Navigating a river by its bends. A study on transnational social networks as resources for the transformation of Cambodia

This article explores in what ways first generation Cambodian French and Cambodian American returnees create and employ the social capital available in their transnational social networks upon their return to Cambodia. The triangular interdependence between the returnees, their overseas immigrant communities and homeland society is taken as a starting point. The central argument is that Cambodian French and Cambodian American returnees build different relationships to Cambodia due to: (1) the influence of their immigrant communities in the countries of resettlement; and (2) the contexts of their exit from Cambodia. Regarding debates on the contribution of returnees to an emergent nation, findings in this multisited casestudy bring forward that ideas of return held by the three parties involved may force remigrants into transnationalism in both host and home countries. Findings also demonstrate that social capital may be seen as a resource or a restraint in the lives of returnees

Review of \u3ci\u3eRacial Frontiers: Africans, Chinese, and Mexicans in Western America, 1848-1890\u3c/i\u3e By Arnoldo De Leon

Arnoldo De Leon wrote this book to fill a gap in the existing literature on the American West that either overlooks or is mindless about the contributions of Africans, Chinese, and Mexicans to the frontier experience. In his view, the presence of these nonwhite groups made the region a racial as well as a psychological frontier. In a short text of only 107 pages, he argues, in chapter 1, that these groups came because the frontier offered them opportunities not available in their homelands (though homeland is not entirely applicable to American-born blacks). That is, their motive for migrating to the region was similar to that of European Americans. These peoples of color, contrary to prevailing stereotypes, did adapt to the US political and economic systems as they tried to achieve their dreams despite the immense hurdles placed in their paths by European Americans who dominated all the major institutions of American life (chapters 2 and 3). The author asserts, however, in chapters 4 and 5, that they balked at becoming \u27cultural Americans\u27 ... though conceding change in the social environment. Such an assertion is too sweeping because while some individuals clung to their cultures of origin, others did not. Such an assessment contradicts the author\u27s earlier observation that the competitive interaction of the groups produced changes among all those involved. The book has both strengths and weaknesses. Its aim is laudable. The notes and bibliography indicate that the author read widely to produce this work of synthesis. A specialist in Mexican American history, he also plumbed the literature on Chinese American and African American history in order to give the three groups parity in the study. He is sensitive to class and gender differences within each group. Many of the individuals whose stories he tells are women. He notes that the interethnic interactions ranged from the amicable to the hostile-an important corrective to some of his overly sweeping generalizations. The most interesting tidbits are the instances of cooperation among peoples of color that he unearthed. One wishes the book included more of these little known occurrences. The book\u27s negative view of Native Americans, who are depicted as fierce tribes that attacked and massacred the migrants to the frontier, is its greatest weakness. One would think that a book about peoples of color would have seen Native Americans, who are also peoples of color, in a different light. After all, it is their land that the immigrants-both white and nonwhite-conquered. A more balanced picture would have included Native American perspectives on the settlement of the frontier

Hmong Means Free: Life In Laos And America

https://works.swarthmore.edu/alum-books/5044/thumbnail.jp