Reading Reflection "Age of Migration" Chapter 2

“The migration from the Dominican Republic to the USA was initiated by the US military occupation of the 1960’s.” (26)

This is similar to Vietnamese and Korean migrants. Did the military actively promote migrations? It seems as though our military occupations are being used to deter migration to the united states.

“People start to see their life perspectives in the new country. This process is especially linked to the situation of migrants’ children… it becomes more and more difficult for the parents to return to their homelands” (28)

How does this impact national identities of people coming to certain countries? Do they assimilate to the new countries culture because they have kids and a new life there? How does this affect their success and happiness?

“Members of a specific group decide to ‘invoke’ ethnicity, as a criterion for self-identification, in a situation where such identification is necessary or useful. This explains the variability of ethnic boundaries.” (34)

Is it possible for people to not identify with a certain ethnicity, and if so how does that help and hurt the migration process?

“In some countries, notably Germany and France, there is reluctance to speak of racism” (35)

We are going to be in Germany and witness this statement first hand. In what way do different ethnicities experience oppression if racism is hidden? Is racism obvious but just not spoken of? What sorts of oppressions do racial minorities face in Germany?

Citizenship: cultural homogeneity is the nationalist ideal (43)

Has any culture or country been able to keep their nationalist ideals and not have cultural homogeneity? If everyone is accepting of different cultures within the one area, can that be a nationalist identity itself?