Summer Reading - Expat Novels

The upside to jet-lag (and I have it in spades) is that I get a lot of reading done. What else to do when one is sleepless in Osaka and it's 2 AM?

 Here are a few fiction titles I picked up in the last few months that were written by expats about expatriates.  If you happen to be sitting on the beach (lucky you) or preparing for your vacation (and the Japanese and French do much better in this regard than the poor American) perhaps there is something here you can upload to your Kindle or pack in your bags for when you need a rest from all the fun you'll be having.

Passion Fruit by Sandra Cuza.  A fun book that I enjoyed immensely.  An American couple heads for São Paulo, Brazil when the husband is expatriated there by his company.  It's a good life insofar as the package includes a good salary, nice house, servants and, of course, the pool.  Husband is thrilled to death because he gets to be a Big Shot in Brazil complete with cozy job and beautiful secretary/translator.  The wife, who had a fine job of her own back in the US, struggles to make a life for herself  in the new country.  Her suspicions about her husband and his secretary turn out to be true (and as a reader, it was kind of obvious to me early on that this was the case) and so they divorce and she goes back home which is not quite the end of the story.  She's fine and gets her HEA (happily ever after).   Her ex-husband?  Not so much...  A rollicking good read.

The World of Suzie Wong by Richard Mason.  This is a book (was later made into a movie) that was written in the late 1950's about a British expat artist in Hong Kong and his love affair with a Chinese prostitute.  I read the title and was going to pass on it, but I changed my mind and gave it a go.  Nicely written, good characters, fine dialogue.  I can see why it was a bestseller back before I was born.

Une Saison Japonaise by Nathalie Desormeaux.  This is a self-published novel by a Frenchwoman who was an expat herself in Asia.  It's set in the late 1970's (still in Japan boom period) and it's about a Frenchwoman who moves to Japan after her companion (the man she lives with) gets transferred there for work.  She's not thrilled about the move but l'homme de sa vie tells her that their relationship is over if she doesn't tag along.  She makes the best of a bad business - her French company asks her to audit the Japanese subsidiary in Tokyo so she has work, and she does speak some Japanese having studied it at university in France.  I enjoyed the book except for one thing:  here she is in Japan having been threatened by the love of her life (who pretty much takes himself out of the picture early own, leaving her to her own devices in a strange land)  and her inner monologue is filled with insecurity, fears of losing her man, and anger at accommodating him and his life plan at the expense of her own.  All of which makes her commentary about how unliberated the Japanese women she meets are, a bit hard to swallow.  She does get it together eventually (pulls up her Big Girl panties and deals) and finds that she just might like to stay in Japan after all.

That's it for now.  If any of you have expat novels to recommend (perhaps one you've written), please feel free to add them to this post in the comments section.  And maybe I'll start another reading lists with expat fiction titles.

Typhoon Nangka is on its way here.  Landfall in Japan is expected sometime on Thursday evening.  Looks like a big one.  Last typhoon I experienced was in Tokyo about 10 years ago and that was really something. For this one I'll have a great view from the 14th floor of my apartment building.  Or maybe I'll just sequester myself in the bathroom if it gets too scary.

Flophouse Citizenship and International Migration Reading List (Updated)

I've been doing a lot of blogging recently about the rights and responsibilities of citizenship.  For every post I write I probably read 3-4 books.  I've come across some very good titles in my research so I thought it was high time I undated this reading list.  I highly recommend all the titles below - read them and you will never look at citizenship the same way again.

International Migration in the Age of Crisis and Globalization by Andres Solimano (2010).
This is a very well-written, well-argued book.  The author is ambitious and confronts some of the most difficult topics around migration:  Why is International Migration Such a Contentious Issue?  Are Goods and Capital More Important then People?  Don't Always 'Blame' the North, and so on.

International Migration and Citizenship Today by Niklaus Steiner (2009).  A very fine book on the political, economic and cultural impact of immigration.  He frames the discussion around two essential questions:  What Criteria to Admit Migrants?  and What Criteria to Grant Citizenship?

Citizenship Today: Global Perspectives and Practices edited by T. Alexander Aleinikoff and Douglas Klusmeyer (2001).  This was one of the best books I read on the topic of citizenship with essays by Patrick Weil, Karen Knop and Richard T. Ford, among many others.   I particularly enjoyed (and will discuss in a future post)  Ford's contribution called "City-States and Citizenship" which was, for me, a real revelation.

The Politics of Citizenship in Europe by Marc Morje Howard (2009).  A really fine study of the citizenship policies of the oldest member-states of the EU.  Read this book to really grasp how citizenship laws have changed over time and the reasons why.

Beyond Citizenship:  American Identity After Globalization by Peter Spiro (2008).  Excellent book that examines how globalization has changed the value of citizenship overall and American citizenship in particular.  Very thoughtful.  Very well-written.

Qu'est-ce qu'un Français? by Patrick Weil (2002).  Mr. Weil spent over 8 years in the archives researching this book and it is fascinating.  France has been something of a test lab for just about every combination of jus soli and jus sanguinis citizenship possible.  Everything has been tried and tried again.  I read the book in French but it is also available in the usual places in English.

Gender and International Migration in Europe by Eleonore Kofman, Annie Phizacklea, Parvati Raghuram and Rosemary Sales (2000).  If you are looking for some empirical evidence (as I was) for how migration, immigration policy and citizenship rights have different outcomes and impacts for women, this is a good place to start.

The Birthright Lottery:  Citizenship and Global Inequality by Ayelet Shacher (2009) An attack on both jus soli and jus sanguinis methods of transmitting citizenship.  Fascinating argument.

Aliens in Medieval Law:  the Origins of Modern Citizenship by Keechang Kim ((2000).  I've been meaning to write a post about this book since it has a very original take on the historical roots of modern citizenship.  I recommend it highly. 

International Migration, Remittances and the Brain Drain edited by Caglar Ozden and Maurice Schiff  for the World Bank (2006)  This book contains a number of very interesting essays about the economic impact of remittances and brain drain/gain.  The editors point out that the potential for economic benefit for all parties (individuals and sending and receiving countries)  is substantial but policy decisions need to be made carefully (we are talking about people after all).

Let Them In:  the Case for Open Borders by Jason L. Riley (2008)  The author makes a very radical argument for simply opening the doors and letting people move where they wish.