Turning transnational: notes on the theorisation of international migration

Abstract

This paper takes stock of transnational perspectives on international migration. Transnationalism concerns itself with social processes that are both rooted in, and transcend, nations. While more generally referring to complex economic, cultural and political relations, I focus on scholarship that describes how migrants contribute to the daily life of emerging transnational communities. I argue that poststructural readings of transnationalism have opened the way for accounts of international migration under globalisation. However, key questions of migrant agency and hybridity remain under-theorised. The paper concludes with a discussion of the potential of postcolonial theorisations of international migration.

Globalizing Canadian Education from Below: A Case Study of Transnational Immigrant Entrepreneurship Between Seoul, Korea and Vancouver Canada

“…Ironically, the very regulations that enable this type of entrepreneurship are sometimes circumvented by it. This point has been made by scholars studying transnationalism, since the pioneering work of Glick Schiller et al (1992), and is made most emphatically by Bailey (2001), who argues that traditional dichotomies and categories such as forced vs. voluntary migration, or temporary vs. permanent migration are invalid in the face of the flexible strategies employed by migrants (and, we would add, states).…”

From overt rejection to enthusiastic embracement: changing state discourses on Israeli emigration

“…Once again, regional and international events have significantly contributed to a new theorization of international migrants, namely transnationalism (Bailey 2001;Schiller et al 1992;Massey et al 1998;Vertovec 2003). In the Israeli context, transnationalism was mobilized to refer to the existence of Israeli diasporic communities in North America and Western Europe (Cohen 1999;Cohen and Gold 1997;Gold 2002;Lahav and Arian 1999).…”

Editorial introduction: locating geographies of diaspora

“…Two of the papers in that special issue explored the potential of the concepts of diaspora (Boyle, 2001) and transnationalism (Bailey, 2001) to provide bridges between population geography and new human geographies. Boyle (2001: 431) focused on diasporic nationalism and proposed 'fresh ways in which the historical geography of diasporic nationalism might be approached'.…”

“…This approach to diaspora highlights the transnational workings of identity formation (Gilroy, 1993), explored further in the emerging body of research into transnational communities (see Bailey, 2001). Transnationalism is a contested term, but a useful definition for the purposes of this discussion is the one provided by Portes et al (1999: 1).…”