Transnational migration: taking stock and future directions

Abstract

Increasing numbers of sending states are systematically offering social and political membership to migrants residing outside their territories. The proliferation of these dual memberships contradicts conventional notions about immigrant incorporation, their impact on sending countries, and the relationship between migration and development in both contexts. But how do ordinary individuals actually live their lives across borders? Is assimilation incompatible with transnational membership? How does economic and social development change when it takes place across borders? This article takes stock of what is known about everyday transnational practices and the institutional actors that facilitate or impede them and outlines questions for future research. In it, I define what I mean by transnational practices and describe the institutions that create and are created by these activities. I discuss the ways in which they distribute migrants' resources and energies across borders, based primarily on studies of migration to the United States.

Measuring transnationality of immigrants in Germany: prevalence and relationship with social inequalities

“…Furthermore, a number of qualitative analyses show that people are involved in transnational practices in various social fields to different degrees (Itzigsohn et al 1999). This indicates that transnationality can be considered along a continuum of different degrees of intensity (Levitt 2001;Itzigsohn et al 1999;Fauser and Reisenauer 2013).…”

Home is Calling: Hungarian Emigrants’ Response to the Home Country’s Return Campaign

“…Although, as pointed out by Levitt (2001), the forms, reasons and the extent of such involvement vary, the motivation in enacting state-led transnationalism normally stems from the perception of economic and political gain rooted in the diasporas (Portes, 1999). It is normally implemented through a political discourse that emphasizes nationhood ties and the identification of people living outside the border as part of the nation (Margheritis, 2007).…”

Cornish identities and migration: a multi‐scalar approach

“…However, interactions across this 'transnational space' can vary in intensity. Levitt (2001a) therefore distinguishes between a core transnationalism, involving comprehensive and sustained links between societies of origin and destination, and an expanded transnationalism, in which migrants are more selective about the links, or only occasionally and sporadically participate in transnational networks. Homing in on this debate about the degree of network densities, Barkan (2004: 7) proposes the description of translocalism for less dense transnationalism.…”

“…This echoes Pries' call (2005) for a combination of scalar frames of reference when analysing transnational processes. It is not that transregionalism replaces translocalism but that transnational phenomena operate at multiple levels, at one and the same time local, regional and/or national (see also Levitt 2001a).…”