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., 19 94: 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 discusse s whether Texas Germans ca n 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 signific antly contributed to th e 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 prese nce of various transnat ional elements
and confirm that both li nguistic and cultu ral heritage are
defining element s in the construc tion and maintenance
of Texas German identity. Langu age, moreover, appears
as an important co nnector and media tor between thes e
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 gr oups (e.g. Cano & D élano, 2007; Hoerder, 2002; Howard, 201 2; 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, t he Texas German (TxG) diale ct. Despite t he inevitable d isappearan 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, 193 0; Jordan,
1975).
The TxG population cont inued to grow signif icantly. Eichhof f (1986) state s 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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