Indigenous Transnationality

Although the presence of migrants with diverse cultural backgrounds in the United States is widely known, the specific group of indigenous migrants and their descendants is rarely acknowledged as such. However, a considerable number of migrants who arrive in the United States from Latin American countries have an indigenous background, a fact that is frequently overlooked because migrants are normally categorized and perceived according to their nationality. The few existing studies stress that indigenous migrants occupy specific positions within migrant communities in regard to their ethnic categorization. Although migrants share the same national citizenship, they differentiate between mestizo and indigenous migrants. The latter frequently experience diverse social borders and a subordinate positioning, even in their countries of provenance. Indigenous migrants can be discriminated against as migrants in the host country, and as indigenous by other migrants. Other social categories relating to gender, age, economic and educational background, and their [Page 1187]intersections can aggravate discrimination, leading to multidimensional discrimination.

Indigenous transnationality as a phenomenon in the United States derives mainly from migratory processes of indigenous groups, especially from Latin American countries. However, indigenous transnationality is also constituted through other kinds of transnational linkages, such as pan-American indigenous associations.

The concept of indigenous transnationality reveals the complexity and diversity among migrants, who are socially constructed as homogenized groups by the host society. Hence, it goes beyond widespread social categorizations, stereotypes, and conceptions that conceive indigenous people as inferior. This historical perspective has been prevalent in Latin American societies, where indigenous people are perceived as too isolated, earth-bound, and antimodern to leave their villages. At the same time, U.S. society categorizes indigenous migrants just as migrants in concordance to their nationality, and perceives no further diversity. Moreover, for a long time, academic perceptions were constrained, as migration scholars often overlooked the existence of indigenous migrants, and studies on indigenous people neglected the fact that they migrated. In contrast to these perspectives, historical studies show that indigenous people always had to be flexible to survive as such, which include becoming involved in migratory processes since precolonial times. In the paradigmatic case of Mexico, migration to the United States has been part of these strategies for several decades. However, research has just begun to broaden the perspective.