Social spaces, transnational immigrant communities, and the politics of incorporation

Abstract

Transnational social spaces exist both 'from above' and, in the case of contemporary immigrants, 'from below'. This article is intended to offer conceptual clarity to current research agendas concerned with transnational immigration in general and the establishment of transnational immigrant communities in particular. It does so by first exploring theoretical developments in the analysis of social space and connecting these developments to the idea of transnational social spaces. It next turns to the topic of transnational immigrant communities within those spaces, suggesting the importance of examining those communities in terms of the rates of circulation between homeland and migratory setting, the production of an institutional structure, and the social horizons of immigrants. This leads to the final section which, in making a case for construing transnationalism and assimilation as potentially complementary, points to the role of the state in either facilitating or inhibiting a politics of multicultural incorporation.

The Spatially Ruptured Practices of Migrant Families: A Comparison of Immigrants from El Salvador and the People’s Republic of China

“…There is scant debate about the spatiality of family practices (Kivisto, 2003). In particular, there is limited discussion of the relationship between mobility and changing notions of home and away, or new understandings of presence and absence in family relationships.…”

The Myth of Return: Dismissal, Survival or Revival? A Bradford Example of Transnationalism as a Political Instrument

“…Technology, cheaper airline fares and phone cards have increased the contact with 'back home' (Kivisto 2003). For Pakistanis, the life-cycle with weddings, births and funerals is particularly involving, and may be lived in a shared way by the family extended and split over two continents.…”

Gender Attitudes of Muslim Migrants in Western Europe: Multilevel Non-Hierarchical Analysis

“…Транснационализм связан с «воображаемыми сооб-ществами» Б. Андерсена [Андерсен, 2001], а также с теорией мультикультурализма [Dijkstra et al, 2001]. Мигранты физически оказываются в новой стране, но при этом их вовлеченность, информированность и заинтересованность в происхо-дящем на родине так высока, что они остаются также и членами отправляющего общества [Kivisto, 2003]. Нина Глик Шиллер определяет трансмигрантов как людей, чья жизнь сильно зависит от контактов по обе стороны границы, иммигранты, при их включенности в экономику и институты новой страны, тем не менее не порыва-ют со своей родиной [Schiller et al, 1995].…”