Week 5 - Charles Miin

Life-worlds that are neither here nor there, rather both here and there at the same time. Termed to be cultural bifocality, Michael Peter Smith claims that having two perceptions of existence is a source of mental tension, especially for Vietnamese refugees without freedom of movement. Smith contemplates his perception of this phenomenon in conjunction with and against Appadurai's research and thoughts of globalized, deterritorialization and global ethnoscape. He constantly brings up the idea of an imagined homeland and the constant need of ethnic communities to reterritorialize with examples such as "Little Havana", "Koreatown", and "Little Saigon". Though I do agree that these are examples of strides made by these ethnic groups, I believe that they are not reclaiming anything in one of their two homelands. I believe that these groups have a fondness for their rich history but ultimately are moving forward and forging their own branding. A branding that includes both of their supposed homelands and subsequently spills over and alters both places in tandem with the crumbling of geopolitical boundaries and the rising of the global-local duality. Roger Rouse accurately sums this up with a scholarly context by defining the circular migrational circuit of these individuals as a state of "betweenness". I would add to this and say that the betweenness is more of a blurring of lines and a state of hybridization where each side directly affects the other while also remaining totally independent. A great example brought up of this is the elevation of remittances from a mere social action to a measurable social force that changes the economic standard of nations involved.
Of two movements of many in the United States, one to reclaim "home" and the other to harness and harmonize both localities, which will prevail or will they further join with one another?

Smith, Michael Peter. “Can You Imagine? Transnational Migration and the Globalization of Grassroots Politics.” Social Text, No. 39 (Summer 1994), pgs. 15-33. Print