| Chapter 1: | Reconsiderations of Race, Ethnicity, and Identity: Transnational Migrants in Post–World War II Global Society |
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were students or diplomats (Stanlaw 2006). However, the general public is not the only group to form social and ethnic stereotypes. Members of the ethnic group itself also do so. They consider themselves distinctivelydifferent from other groups in the host nation and may feel themselvesas inferior or superior, depending on how they are ranked in the socialhierarchy. But within the group, there is perceived uniformity. For example, even though Japanese immigrants from disparate social and economic backgrounds in Japan came to Brazil—including daily-paid farmhands, farm owners, shop workers, shop owners, school teachers, dentists, and politicians—Japanese Brazilians, then and now, tend to see themselves as members of the middle class.
Regardless of these alleged connections between social class and ethnic group, ethnicity and social class are indeed different. As Eriksen (1993, 7) argues, the notion of “social classes…has partly developed into theories of social stratification, [and] combines several criteria in delineating classes, including income, education and political influence.” People tend to share their time and space with those who have the same educational background, colleagues, social clubs, and so on, in common. By sharing time and space, incipient social networks are formed. Pierre Bourdieu (Bourdieu 1986; Bourdieu and Passeron 1973) claims that upper-class social networks are often intentionally reformed in order to maintain and reify their cultural and social positions and to pass them on to the next generation.
But transnational migrant social networks are formed differently. Regardless of differences in education and income, by being away from their homeland, transnational migrants tend to rally together to provide temporary comfort in an unfamiliar society, and to try and keep a little part of the old country alive. One way to do this is to share food, language, and other cultural elements with those of the same background. But as Eriksen (1993, 7) states, “theories of social class always refer to systems of social ranking and distribution of power. Ethnicity, on the other hand, does not necessarily refer to rank.” Incipient social networks of migrants are not based on social stratification, then, but instead are based on social connections for comfort or nostalgia. However, once