Viewing Texas Germans through the lens of transnationalism: A new form of transmigrant?
| Published date | 01 February 2023 |
| Author | Matthias Warmuth |
| Date | 01 February 2023 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/imig.12832 |
International Migration. 2023;61:125–140.
|
125
wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/imig
INTRODUCTION1.
Over the past t wo decades, transna tionalism has emerged as an i mportant approac h to social sciences. While t he
concept origina lly grew out of economic theor y (e.g. Bartlett & Ghosa l, 1989; Keohane & Nye, 1971), its use has
spread beyond th e confines of global busin ess into both the social and p olitical arenas. In imm igration studies, for
instance, a grow ing body of literature descr ibes manifold scenarios of mig ration and analyses the “mul tiplicity of
involvements th at transmigrants sus tain in both home and host s ocieties” (Basch et al., 1994: 7).
Received: 7 July 2 020
|
Revised: 3 Januar y 2021
|
Accepted: 6 Januar y 2021
DOI: 10 .1111/imig .12832
SPECIAL ISSUE ARTICLE
Viewing Texas Germans through the lens of
transnationalism: A new form of transmigrant?
Matthias Warmuth
© 2021 The Author s. Internationa l Migration © 2021 IOM.
Departm ent of Germanic Studi es, The
Universit y of Texas at Austin, Austi n, TX,
USA
Correspondence
Matthias Warm uth, Departm ent of
Germanic Stu dies, The Univer sity of Texas
at Austin, 250 5 University Ave,
C3300, BU R 336, Austin, T X 78712- 1802,
USA
Email: matthiaswarmuth@utexas.edu
Abstract
This paper discusses whether Texas Germans can be
viewed through the lens of transnationalism . As a group,
Texas Germans exhibit a rich ling uistic and cultural he ritage,
both of which have significantly contributed to the forma-
tion of a strong sense of “Texas- Germanness.” My goal is to
investigate this par ticular instance of “Germann ess beyond
Germany” (Maxwell and Davi s, German Studies Review, 39,
1–15, 2016) and to determin e if Texas Germans represent a
previously unident ified form of linguistic transmigrant. The
study u tilizes a mixed- methods app roach, consulting both
quantitative (surveys) and qualitative data (open- ended in-
terviews; semi- structured phone interviews). The results
indicate the presence of various transnational elements
and confirm that both linguistic and cultural heritage are
defining elements in the construction and maintenance
of Texas German identity. Language, moreover, appears
as an important connector and mediator between these
concepts.
126
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WARMUTH
Transnational migra tion is “a process of movement and set tlement across internatio nal borders in which indi-
viduals mainta in or build multiple net works of connecti on to their country of ori gin while at the same time s ettling
in a new country ” (Fouron & Glick Schiller, 2001: 6 0). While researchers t ypically explore tr ansnational migration
in light of the chara cteristic cultur al, political and soc ial processes associate d with globalization as we ll as ongoing
technological advancements, some literature has broadened the classic research agenda by applying the concept
to historical groups (e.g. Cano & Délano, 2007; Hoerder, 2002; Howard, 2012; Pratt, 2009). More recently, the
phenomenon has also attracted the attention of disciplines such as applied linguistics/sociolinguistics which aim
to explore the inte rsections of transna tionalism, identity, and la nguage (see Duff, 2015).
Using the idea tha t “transnationalism has be en with us for a long time and a compa rison with the past allows
us to assess just wh at is new about the patterns a nd processes involved in tr ansnational ties today” (Fo ner, 1997:
71), this paper investi gates the transnation al character of Texas German s, a German language dias pora group that
emigrated t o the United St ates in the mi d- nineteenth century. As a group, Texas German s exhibit a ri ch cultural
and specific ally linguistic heritage, the Texas German (TxG) dialect. Despite the inevitable disappearan ce of the
dialect from t he linguistic landsc ape, this heritage has con tributed significan tly to the formation of a stro ng sense
of “Texas- Germanness” (Boas, 2009; Boas & Fin gerhuth, 2017).2. But what characterizes this particular inst ance
of “Germannes s beyond Germany” (Max well & Davis, 2016)?
The goal of this pap er was thus to investigate TxG identity a nd its formative factors m ore closely and to de-
termine whether Texas Germans may represent a previously unidentified form of linguistic transmigrant, namely
a many- generation immigrant (i.e. any post- third generation immigrant or immigrant group) exhibiting cultural and
emotional ties t o the country of ancestry b ecause of their linguistic an d ethnic heritage. Given its t ransnational
approach, th e paper further investiga tes to what degree the hyphenated g roup may exhibit transnationa l “ways
of belonging”, that is p ractices signalling an ide ntification with another p eople or place (Glick Schiller, 2003) a nd
whether potent ial cultural, physic al and emotional ties sug gest the existence of a “ third space” (e.g. Bhabha , 1994;
Faist, 1999; Prie s, 2010; Skop, 2014). The paper spe cifically looks at lang uage attitudes, cult ural expression (sym-
bols, pract ices and artefact s) and more complex facto rs such as identity and ot her emotional component s (see 4).
This paper is limi ted to one German herit age group; it remains to be se en whether the conclus ions drawn here can
be applied to othe r such groups (e.g. Irish Ame ricans, Italian Amer icans and so on).
The research u tilizes a mixed- m ethods ap proach, con sulting bot h quantitat ive (survey data on spea ker bi-
ographies, language identity and attitudes) and qualitative data (open- ended interviews; semi- structured phone
interviews) (see 5). Survey data and open- ended interviews stem from the Texas German Dialect Project (TGDP;
www.tgdp.org ). To assess emotional component s and other notions of belongi ng, the analysis is also infor med by
semi- structured phone interviews.
The remainder of t his paper is structure d as follows: Section 2 provid es a background on Texas German s and
the TxG dialect. Se ction 3 sheds light on vari ous local interpreta tions of Germanness. S ection 4 discusses my the -
oretical app roach. Section 5 introdu ces the data and methodolo gy, while section 6 contains th e analysis. Finally,
section 7 concludes.
TEXAS GERMANS: SOCIOHISTORICAL AND LINGUISTIC BACKGROUND
The first wave of G erman settlers came t o Texas in the 1830s a nd 1840s. In the following d ecades, the prospec t
of land and organized safe pass age promoted large- scale immigration, mainly from centr al and norther n parts of
present- day Germany. In 1850, 8,266 Germans live d in Texas, but by 1860, t here were nearly 20 ,000 essentia lly
monolingual German- born immigrants and around 30,000 American- born Texas Germans (Biesele, 1930; Jordan,
1975).
The TxG population continued to grow significantly. Eichhoff (1986) states that in 1907, there were be-
tween 75,00 0 and 100,00 0 Texas Germans. Moreove r, Nicolini (2004: 42) estimates t hat at the beginning of the
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