Globalization is a tricky word, said author and visiting professor, Saskia Sassen Thursday night.
While it implies the increased connection between people worldwide, it glazes over the complexity, Sassen said.
"The term is becoming an invitation not to think," she said.
Sassen, a professor of sociology at Columbia University who is known for her study of international immigrants, is visiting UF for a European immigration workshop, which begins today at 9 a.m. in Dauer Hall and lasts until 5.15 p.m.
Her most recent book on the topic is "Elements for a Sociology of Globalization," published by Norton.
Instead of just focusing on immigrants as statistics, Sassen studies their circumstances, which she calls "spaces." Work is not the only thing that controls the movement of an immigrant, she said.
"Spaces like this, your campus, have a geographic terrain, but they also have multiple worlds," she said. "There are the worlds of the students, of the cleaners, of the professors."
Sassen briefly applied this idea to the complexities of U.S.-Mexican immigration and by pointing out that roughly 3 million retired American citizens live in Mexico, of which only 1 million are documented.
