"In my dream I was young and in Haiti with my friends, laughing, joking, and having a wonderful time. I was walking down the main street of my hometown of Aux Cayes. The sun was shining, the streets were clean, and the port was bustling with ships. At first I was laughing because of the feeling of happiness that stayed with me, even after I woke up. I tried to explain my wonderful dream to my wife, Rolande. Then I laughed again but this time not from joy. I had been dreaming of a Haiti that never was." - from Georges Woke Up Laughing

Combining history, autobiography, and ethnography, Georges Woke Up Laughing provides a portrait of the Haitian experience of migration to the United States in order to illuminate the phenomenon of long-distance nationalism in an increasingly globalised world. By presenting lively ruminations on his life as a Haitian immigrant, Georges Fouron - along with Nina Glick Schiller, whose own family history stems from Poland and Russia - captures the daily struggles for survival that bind together those who emigrate and those who stay behind.
A longstanding myth exists regarding the lives of emigrants: after leaving their homeland - particularly if they emigrate to the United States - their old nationalistic ties are severed, they assimilate, and they happily live the American dream. In fact, many migrants remain intimately and integrally tied to their ancestral homeland, even long after they become legal citizens of another country. The authors reveal the realities and dilemmas that underlie the efforts of long-distance nationalists to re-define citizenship, race, nationality, and political loyalty. By including discussions of the history and politics that link the United States with countries around the world, they show how emigrants' experiences of government and of citizenship tend to be both complex and unique.
Georges Woke Up Laughing will entertain and inform those who are interested in the psychological impact of immigration, in Haiti, or in the ongoing sociological and anthropological effects of globalisation.