Week 5- Elaine Hong

In "Transnational Migration and Globalizaton of Grassroot Politics" by Michael Peter Smith, Smith discusses transnational migrants as a category extending beyond the upper middle class. He includes "cultural aliens, undocumented workers, and 'illegitimate' political refugees" and how these people who reside outside of typical social constructions are being "subjugated" into the enemy.

I find his point extremely interesting because these people who are seen as different, and not within social norms, are being renamed and defined by an intangible larger power. Those who do not fit in with the government's and large corporation's definition of profit and success, and subtly guided and shifted towards hegemonic normalcy. I agree with Smith when he says these's "cultural aliens'" behavior is "resubjugated" and are being told who to be "loyal" to. Though these people have forged new identities with being transnational migrants, they are again remade, under the guise of capitalism, into someone who will bring large profits into large multinational corporations.

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

Question: How can these "cultural aliens" retain their transnational identities without being remade into a puppet for large multinational corporations? Is it even possible?