Identifying Migration and the National State in Methodological Transnationalism

Abstract

The national state has posited migrants as its “other.” This recognition is becoming increasingly problematic, particularly at present, with the rise of nationalism in response to globalization. Such nationalism has nurtured hostilities against migrants because of their “otherness.” Thus, it is critical to reconsider how non-exclusion of the other in society can be made possible in order to promote democracy in contemporary society. In other words, this question pertains to the construction of the publicness of migrants or a public sphere involving migrants. With regard to the migrants, as the other, it is difficult for them to be involved in the public sphere in light of the Westphalian nationalstate system. This framework acknowledges the national state's response toward migrants as an exercise of sovereignty, even in the case of exclusion (particularly if it is relevant to its people's security). Thus, it is necessary to reexamine the relation between the migrants and the national state. This paper attempts to explore this issue with regard to the Asian migrants in the United States.Based on such interests, this paper focuses on the transition of the methodology from nationalism to transnationalism. This shift is historic in that it contributed to transforming the relations between the Asian migrants/Americans and the United States. Subsequently, in this paper, I will reveal that the earlier studies that employed transnationalism were partially based on methodological nationalism, where migrants were considered as nothing but the other of the national state. I will then present a solution to overcome this by examining the manner in which the United States was built into a sovereign national state in the late nineteenth century in response to the international migration of the Chinese people.