#displacedperson

[gwanth1002]

Transnational Migration In chapter 12 of the Miller textbook page 241-242 is described as "movement in which a person regularly moves back and forth between two or more countries and forms a new cultural identity transcending a single geopolitical unit." The textbook also describes transnational migration to have effect on the migrants identity, as constant movement weakens the sense of having a home and the "between" take on a new cultural reality. The picture of my house in Cambridge, Massachusetts fits because once I first moved to this street, I went back and forth to Haiti all the time because for two years.  Both my mom and dad were still living there which left me with a sense of being in between cultures and not having a permanent home. If I were to do anthropological fieldwork, I would want to know the long term effect of being a transnational migration looks like for a person. Also, I would like to follow the life of a child as they progress to adulthood, so that I could examine and more deeply understand the long term effect that being a transnational migration has on someone.

Displaced person is described on page 244 in the Miller Textbook, as "someone who is forced to leave his or her home, community, or country". The book also says that displacement can be due to colonialism, slavery, war, persecution, natural disasters, etc. I personally am a displaced person because of the 2010 Haiti earthquake. As a result of this, around 20% of people were displaced, and a portion of this percentage of people went to rural areas and camps. I was lucky enough to be able to take a military plane to the Dominican Republic, and then took a plane to Boston a week later. I took this picture of my house that is in Cambridge, Massachusetts, because I have been living on this street ever since I have moved to the United States. Up the street from here, is where my guardian at the time lived. I lived with my guardian, because I moved to the house without my mom for two years. When my mom was able to come to US, we moved moved down the street together, and have been living there ever since.If I were to do anthropological fieldwork I would want to investigate if the new community or environment that a displaced person moves to has an impact on their adjustment. Furthermore, if a person moves into an urban area versus a rural area does this have a long term or short-term impact on their adjustment period. I think that this would be very interesting, because it would show a different aspect of the adjustment and assimilation process.

[gwanth1002]

Push-Pull Theory and Displaced Person

This photo pictures my grandmother Sylvia, who gave permission to be used, at my house last week. Sylvia was born in Krakow, Poland in 1938. When the war broke out and the Holocaust began, she was hidden in a convent for most of the duration of the war, while her mother was hidden around Poland, eventually ending up in Austria with fake papers as slave labor, and her father escaped a work camp and hid under fake papers. Obviously, the conditions of the war made life extremely dangerous and difficult in Europe, and much of their family was killed. In the case of my grandmother and great grandparents, however, they luckily all three survived the war, ending up as displaced persons. A displaced person is defined someone who is forced to leave his or her home, community, or country, due to factors such as colonialism, slavery, war, and persecution (Miller 2017, p. 329). Due to the war, after Eastern Europe was liberated, they became displaced people with no communities to return to. This pushed them to look for options to emigrate to Israel (then Palestine) or the US. According the Miller textbook (2017, p. 325)  push-pull theory is defined as an explanation for rural-to-urban migration that emphasizes people’s incentives to move because of a lack of opportunity in rural areas (the “push”) compared with urban areas (the “pull”). The push-pull theory is also used in general when discussing why people choose to migrate. In this case, there were simply no opportunities for my family following the war, as their communities and businesses had been destroyed or taken, so there were major push factors at work causing them to leave Poland. They craved opportunities for a fresh start in places like Israel and the US, so as soon as they were able, they moved to New York.

While obviously my grandmother is not currently migrating, she is still an example of these key concepts because she is a product of these experiences and still an example of being a displaced person and push-pull factors.