Race, migration, and the transnational racial optic

In recent years, many immigration researchers have examined how transnational migration affects gender relations, political involvement, and religious practices among immigrants in receiving societies. However, less research has explored how moving across geo-political borders can reconfigure immigrants’ understandings of racial classification and relations in their host and home societies. In this paper, I develop the theoretical framework of a “transnational racial optic” to consider how immigrants to the United States negotiate race “here and there.” I define the transnational racial optic as a lens which immigrants utilize to observe, interpret, and ascribe social meaning to race in the US, but also to readapt to race after temporarily or permanently returning to their countries of origin. I argue that five factors influence the strength of the transnational racial optic for migrants: (1) age of arrival to host country; (2) differences in the social construction of race in the home and host societies; (3) ethno-racial background of the migrant; (4) strength of transnational ties with home society during migration; and (5) temporary or permanent returns to the home society.  The contentious history of race relations and rigidly- defined racial categories in the US is challenging for many immigrants to understand and negotiate. Thus, exposure to the US racial system provides another lens -the transnational racial optic- that transnational migrants develop to help them renegotiate racial relations in their countries of origin after the US migration.  Using data from 49 interviews conducted with Brazilian return migrants (who migrated to the US and subsequently returned to Brazil) in Governador Valadares, Brazil, I illustrate how the transnational racial optic shaped these individuals’ racial classifications, perceptions of racial stratification, and awareness of racism in the US and Brazil during and after the US migration.