Source: Click. |
The physical movement of people and
goods has proved beneficial for countries and continents that can share
resources and minerals with each other (oil, fuel and many more). The
convergence of technology and faster communication over long distances enables
the knowledge of such trades to
exist, let alone transactions being able to take place with mutual trust.
Source: Click. |
Tourism and the physical flow of
travellers impact both countries of origin and the host country. The need for
tracking and documenting cross country travellers (by use of passport checks)
determines their country of origin and citizenship, as well as important
information on the individual (name, date of birth). Positive effects of
tourism include economic help, and a negative effect would be pollution and
inconsiderate behaviour from the tourists. Differing governments worldwide accepting
passports could be considered crucial and significant in globalisation;
multiple, imagined ‘cultures’ converging to accept the passport data.
Immigration, both legal and illegal,
are also forms of physical flow regarding globalisation. Since the world is
becoming more informed, more people start to prefer other countries to their
own, in terms of economic standing, cultural, political, risk of persecution or
other reasons involved. Sun (2002, p.115) best phrases this in the following.
Much
has been written about how electronic media have transformed our understanding
of temporality, spatiality, and a sense of who we are as individuals.
-Sun, 2002, p.115
The new sense of other countries and
individuals’ understanding can contribute to migration from one country to
another. Ideas of culture are not necessarily fixed, and are not necessarily
defined by borders. The immigrated individuals unconsciously bring their local
sense of culture with them.
Source: Click. |
The result of such movement to
countries such as Australia is the diverse range of cultural representatives in
the community. The phrase ‘hybridised cultural
formations’ by Moore (2012) refers to immigrants who, by moving to a place such
as Australia, bring their own culture from their own homeland and marries it with
the new ideas of culture in the new country. Sometimes this can be quite
literal with regard to offspring; immigrants can meet and marry into other
cultures, resulting in bilateral children. These cultures, some of them
conflicting in values and morals, can leave the children feeling confused about
their sense of belonging. On the other hand, they have a variety of choice as
to which culture they can choose, if they wish.
Australia is a particularly special
case in that cultures are able to integrate and represent the population,
whether they are of Australian origin or not. An individual is able to go to
places such as Lygon Street in Melbourne, which has become commonly known to
cater food of a variety of cultures for people to choose from. There is less
restriction on choice of nationality, one can even recall an Ethiopian
restaurant/grocery store in Adelaide.
Source: Click. |
Transnational television, as discussed
by Naficy (2003, p.52) is imported media from homelands. Television provided by
the Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) channel includes news and other various
programs from many different countries in their respective languages. This is
helpful for the diasporic communities as they can keep an eye on their own
homelands in their own language if they desire. Also provided in multiple
languages are radio channels and newspapers. Foxtel in Australia, in particular,
are well known for catering channels in certain languages on request.
These avenues of media and technology
enable the diasporic communities to maintain a (admittedly distant)
relationship with their homelands. However, El-Nawawy (2003, p.52), in
discussing ‘Western-raised’ Arabs brings up a valid point. Some diasporic
individuals may have grown up not knowing the language, or have immersed
themselves so greatly in the new country. These specific cases perhaps feel
more inclined to take the word of the local news; it’s certainly easier
accessed and placed foremost in programming.
Source: Click. |
Keeping these availabilities in mind,
a possible issue could be equal representation of all these communities. How can the variety (or sometimes lack of
variety) truly represent the diasporic communities? There are multiple mediums
available from the likes of Europe and Asia, and yet not as many from
continents like Africa and South America. Being faithful to the population and
representing each culture and their language equally is almost impossible
because of the digital divide.
The phrase ‘global village’ was the
hope when the World Wide Web came to fruition and people all over the globe
could communicate to form a mass of organised ideas that could be shared. Nederveen
Pieterse (2004, p.9) states that the technological advances made have
contributed to globalisation. Distance had presumably been overcome.
But there is still the issue of
remote, young countries who do not have
access to the same technology. Nederveen Pieterse (2004, p.13) also puts
forward the idea that globalisation does not
refer to an equal playing field, or equal international relations. Nederveen Pieterse
also identifies and names a formed ‘Triad’ of the continents able to make the
most of ‘contemporary globalisation’; North America, Europe, and East Asia. Since
Australia was colonised by England and allied with some of the Triad during the
wars, Australia could be included to a lesser extent. Australia is not as
accessible to transport people and goods to, as opposed to continents like
Europe; its countries and borders close together.
Source: Click. |
In the case of illegal immigrants,
travelling by boat is the most discrete and affordable way to leave the
country. In some cases, travelling by boat is probably the only way. This is said considering each possibility; immigrants are
possibly fleeing from persecution and/or execution, most likely with their
families. However, Morrison (2003, p.474) discusses human trafficking and
smuggling being labelled as an element of organised crime and the phrase
‘transnational crime’ (2003, p.475) is utilised in the text. Morrison goes on
to explain the distinction eventually made between the words ‘trafficking’ and
‘smuggling’, the meaning of the latter is the applicable one here.
Trafficking
involves exploitation that goes on after arrival in the country of destination,
such as bonded labour or prison... ‘smuggling’ meaning an assisted illegal
border crossing with no ongoing exploitation.
Morrison, 2003, p.476
There does appear to be a pattern
involving current illegal immigration. Current countries involved such as Sri
Lanka appear to be outside of the Triad
of contemporary globalisation. Meaning they have a disadvantage of being accepted
into Australia, unlike a legal immigrant from England; presumably able to
obtain the appropriate paperwork to secure a visa and have the money for a
flight.
References:
El-Nawawy, M. 2003, ‘The battle for
the Arab mind’, Al-Jazeera, the story of the network that is rattling
governments and redefining modern journalism 2003, Westview Press,
Boulder CO, pp. 45-69, 217-218
Morrison, J 2003, ‘“The dark side of
globalisation”: the criminalisation of refugees’, in R Robertson & KE
White (eds), Globalization: critical concepts in sociology,
Routledge, London, pp. 474–7.
Nederveen Pieterse, J 2004, ‘Globalization:
consensus and controversies’, Globalization and culture: global mélange, Rowan
& Littlefield, Lanham, Md., pp. 7–21.
Naficy, H 2003, ‘Narrowcasting in
diaspora: Middle Eastern television in Los Angeles’, in KH Karim (ed.), The
media of diaspora, Routledge, London, pp. 51–62.
Sun, W 2002, ‘Fantasizing the
homeland, the internet, memory and exilic longings’, Leaving China: media,
migration, and transnational imagination, Rowan & Littlefield, Lanham,
Md., pp. 113–36.