This volume presents both an analysis of how identities are built, represented and negotiated in narrative, as well as a theoretical reflection on the links between narrative discourse and identity construction. The data for the book are Mexican immigrants' personal experience narratives and chronicles of their border crossings into the United States. Embracing a view of identity as a construct firmly grounded in discourse and interaction, the author examines and illustrates the multiple threads that connect the local expression and negotiation of identity to the wider social contexts that frame the experience of migration, from material conditions of life in the United States to mainstream discourses about race and color. The analysis reveals how identities emerge in discourse through the interplay of different levels of expression, from implicit adherence to narrative styles and ways of telling, to explicit negotiation of membership categories.

This cross-disciplinary edited collection presents an integrated approach to critical diversity studies by gathering original scholarly research on ideational, technical and actual social dimensions of contemporary governance through diversity.

This book addresses an issue currently making political headlines in the United States—immigration. Immigrants have long engendered debates about the boundaries of belonging, with some singing their praises and others warning of their dangers. In particular, the 11 million unauthorized immigrants in the country provoke heated disagreements with issues of legality and morality at the forefront. Increasingly, such debates take place online, by organizations in the immigrant rights and the immigration control movements, who engage in symbolic work that includes blurring, crossing, maintaining, solidifying, and shifting the boundaries of belonging. Based on data collected from 29 national-level groups, this book features a cultural sociological analysis of the online materials deployed by social movement organizations debating immigration in the United States.

Co-published with the Waterloo Centre for German Studies For centuries, large numbers of German-speaking people have emigrated from settlements in Europe to other countries and continents. In German Diasporic Experiences: Identity, Migration, and Loss, more than forty international contributors describe and discuss aspects of the history, language, and culture of these migrant groups, individuals, and their descendants. Part I focuses on identity, with essays exploring the connections among language, politics, and the construction of histories—national, familial, and personal—in German-speaking diasporic communities around the world. Part II deals with migration, examining such issues as German migrants in postwar Britain, German refugees and forced migration, and the immigrant as a fictional character, among others. Part III examines the idea of loss in diasporic experience with essays on nationalization, language change or loss, and the reshaping of cultural identity. Essays are revised versions of papers presented at an international conference held at the University of Waterloo in August 2006, organized by the Waterloo Centre for German Studies, and reflect the multidisciplinarity and the global perspective of this field of study.

This original, scholarly collection of essays investigates the intersections of large-scale international migration and solidarity-building. Unpacking how civil courage occurs, under what forms, and what sustains it, Carlo Tognato, Bernadette Nadya Jaworsky, and Jeffrey C. Alexander bring together authors to explore a new theory of the exemplary individual or collective in the recent age of “migration crises”—actors who stand against injuries or injustices toward migrants, even when it is costly or risky in a context of hostility or indifference. A resource for those interested in the triggers and safeguards of democracy and civil society, and for scholars and practitioners alike, this volume offers empirical case studies from the US, Europe, Australia, and Latin America of cross-group solidarity efforts.

This book examines narratives of anti-German sentiment and language loss from German American communities in southwestern, Illinois. During World War I and II, government sponsored Americanization campaigns brought an abrupt end to German speaking practices in many communities across the Midwest. The narratives and the sociolinguistic practices around their telling detail the experiences of people who were singled out because of their ethnicity and bilingualism and the consequences these experiences had for their families. This work considers how contexts of discrimination informed constructions of the past that people could live with and the impact of these contexts on their beliefs about language and belonging. In addition to stories of past experience, this work also explores narratives of the present. New immigrants are moving to the region for work in local industries and their presence is regarded cautiously by German origin residents. Narrative constructions about new immigrants are considered in light of these shifting demographics and local histories of anti-German sentiment with significant implications for the future of social relationships in these communities.