Explores the way writers address the formation and fate of the contemporary American working class in an age of neoliberal globalization. Specifically, the essay examines Russell Banks's 1985 novel Continental Drift, which interweaves the stories of two characters who pull up stakes and head to Florida in search of a better life: an oil furnace repair man from New Hampshire and a young, single mother from Haiti.
Newly arrived from Cuba, Angelica, Dora, Marina, and Damaris attempted to negotiate new surroundings and immigrant identities, building a sense of home for themselves and their families. Data from qualitative interviews, classroom observations, and focus group conversations revealed hopes that by acquiring English language skills, they would improve their quality of life in their new country. Struggles included personal factors situated in their pasts in Cuba and their new surrounds in the Miami Cuban exile enclave, contexts that were further complicated by uncertain expectations of new lives in Miami and the overwhelming task of learning a new language at a local adult education center.
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
310 p., Relates current theoretical debates about hospitality and cosmopolitanism to the actual conditions of refugees. Examines literary works by such writers as Edwidge Danticat, Nikl Payen, Kamau Brathwaite, Francisco Goldman, Julia Alvarez, Ivonne Lamazares, and Cecilia Rodriguez Milans, Jacques Derrida, Edouard Glissant, and Wilson Harris.
Cervantes-Rodriguez,Ana Margarita (Editor), Grosfoguel,Ramón (Editor), and Mielants,Eric (Editor)
Format:
Book, Edited
Publication Date:
2009
Published:
Philadelphia: Temple University Press
Location:
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
261 p., Examines the experiences of Caribbean immigrants to Spain, France, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands as well as the United States. They show the demographic, socioeconomic, political and cultural impact migrants have, as well as their role in the development of transnational social fields. Also examines how contrasting discourses of democracy and racism, xenophobia and globalization shape issues pertaining to citizenship and identity.
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
221 p, Contents:
1. Toward a theoretical framework for analysing Caribbean migration -- 2. The historical context: Caribbean migration from Emancipation to the Second World War -- 3. The organisation of un-recruited migration from the Caribbean to Britain -- 4. Britain as post-war migrant destination: the national scale and the Leicester locality -- 5. The occupation experience: change and continuity for Nevisian migrants in Leicester -- 6. The housing question: Caribbean migrants and the British housing market -- 7. Return to Nevis: myth and reality -- 8. Conclusion.
Okpewho,Isidore (Editor) and Nzegwu,Nkiru (Editor)
Format:
Book, Edited
Publication Date:
2009
Published:
Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press
Location:
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
531 p., Traces the immigrants' progress from expatriation to arrival and covers the successes as well as problems they have encountered as they establish their lives in a new country. Includes Georges E. Fouron's "I, too, want to be a big man" : the making of a Haitian "boat people"; John A. Arthur's "Immigrants and the American system of justice: perspectives of African and Caribbean Blacks"; and Perry Mars' "The Guyana diaspora and homeland conflict resolution."
