The intense battles over the English language and about immigrant
rights now heating up (again) in the United States are not just one more
variant on the politics of pluralism: they are about the capability of American
politics to contain the diasporic politics of Mexicans in Southern California,
Haitians in Miami, Colombians in New York, and Koreans in Los
Angeles. Indeed, as I will propose in my concluding observations, it is the
Widespread appearance of various kinds of diasporic public spheres that
constitute one special diacritic of the global modern.