William Chan - Week 5

In Michael P. Smiths's article, Can You Imagine? Transnational Migration and the Globalization of Grassroots Politics, Smith brings up a interesting point with using the Vietnamese refugees as an example; that the refugees are leaving their homeland to come to another place and try to 're-create' this idea of home in a new area. Smith brings up how places in the US will replicate places with 'old memories' in the homeland. The places in the US would be like Chinatown, Little Saigon, or Little Havana. These places are enclaves that remind the people who come here; how home was, how home should feel like, and really trying to make it feel 'like home'. It was an interesting point that Smith pointed out and I would add onto about how these places create a 'imagined life' and this is actually true because my family won't move away from Oakland because of the Chinatown that is in Oakland. It makes it convenient, accessible, and gives them a feeling of home; while being in America.
This article also reminds me of the film we were watching in class yesterday how the older Vietnamese man was saying how when he gets to America 'he's not Vietnamese no more; he's American now'. This is crazy how our families past generations or even people of my age have to live through this perception of a dual identity as well as a recreation of being comfortable in a whole other part of the Earth.

How can people of a diasporic group find a place they can call home?

http://blog.legalsolutions.thomsonreuters.com/top-legal-news/eastlaw-wong-kim-ark-and-the-children-of-illegal-immigrants/attachment/asian-american-theme-month/

Michael Peter Smith. “Transnational Migration and the Globalization of Grassroots Politics.”