American Identity, Congress, and the Puerto Rico Statehood Debate

By Amílcar Antonio Barreto

Volume 16, Issue 1, pages 100-117

Abstract

Is the essence of American identity civic, ethnic, or a combination of the two? The 2010 debate in the U.S. House of Representatives on a bill to hold a referendum on the Puerto Rico status question provided a unique opportunity to shed light on these approaches. House Resolution 2499 would have asked the island’s electorate whether they preferred remaining a Commonwealth, become an independent country, or the fifty‐first state. Despite three choices, House members overwhelming focused on one: statehood. Effectively this bill asked lawmakers, in keeping with the civic identity thesis, whether they were willing to accept a culturally and linguistically distinct territory as an equal partner in the federation. These deliberations divulge much about congressional views on the official, civic, American identity and its alternatives. At another level this debate questions the assumption that the stability and consolidation of national identities cannot proceed with clearly and consistently defined boundary markers. That clarity, some contend, is imperative on the part of government leaders. This article argues that significant differences in how the nation is objectified may be overlooked in the short run, but may incur significant long‐term instability.

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A ‘European Migrant Crisis’? Some Thoughts on Mediterranean Borders

By Annalisa Lendaro

Volume 16, Issue 1, pages 148-157

Abstract

This paper addresses the ongoing ‘European Migrant Crisis’ by, first, discussing the return of internal borders within the European Union as zones for controlling and sorting migrants, and then both internal and external borders as areas in which policing and national policy choices deeply challenge international law, which was designed to protect all human beings regardless of their country of departure. The primary argument developed here is that some EU countries neglect to abide by the European and international regulations on migration, asylum seekers, and human rights, with unprecedented consequences. Border policies are presented here as paradoxical governmental tools, which are not applied equally and uniformly. The main consequence is the growing gap between rights guaranteed under the law and their selective application within a border management where the state of exception is increasingly visible.

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The Emergence of a New Form of Mexican Nationalism in San Antonio, Texas

By Luis Xavier Rangel-Ortiz

Volume 11, Issue 3, pages 384-403

Abstract

This article explores the role played by a growing community of Mexican national entrepreneurs who are crafting a new form of Mexican nationalism in San Antonio, Texas. This population of Mexican business people is growing in size and influence in the city. The experiences of Mexican entrepreneurs differ from understood forms of Mexican immigration and acculturation to the United States. They differ from previous waves of affluent groups of political and religious Mexican refugees that flourished in San Antonio from 1908 through the 1940s. The integration and cultural adaptation experiences of Mexican entrepreneurs represent a new form of Mexican nationalism that engages both Mexican and American nationalisms in a bidirectional acculturation process. Blending attitudes, values, beliefs, and behaviours of both countries represent a new form of Mexican and American culture emerging in San Antonio at the beginning of the twenty‐first century. To better understand the experiences and dynamics of these business people, this study builds on Pierre Bourdieu’s principles of capital and power.

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Banal Nationalism, Football, and Discourse Community in Africa

By Bea Vidacs

Volume 11, Issue 1, pages 25-41

Abstract

The article argues that despite the continuing relevance of ethnicity, the idea of the nation has taken root among Africans. This is due to a combination of factors, including the universal ideology of the nation‐state, the impact of the existence of such national borders on the imagination, and the influence of national symbols and icons, which naturalise the idea of the nation. Applying Michael Billig’s notion of banal nationalism to Cameroon, the article focuses on linguistic practices as well as on popular appropriations of national symbols as contributing factors to the creation and maintenance of national consciousness. The analysis of a call‐in radio program broadcast on Cameroonian national radio during the 1994 FIFA World Cup illustrates that football created a discourse community that reinforced the idea of the nation both explicitly and implicitly. By participating in the debate, journalists and listeners alike – regardless of the tenor of their remarks – reinforced and further contributed to imagining the Cameroonian nation.

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‘It’s Nothing Personal’: The Globalisation of Justice, the Transferability of Protest, and the Case of the Palestine Solidarity Movement

By Atalia Omer

Volume 9, Issue 3, pages 497-518

Introduction

The distinction that liberal western Palestine solidarity groups draw between their critique of Israel and otherwise unproblematic relation with Judaism or Jewish people, as well as their frequent disclaimer that they resist all forms of racism including anti‐Semitism, is supported by their application of a universal framework of norms that equates their critique of Israel with their critique of Apartheid in South Africa. In other words, it is ‘nothing personal’ about Judaism. This indeed may be the case, but to what degree is it important to recognise the particular Jewish story and experience central to the dynamics of the Israel‐Palestine conflict and its root causes and thus also integral to any attempt to think constructively about holistic peacebuilding or conflict transformation? The human rights talk and especially the framing of Israeli policies as amounting to an apartheid configuration position the critics of Israel in a supposedly neutral and objective moral position. The problem is that the conversation ends there in the act of condemning Israel’s violation of human rights. What are the assumptions inherent in this exclusive reliance on the human rights talk as a mode of engaging Israel and the Jewish people? To this extent, I demonstrate that the global civil society protest in support of Palestine replicates many of the problems integral to global Islamist rhetoric and especially in positing Israel as a proxy for the ‘farther enemy’ (i.e. the U.S., the ‘west’, imperialism, colonialism, etc.). […]

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