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Migrant political transnationalism and the practice of democracy: Dominican external voting rights and Salvadoran home town associations

2008; Routledge; Volume: 31; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/01419870701784497

1466-4356

José Itzigsohn, Daniela Villacrés,

Migration and Labor Dynamics

Abstract In Latin America, the political participation of migrants in their societies of origin constitutes one of the major innovations brought by the consolidation of democracy. This paper examines the links between migrant transnational politics and democratization processes in the Dominican Republic and El Salvador. It asks whether and how migrant political participation affects the way democratic practices are institutionalized in these two countries. The results indicate that in the two cases migrant political transnationalism has been a positive force for the strengthening of the formal democratic rules of organizing political competition. The analysis also shows, however, that the contribution of migrant transnational politics to the deepening of democracy towards more participative and deliberative forms is limited. Keywords: Political participationhomeland politicstransnationalismtransnationalimmigrationLatin America Notes 1. To these indicators we should add voting in the elections of the country of origin, but not all countries allow for migrant electoral participation. This, however, has not been a barrier to the forms of participation described above. 2. This section is based on research conducted by the first author. 3. At the time of writing this article, autumn 2006, Leonel Fernandez is again president of the Dominican Republic, after being elected for a second non-consecutive term in 2004. 4. Until the 1990s, New York City was the place where Dominican immigrant organizations were concentrated. Today, New York City is still the centre of Dominican concentration and organization, but the trend is towards the dispersion of the Dominican population in the United States (Torres-Saillant and Hernandez Citation1998). 5. The survey was conducted between the autumn of 2002 and the spring of 2003. The final sample included 119 second-generation and sixty-one first-generation respondents. It is not a random sample as there is no list of Dominicans in Providence to draw a sample from. The second-generation respondents were drawn from a list of 400 second-generation Dominicans. The list was generated by asking Dominicans in the city to provide the names of second-generation people whom they know. 6. Transnational political participation includes membership in Dominican political parties and contributing money to Dominican political campaigns. The survey was taken before the right to vote was exercised so it does not measure voting in Dominican elections. 7. Social transnationalism includes being a member of organizations that sends monetary support to the Dominican Republic, travelling to town of origin to participate in local celebrations and being a member of a social or sports club with ties to the Dominican Republic. 8. In fact, this scenario is not hypothetical as it has happened twice in the last two years. In 2005, the South American vote tilted the regional elections in Galicia, Spain, towards the Socialist Party and in 2006 the South American vote gave a majority in the Italian senate to the centre-left coalition hence allowing Romano Prodi to become prime minister. In both cases, it was the vote abroad that defined the results of the elections. 9. This section is based on fieldwork conducted by the second author. 10. In addition to the FMLN, there were a number of US grassroots, labour, church-based and civil rights organizations that worked with the migrant community on immigrant rights issues. These organizations often worked together with the FMLN or FMLN-related organizations (Landolt Citation2000). 11. It is important to note that remittances take two forms. On the one hand, there are individual remittances that people send to their families. These constitute the bulk of money transfers from the immigrant community to the country of origin. In this paper, however, we focus on collective remittances, that is, remittances that are part of the efforts by migrant organizations to participate in local development projects in the town of origin. The government policies discussed here are oriented to promote this type of collective development effort. 12. By football we mean the world game, not the American one. 13. There is also the question of the relationship between the consulates and the home-town associations. It has been argued that the sending countries' governments attempt to control HTAs through the consulates (see Smith (Citation2006) for the analysis of a Mexican case study). The Salvadoran government claims that it does not attempt to 'control' HTA activities but that it aims to support and facilitate their activities. In the case of Intipucá, the Fundación people had good contacts in diplomatic circles. This, however, is an issue that deserves research beyond the boundaries of this paper. 14. It is important to note, however, that migrant transnational politics can take many ideological signs. Indeed, in an essay analysing what he calls long-distance nationalism, Benedict Anderson (Citation1998) points to the role of diasporas in promoting and supporting uncompromising and fanatical politics in places as different as Punjab, Sri Lanka, Croatia and Armenia. Additional informationNotes on contributorsJosé Itzigsohn JOSÉ ITZIGSOHN is Associate Professor of Sociology at Brown University Daniela Villacrés DANIELAVILLACRÉS is a graduate student at the Brown Sociology Program