have been made by man scholars, a
particular one includes the incorporation on the context of the derivative of Marxist
theory, the world system theory, that regards the migration of people internationally as
labor movement in peripheries to major nations primarily began out of advanced
capitalist economies that are looking for inexpensive labor and the desperation for a
dependent relationship on political and economic aspects (Miralao & Makil, 2007).

The next point that was made in the reading is the different traditional patterns of
immigrant adaptation. Contributions on the learnings when it comes to the personal
communities of immigrants and their adaptation patterns have been made possible by the
personal networks researches that were conducted although a majority of them were
focused on the establishment of personal networks. On the other side, migration studies
have minimally taken into account the structure of personal networks even though
structural measures were incorporated in data of personal networks when it comes to
other studies. Based on these conditions, it can be claimed that personal network structure
has become an instrument for the development of understanding in the patterns of
transnationalism concerning international immigrants (Vacca et al., 2018). Lastly,
globalization has taken its part in the emergence of transnational communities. New
structures allow different migrants from different places to relate and communicate to
each other as well as different organizations and businesses that have been a product of
the rise of globalization that would support in maintaining the links of transnational
migrant communities (Miralao & Makil, 2007).

The transnational communities have been already sprouting the Philippines. Miralao and
Makil (2007) stated that “The Philippines being a country of emigration, the intent of the
2000 fora as Asis states in her introduction to the volume, was to broaden the discussion
on migration issues by looking into the Philippines as host country to foreigners who
have come to settle on its shores”. The studies of transnational communities that are
present in the country have a lot to go considering that the Philippines is not a core nation
and that the rise of these transnational communities would bring both advantages and
disadvantages to the country. From the concepts and insights, specific questions could be
raised, and it is important that further discoveries in the topic of transnational networks
would continue to grow. How would policies address the problems that would arise in the
interaction between foreigners and locals? What would be the influence of transnational
communities on international disputes? How would current immigrants establish a deep
allegiance to the country of their settlement? In the end, transnational communities are
 groups that sustain well-built international ties on the place they reside and that multiple
multi-national relations would bring a driving force for the continuous transformation of
the world.

References

Miralao, V. A., & Makil, L. P. (2007). Exploring transnational communities in the

Philippines. Philippine Migration Research Network and Philippine Social Science
Council. Retrieved from https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000153053 on March
30, 2020

Perreault, T. (2003). Changing places: Transnational networks, ethnic politics, and community
development in the ecuadorian amazon. Political Geography, 22(1), 61–88. Retrieved
from https://doi.org/10.1016/S0962-6298(02)00058-6 on March 30, 2020

Spence, C., Sturdy, A., & Carter, C. (2018). Professionals with borders: The relationship
between mobility and transnationalism in global firms. Geoforum, 91, 235–244.
Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2018.03.012 on March 30, 2020

Vacca, R., Solano, G., Lubbers, M. J., Molina, J. L., & McCarty, C. (2018). A personal
network approach to the study of immigrant structural assimilation and transnationalism.
Social Networks, 53, 72–89. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socnet.2016.08.007
on March 30, 2020

Villa-Torres, L., González-Vázquez, T., Fleming, P. J., González-González, E. L., Infante-

Xibille, C., Chavez, R., & Barrington, C. (2017). Transnationalism and health: A
systematic literature review on the use of transnationalism in the study of the health
practices and behaviors of migrants. Social Science and Medicine, 183, 70–79. Retrieved
from https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2017.04.048 on March 30, 2020