The Trump administration announced it will end the Temporary Immigration Status allowing immigrants from El Salvador to work and live legally in the U.S. It recently ended the TPS for Nicaraguans when the program expires in January 2019. The future of TPS beneficiaries from other countries, including Haiti, and Honduras, has not been determined yet. Other TPS beneficiaries from Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, Nepal and Yemen are also currently protected.

Jason De León, associate professor of anthropology at the University of Michigan, has spent the last five years studying undocumented migration to the U.S., as well as migration from Central America through Mexico.

Q. How will ending TPS affect Salvadorans?

De León: The ending of TPS for 200,000+ Salvadorans is a cruel political move that runs counter to the American ideas that we are a compassionate country that was founded by immigrants and that we see ourselves as providing shelter to those in need.

This cancellation will wreak havoc on our local communities through the real threat of draconian deportation raids and (if carried out) will send people back to a country where the risk of death is frightening real. This is not simply a cancellation of a humanitarian immigration program. This is a death sentence for many.

Q: Why are there so many immigrants from Central America trying to enter the U.S.?

De León: The conditions are especially dire in El Salvador and Honduras. They’re fleeing one of the highest murder rates in the world. They’re fleeing poverty, violence, a whole host of difficulties, and they’ve been given basically two choices: stay in these countries and risk death or risk death through migration.

To some of the folks getting deported back to these places, it is a death sentence. A lot of the young men that are fleeing places like Honduras say: “Listen, if I go back, they’re going to kill me on the street. That’s why I left. They killed my family, my mom, my brother. I was the only one left so I had no other choice.” When we send those folks back, we know we’re sending them to a potential death.

Q: For those who did receive protected status allowing them to work and live legally in the U.S., shouldn’t they be much better off when they go back?

De León: For folks that have been here under protected status for many years, they now face a new set of risks. We have people who have been able to accrue some capital, who are perceived as wealthy Americans or wealthy migrants. You send those folks back to El Salvador or Honduras and they become even bigger targets now because they can be held for ransom, exploited in all sorts of ways. They are almost in more danger now because of the time they spent in the U.S. than folks who have just left the country.

To lift that protected status and send them back to these countries is cruel and dangerous and incredibly heartless.

Q: Many people who oppose terminating TPS say it might increase undocumented immigration to the U.S. How come?

Not only are you sending people back to these very dangerous countries but you put them in a position where they have few options. And we know that many of these folks will risk their lives crossing Mexico, which has now become this field of landmines…you’re running from the cartels, from corrupt immigration officials, you are running from kidnappers, you’re risking your life riding on top of freight trains, running through the jungles. Folks are going to see that as the only choice they have.

De León: You have people who have lived in this country legally for a long period of time. They’ve put down roots, they’ve created all sorts of social networks and now you send them back to their supposed home countries and some of these people, they don’t even know those places anymore. As soon as they get there they will say “I have one choice and one choice only, which is to migrate back to the U.S. illegally and to re-enter the country to go back to the only life I currently know.”

If I’ve been here for 25 years and I have my family here and you send me back to what’s become a dangerous country to me, I’ll be the first one on a bus out of those places. This idea of removing the protective status is going to kill a lot of people.

Written by: Nardy Baeza Bickel

Note: This post is republished from Global Michigan Newsroom, with permission

Haiti pride

The Haitian Revolution defeated the army of Napoleon Bonaparte and established the only country in the world based on a revolt of enslaved people — a lot to be proud of. Yet, some Americans see something other than a country that has overcome and continues to overcome extreme adversity. The Huffington Post published a piece by Mark Schuller, associate professor of anthropology and NGO studies professor at Northern Illinois University and a Haiti solidarity activist. He writes: “On Thursday, the day before the eighth anniversary of the earthquake in Haiti that killed at least 230,000 people, President Trump called Haiti – as well as a single, undifferentiated ‘Africa’ – ‘shithole countries.’ Of course, the president’s first impulse was to deny the statement, just as he had denied the statement made public through an anonymous source to the New York Times that ‘all Haitians have AIDS.’ Triggering the conversation is his administration’s denial of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for 58,000 people from Haiti currently living in the U.S., some for as much as thirty years. His comments speak to the callous attitude of an individual that feels no accountability, who thinks he can rewrite history as is convenient.”

claiming indigeneity in India

The Times of India reported on the effort of the Badaga people of India’s Nilgiri Hills region to gain indigenous status. Their effort has received support from Paul Hockings, emeritus professor of anthropology at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Hockings, who has done research among the Badaga. He is quoted as saying: “the tribe despite its sketchy history is as indigenous to the Nilgiris as the English are to Britain… The length of time in their abode has no particular bearing on their indigeneity. The Badagas today have no cultural roots outside the district, which is also true of the Kotas and Todas, and it is in this sense that all three communities are indeed indigenous.” This determination comes as a relief for the community because, in fact, it was Hockings’ statement in the 1960s about the possibility of the Badagas originating in another state that added fuel to the debate on the tribe’s ethnicity.

tribes gaining U.S. federal recognition 

The Williamsburg-Yorktown Daily (Virginia) reported that six American Indian tribes of eastern Virginia are one step away from federal recognition. The legislation will extend federal recognition to the Chickahominy, Eastern Chickahominy, Upper Mattaponi, Rappahannock, Monacan, and Nansemond tribes. The tribes have received recognition from the Commonwealth of Virginia. A seventh tribe, the Pamunkey, received federal recognition in 2016. The College of William and Mary held an event to celebrate the news.  “A number of us at William & Mary have worked closely with these groups,” said archaeologist Martin Gallivan, professor of anthropology at the College of William & Mary. “But the Chickahominy, Monacan, Rappahannock, Nansemond, Eastern Chickahominy and Upper Mattaponi deserve all the credit for persevering with recognition, long past the point when others would probably have given up.”

rethinking university admission in Japan

An article in The Atlantic described the highly competitive process of admission to elite universities in Japan. It quoted Gregory Poole, professor of social anthropology at the Institute for the Liberal Arts of Doshisha University in Kyoto: “Anybody can get into a university in Japan at the moment.” But only the country’s top-tier public and private universities can guarantee young adults promising prospects. For admission to such universities, much rests on an applicant’s score on the so-called Center Test. Center Test success can feel to those taking it like a marker of their worth in society and like the end-all of their academic and professional careers. The Ministry of Education is planning an ambitious reform that seeks to transform the test’s role in the university admission system, the way aptitude is measured, and how students are trained for their professional lives.

Clovis site in Ohio

The Columbus Dispatch (Ohio) reported that the archaeological record of Ohio has been enriched by the discovery of Clovis artifacts at a site in the southeastern part of the state by  Metin Eren, assistant professor of anthropology at Kent State University, and several colleagues. While hundreds of Clovis points have been found across Ohio, most of the sites are in the major river valleys of central Ohio. Some archaeologists conclude from this that the Clovis people chose to avoid the hill country, favoring instead the flatlands, where it was easier to hunt mammoths and mastodons. But the new discovery suggests that the Clovis culture exist in the southeast, but it is harder to find. The team studied nine stone tools found at the site, including an unfinished Clovis point, four fragments of other points, a scraper and three other tools, as well as 118 pieces of chipped flint. They examined 33 of the artifacts under high-powered magnification to determine whether and how they had been used. Results are published in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports.

Homo erectus site in Israel

The Guardian and other media covered the discovery of an abundance of artifacts from 500,000 years ago found at a site called Jaljulia in central Israel. Maayan Shemer, of the Israel Antiquities Authority, said: “Coming to work in Jaljulia, nobody expected to find evidence of such an ancient site, let alone one so extensive and with such impressive finds…There are only two sites [in Israel] whose estimated age is close to Jaljulia in the Sharon, or central Israel: one in Kibbutz Eyal, approximately 5km to the north, and the other, dated to a slightly later cultural phase, at Qesem Cave located approximately 5km to the south. The findings are amazing, both in their preservation state and in their implications about our understanding of this ancient material culture.” Ran Barkai, of Tel Aviv University, added: “This extraordinary site will enable us to trace the behaviour of our direct prehistoric ancestors, and reconstruct their lifestyle and behaviour on the very long journey of human existence.“

 

police violence also kills with trauma and loss

AlterNet published commentary by Christen A. Smith, associate professor of African and African diaspora studies and anthropology at the University of Texas at Austin. She writes: “The sting of the premature death of 27-year-old Erica Garner, daughter of Eric Garner, is still fresh. On Christmas Eve, Erica Garner suffered a massive heart attack which caused extensive brain damage. She died on Dec. 30. This latest loss emphasizes something we have known: Black women are dying from the trauma of police violence and this issue must be grappled with before more die. When I heard the news of Erica Garner’s heart attack, a wave of familiar shock and pain ran through me. I immediately recognized the correlation between her heart attack and her father’s death because I had seen it before. As an anthropologist who studies the impact of police violence on black communities in Brazil and the United States, I was familiar with many stories like Erica’s. My research examines the ways that police violence kills black women slowly through trauma, pain and loss.”

recommended reading re Iran protests

The Napa Valley Register (California) carried an article about how people can better understand the protests in Iran: “If you want to understand what has provoked days of protests in Iran and where they might be heading….To understand the frustrations driving the young, working-class Iranians who began the protests, I recommend reading [anthropologist] Shahram Khosravi‘s “Precarious Lives: Waiting and Hope in Iran,” published by the University of Pennsylvania Press.”  Khosravi is professor of social anthropology at Stockholm University.

Continue reading “anthro in the news 1/8/18” →

anthropology in the news is taking a break this week but will return on January 8

gift-giving is a key to culture

The Guardian published a piece on gift-giving and culture: “Exchanging stuff – as gifts or economic transactions – and reciprocating those exchanges in a socially acceptable way – is a practice found in all human cultures. The rules and scope of the exchanges may be very different, but the fact of them is universal…French anthropologist Marcel Mauss doesn’t attempt to explain the politics and practice of the office Secret Santa (alas) – instead, he describes “archaic societies” in Melanesia, Polynesia and the north-west coast Native American peoples who practiced ‘potlatch’, a ceremonial gift-giving and feasting ritual characterised by competitive shows of conspicuous giving and consumption. These, Mauss says, are systems of gift-giving that aren’t just about gifts, but carry legal, economic, spiritual and moral significance that saturates the whole social fabric…In these societies, items given as gifts take on the spiritual significance of the giver. The value of the relationship is embodied in the thing given.” Mauss’ insights are relevant to societies, of course, because any gift is a social thing, with embedded social meaning.

new wave of anti-Semitism in Sweden

The Washington Post published commentary by Aje Carlbom, associate professor of social anthropology at Malmö University in Sweden, on the resurgence of anti-Semitism there: “During anthropological fieldwork here in Sweden’s third-largest city 20 years ago, I interviewed a young Palestinian man who thought it was a shame that the “Nazis didn’t get to finish their job with the Jews” during World War II. This is of course an extreme example of one man who does not speak for his community. Unfortunately since then, Malmö — with its significant community of Muslim immigrants — has become infamous for its growing anti-Semitism, which has prompted many Jews to leave. More recently, Trump’s decision to relocate the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem has provoked attacks on synagogues in Sweden as well as openly expressed threats to kill Jews.”

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Continue reading “anthro in the news 12/26/17” →

Hashtag #MeToo, December 2017. Credit: Wolfmann/Creative Commons

sexual harassment survey

U.S. News and World carried an article about the results of a recent survey of thousands of women in the U.S. about sexual harassment. A much higher percentage of younger and college educated women reported personal experience of sexual harassment or by a female family member. The article includes commentary from Hillary Haldane, associate professor of anthropology at Quinnipiac University, who thinks that two federal policies have shaped awareness of gender-based violence and harassment: “Young women in college now were all born near or after the signing of the Violence Against Women Act, and they’ve always had Title IX, which more recently has been used as a bulwark against gender violence on college campuses…During their formative years, they’ve heard public service announcements, and services have always been provided to them. Plus, there are documentaries and social media…They’re not necessarily experiencing more sexual harassment — they’re just far more aware of how they can come forward.”

the meanings in a gift

An article in The Detroit News addresses the author’s quandary of holiday gift-giving, especially the choice between fun gifts and practical gifts. The discussion draws on the work of the pre-eminent scholar of “the gift,” Marcel Mauss, and concludes with the thought that a person’s gift-giving choice conveys their personal/social identity: “Marcel Mauss was a French anthropologist and sociologist who in the mid-1920s published his book, ‘The Gift,’ which made the argument that gifts are never free. His work was based on studying several cultures and he identified several obligations: giving, which is the first step in forging and maintaining a social bond; receiving, which means refusing a gift would be to reject that social bond; and reciprocating. According to Mauss, giving gifts requires reciprocation. And without that reciprocation, relationships can be threatened.” Therefore, a holiday gift-giver’s choices reveal his or her identity and is a way of saying, “this is who I am, and do we still have a relationship?” Whether the gift is a fun gift or a practical gift.

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Continue reading “anthro in the news 12/18/17” →

By Sean Carey

“Why do you want to go to a posh Indian restaurant and spend a small fortune when you can go to the Lahore or Needoo’s in Whitechapel and get a really good two-course meal for £15?” I asked my Nairobi-born British Punjabi friend, Kamal, after he expressed a keen interest in a high-end Indian dining experience.

“Don’t worry about the cost,” he reassured me with a smile, “it’ll be my treat.”

That conversation explains why the two of us recently ended up at Gymkhana, part of the fast-expanding JKS Restaurants group, which is located in Albemarle Street, Mayfair, a stone’s throw from the razzle-dazzle that is Piccadilly Circus. Since its opening in 2013, Gymkhana has won high praise from many food critics. The Times’ often acerbic restaurant critic, Giles Coren, proclaimed, “Gymkhana is the best restaurant I have ever been to.” The Observer’s Jay Rayner declared that we should “give thanks” for Gymkhana “which manages to be glossy and yet still deliver food with a serious kick and intent”.

Continue reading “experiencing fine Indian dining in Mayfair” →