The Space Between: The Politics of Immigration in Asian/Pacific Islander America

Abstract

i would like to thank dr. gabaccia for her intriguing essay on the origins of the term “nation of immigrants.” It really has helped me think about immigration with more historical richness. In my own work, I examine what goes into transnational and diasporic identities. I understand transnational identities as those operating between the loyalties of two or more countries. Going against perhaps unidirectional ways of understanding the immigrant as a foreigner entering into a country, I understand the immigrant identity within a transnational framework where the immigrant negotiates between more than one country. In my larger work, I want to look at the space-between that emerges for many immigrants and transnational migrants as they attempt to imagine new spaces for themselves against the dominating structures of an American society. I find a transnational perspective useful because this sort of analysis examines the space-between—the sites of interaction that take place between differing cultural expectations of what goes into not only political but also personal belonging to a place. A transnational perspective allows us to address the realities of globalization by acknowledging the space-between as an ontological reality, which brings us into relation with those who can disrupt the seemingly fixed nature of nation-state identities. In this response to Dr. Gabaccia’s essay, I would like to take up the idea that America was built as “a nation of immigrants.” I found it interesting that Dr. Gabaccia found that “emigrant” was used in a way to refer to foreigners “entering or living in the United States” (Gabaccia 13). “Emigrant” was also used to refer to slaves returning to Africa and American Indians on the Trail of Tears. Moreover, “emigrant” had a broader meaning that also included “colonizer and settler.” In the United States, “emigrant” is understood to mean an internal migrant moving to different regions within the nation-state. The word “emigrant” started to become less prominent, and