Creating Options: Forming a Marshallese Community in Orange County, California

摘要

Founded by individuals pursuing higher education in the United States, the Marshallesecommunity in Orange County today also represents family and nationalinterests in access to business opportunities, employment, education, medicalservices, and other goals. This community has become an “official” Marshalleseoverseas community, site of the first Marshallese consulate in the mainlandUnited States, and a link between overseas Marshallese and the home islands.Individuals and family units traverse networks of inter-linked households, highlightingprocesses of Islanders’ investments, including at least a short-term reversalof theoretically expected remittance flows. We explore the process of communityformation, and compare rural and urban sites in the Marshall Islands tocall attention to the community’s place in a system of geographically dispersedlocations within the global political economy.