Latino and American Identities as Perceived by Immigrants

Much has been written by social scientists about ethnic identity. From a theoretical point of view, Castells (1997) has argued that changes in the social structure stemming from economic globalization has reinforced the power of local identities among some classes of people even as these changes have created new composite global identities among others. Other scholars have argued that the resurgence of international migration in the context of a globalization will create a new set of transnational identities that span two or more cultural settings (Glick-Schiller, Basch, and Blanc- Szanton 1992,), thus weakening the monopoly of the nation state on cultural maintenance and identity formation (Basch, Glick-Schiller, and Blanc-Szanton 1994; Sassen 1996). Others argue that the consolidation of transnational solidarities influences states from the outside. Even as transnational networks contribute to the formation of spatially dispersed communities, they also appear to be indispensable for negotiating with nation states (Kastoriano 2002). Whereas some celebrate this new hybridization of identities and cultures (Ong 1999 ), others find it threatening and alarming (Huntington 2004).