About This Book
Challenging the commonly held perception that immigrants' lives are shaped exclusively by their sending and receiving countries, Here, There, and Elsewhere breaks new ground by showing how immigrants are vectors of globalization who both produce and experience the interconnectedness of societies--not only the societies of origin and destination, but also, the societies in places beyond. Tahseen Shams posits a new concept for thinking about these places that are neither the immigrants' homeland nor hostland--the "elsewhere." Drawing on rich ethnographic data, interviews, and analysis of the social media activities of South Asian Muslim Americans, Shams uncovers how different dimensions of the immigrants' ethnic and religious identities connect them to different elsewheres in places as far-ranging as the Middle East, Europe, and Africa. Yet not all places in the world are elsewheres. How a faraway foreign land becomes salient to the immigrant's sense of self depends on an interplay of global hierarchies, homeland politics, and hostland dynamics. Referencing today's 24-hour news cycle and the ways that social media connects diverse places and peoples at the touch of a screen, Shams traces how the homeland, hostland, and elsewhere combine to affect the ways in which immigrants and their descendants understand themselves and are understood by others.
Key Research Focus
This sociological study examines South Asian Muslim Americans and their connections across multiple geographic and cultural spaces. The research utilizes ethnographic methods, in-depth interviews, and social media analysis to reveal patterns of identity formation that extend beyond traditional origin-destination frameworks. The book demonstrates how immigrants maintain and develop connections to places they may have never lived, creating complex networks of belonging that span the Middle East, Europe, Africa, and beyond.
Academic Contribution
The text introduces the theoretical concept of "elsewhere" to immigration studies, providing scholars with a framework for understanding how global hierarchies, homeland politics, and hostland dynamics intersect to shape immigrant identity. This work contributes to fields including sociology, anthropology, ethnic studies, and diaspora studies by addressing gaps in transnational migration theory.
