Blurred Borders - by Jorge Duany (Paperback)

About the Book

Blurred Borders: Transnational Migration between the Hispanic Caribbean and the United States

Book Synopsis

In this comprehensive comparative study, Jorge Duany explores how migrants to the United States from Cuba, the Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico maintain multiple ties to their countries of origin.

Chronicling these diasporas from the end of World War II to the present, Duany argues that each sending country's relationship to the United States shapes the transnational experience for each migrant group, from legal status and migratory patterns to work activities and the connections migrants retain with their home countries. Blending extensive ethnographic, archival, and survey research, Duany proposes that contemporary migration challenges the traditional concept of the nation-state. Increasing numbers of immigrants and their descendants lead what Duany calls "bifocal" lives, bridging two or more states, markets, languages, and cultures throughout their lives. Even as nations attempt to draw their boundaries more clearly, the ceaseless movement of transnational migrants, Duany argues, requires the rethinking of conventional equations between birthplace and residence, identity and citizenship, borders and boundaries.

Review Quotes

"No other book on the Hispanic Caribbean exhibits the comparative perspectives, clarity of language, organizational structure, multiple methodologies, author's self-positioning, and tremendous impartiality that mark this one. . . . Duany's study is likely to become a mandatory text and excellent teaching tool in Latina American, Latino, and Caribbean Studies courses in the United States and abroad" -- Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology


"Blurred Borders is the best recent example of clear writing, research, and scholarship on migration from the Spanish-speaking Caribbean. . . . Every serious scholar, student, and person interested in the relationship between the Caribbean and the USA should run to get their copy of this thoughtful and superbly written instant classic." -- Journal of Migration Studies


"Blurred Borders provides both masterful synthesis and original research, and draws a nuanced and comprehensive picture of the Hispanic Caribbean and its migrant experiences." -- Latino Studies


"A thought-provoking text as demonstrated by a wealth of research, erudite analysis, and a patient writing style." -- North Dakota Quarterly


"A valuable addition to the literature on Caribbean migration." -- Journal of Latin American Geography


"Duany should be commended for crafting a volume which is both accessible to students and yet will still engage seasoned scholars." -- Essays in History


"This book is recommended to students, researchers, and those that influence public policy on immigration." -- Colonial Latin American Historical Review


"This book will be valuable to anyone setting out to explore migration and its many meanings in a global era." -- Latin American Review of Books


"Well-organized, easy to read and peppered with real-life examples." -- CubaNews

About the Author

Jorge Duany is director of the Cuban Research Institute at Florida International University in Miami. He is author of The Puerto Rican Nation on the Move: Identities on the Island and in the United States.