Dear Friends ,

On behalf of the California Studies Center I extend this invitation to you to participate in a two day Research Planning Workshop on "Transnational Practices: Future Directions for Theory and Research," to be held under the auspices of the California Studies Center at the Institute of Industrial Relations, UC Berkeley, on February 16 and 17, 2001.

The Research Planning Workshop will bring together several of the leading contributors to the emergent field of transnational studies. Unlike conventional academic conferences, participants in the Workshop will not be expected to present research findings. Rather, the purpose of the workshop is threefold: to stimulate fruitful conversations on a range of key topics in the field of transnational studies; to foster networking among workshop participants; and to identify important and potentially fundable research agendas appropriate for collaborative, multi-sited transnational research projects.

The five Workshop sessions will address the following themes: transnationalism as a theoretical concept; the practices of transnational migrant networks; the practices of transnational entrepreneurs; the character and consequences of transnation social movements; and future directions for transnational research. It is hoped that our conversations around these topics will generate critical evaluations of existing research on transnational practices; identify emergent patterns among transnational cultural, economic and political projects ; and influence to future course of research on transnational networks in California and world-wide.

Attached for your reference is the current list of invitees. Participants will come from major university campuses around the Bay Area and beyond. We intend to keep the proceedings as informal and interactive as possible. We ask you to be prepared to speak for 5 to 10 minutes at those Workshop sessions that are closest to your areas of research interest. If you agree to participate in the Research Planning Workshop we ask that you inform us in advance at which sessions you plan to offer comments.

The Workshop will be held Friday-Saturday, February 16 and 17 , 9 - 5, in the Director's Room of the Institute of Industrial Relations, UCB, 2521 Channing Way near Telegraph Ave, Berkeley. Directions are attached.

Lunch will be provided both days. There are no fees.

Please contact Ms. Myra Armstrong, Program and Publications Coordinator, Center for Organization & Human Resource Effectiveness, IIR, at: zulu2@uclink4.berkeley.edu or (510) 643-3012. For further information or questions about the Workshop contact Michael Peter Smith at mpsmith@ucdavis.edu or (510) 644-1954.

Sincerely,

Michael Peter Smith
Professor of Community Studies and Development, UC Davis and
Faculty Associate, Center for California Studies, UC Berkeley
Workshop on Immigration Research
on the Bay Area and Northern California

This past Spring the California Studies Center hosted a 2-day workshop on immigration to the San Francisco Bay Area and Northern California. The workshop was held Friday-Saturday, April 28-29, 9-5, at the Institute of Industrial Relations, 2521 Channing Way, Berkeley.


WORKSHOP SCHEDULE

FRIDAY, April 28th

9 AM Welcome and Introductions

9:30 Session I: Overview and Strategy
Presenters: Andres Jimenez & Peter Olney (Moderator: Katie Quan)

10:45 Break

11:00 Session II: Working in the Valleys: Santa Clara and Salinas
Presenters: Chris Benner & Paul Johnston (Moderator: Katie Quan)

12:30 LUNCH

2:00 Session III: What is to be Done?
Presenters: Paul Ong & David Bacon (Moderator: Mike Smith)

3:15 Break

3:30 Session IV: Poverty and Rights
Presenters: Belinda Reyes & Oscar Chacon (Moderator: Mike Smith)

5-6:30 RECEPTION -- To Celebrate the Opening of the California Studies
Center & the New AFL Policy on Immigration


SATURDAY, April 29th

9 AM. Welcome and Re-Introductions

9:30 Session V: Transnational Circuits and Workplaces
Presenters: Sandra Nichols & Jill Esbenshade (Moderator: Dick Walker)

10:45 Break

11:00 Session VI: Community Formation and Defense
Presenters: Roger Rouse & Sasha Khokha (Moderator: Dick Walker)

12:30 LUNCH

1:00 California Labor Federation forum on immigration in San Jose (optional)

2:00 Follow-Up for Researchers (Moderator: Dick Walker)
Interested participants will discuss research collaborations & funding

This workshop is a joint project of the California Studies Center, Center for Labor Research and Education, and the Labor Immigrant Organizing Network (http://socrates.berkeley.edu/~iir/clre/lion.html). Participation is by invitation to a select group of scholars studying immigration and community leaders working actively with immigrants.

The Bay Area is the fourth largest receiving area for immigrants to the United States today, yet immigration has been relatively little studied in the region -- let alone in the rest of Northern California. The great bulk of immigration research in this country has focused on Los Angeles, New York and Miami.

Our goal is, then, to bring together scholars, community organizations, and labor unions in the Bay Area in one place to assess the state of knowledge on immigration and multinational community formation in the Bay region and set an agenda for research over the next five years. We will also invite a few participants from Southern California to lend advice from their experience.

If the scholarly community is to serve the public, the labor movement, community organizations, and policy makers of California, it must have a foundation of data and research in place. As of now, there is surprisingly little published research on immigrants in the Bay Area and Northern California, and few focussed sources to turn to for basic information on where people live, what jobs they hold and where, areas of occupation and sectoral concentration, wages and income, welfare of the community, and so on.

The Bay Area and Northern California offer a distinct optic on immigration which is not the same as that provided by Los Angeles, San Diego or the San Joaquin Valley. Immigrants to the Bay Area are different in their national origins, which are skewed proportionally away from Mexico and toward Asia, and different in their class make-up, which is skewed toward the professional-technical strata and away from manual labor.

All the same, the region disguises its problems with immigration and social integration. The number of low-skill and poor workers is surprisingly large, and in the Bay region they are squeezed by the highest housing costs in the nation. Moreover, the lack of any one group as big as the Mexicano-Chicano populace of Southern California allows Northern California to go on thinking that things have changed less than in the south. And, finally, the continued incidence of segmented labor markets, residential segregation, glass ceilings and the like is too easily overlooked in the general prosperity and appearance of social mixing.

Workshop arrangements will be handled by Jacob Ely, Center for Labor Research and Education, IIR, jaely@uclink4.berkeley.edu or (510) 643-2355. For further information or questions, contact Professor Richard Walker, (510) 642-3901 or walker@berkeley.edu.


Return to Programs and Conferences

Return to California Studies Center Home