New Approaches to Migration?

Transnational Communities and the Transformation of Home

Nadje Al-Ali, Khalid Koser

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2003
• ISBN:
  9781134523771
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Politics
• Index: Politics & International Relations

This book critically evaluates the transnational communities approach to contemporary international migration. It does so through a specific focus on the relationship between 'transnational communities' and 'home'. The meaning of 'home' for international migrants is changing and evolving, as new globally-oriented identities are developed. These issues are explored through a number of central themes: the meaning of 'home' to transnational peoples, the implications of transforming these social spaces and how these have been transformed.

1 Transnationalism, International Migration and Home

Nadje Al-Ali Khalid Koser

What is New?

‘What is new?’ may be the most common question asked of research which describes international migration as ‘transnational migration’, international migrants as ‘transnationals’ or members of ‘transnational communities’, and their activities and identities as examples of ‘transnationalism’. It is also a question that may justifiably be asked of yet another publication in the burgeoning literature on transnationalism. This question forms the starting point for this volume. A critical approach is sensible – there is little doubt that the term transnationalism is currently en vogue, and that as a result it has been overused and misused, and furthermore often used without conceptual or definitional clarity. Further, where the concept has been applied to international migration, critics argue that it has revealed nothing novel – that in effect new labels are being applied to old processes.

Taken as a whole, the contributions in this volume answer the question ‘what is new?’ in three main ways. First, they show how a transnational perspective can result in genuinely new insights into both historical and contemporary international migration. Importantly, every contribution in the volume is based on detailed empirical research, and so the impacts of transnationalism are identified in practice – in the everyday lives of migrants – rather than, as is so often the case, in theory only. Second, these empirical case studies in turn cast a fresh, and often critical, light upon the concept of transnationalism. For example, they move beyond the essentializing tendency that has dominated studies of transnationalism, to show how it has different meanings for different people at different times of their lives. Finally, the real novelty of this particular volume lies in its focus on home. The changing relationship between migrants and their ‘homes’ is held to be an almost quintessential characteristic of transnational migration, and the dynamics of this relationship form the central focus of each of the contributions to this volume.

Before discussing in greater depth some of these new perspectives, it is important to start with at least some understanding of how the various contributors to this volume have conceptualized ‘transnationalism’ in the context of migration. It has become almost axiomatic to state that there is a lack of consensus and clarity surrounding the concept transnationalism, and true to form different authors have taken different approaches. However, these are more a reflection of their different disciplinary backgrounds, and even the different national contexts in which they have been trained and worked, than of a lack of consensus. In fact, all the contributions share a fairly similar starting point. First, they distinguish between the concepts of globalization and transnationalism, although most contributors acknowledge that they overlap. Although often not explicitly, they tend to subscribe to the distinction made by Michael Kearney (1995) that whereas global processes are often decentred from specific national territories, transnational processes are anchored in but also transcend one of more nation-states. Implicit in this distinction is a rejection of a fairly common assertion that transnationalism is ringing the death-knell for nation-states. Several contributors see the power of nation-states in shaping and delimiting transnational migration, and argue quite the contrary.

Second, they distinguish between transnational migration and what might be described as transnational cultural studies. Again there is overlap, but the contributors’ principal focus is social formations that span borders, rather than the wider aspects of transnationalism identified by Vertovec (1999) including, for example, transnationalism as a type of consciousness or mode of cultural reproduction. Within this focus on social formation, most contributors appear to reject as too rigid the efforts by Portes et al. (1999) to insist that transnational migration needs to include a significant number of people engaged in sustained relations over time. In particular, taking a more flexible approach allows the contributors to ponder important questions surrounding the resilience of transnationalism.

Finally, although again perhaps not always explicitly, most authors recognize a distinction between ‘transnationalism from above’ and ‘transnationalism from below’, and their focus is clearly the latter. This distinction has been elaborated by Luis Guarnizo and Michael P. Smith (1998), who view the former as effectively synonymous with globalization, concerned mainly with macroeconomic processes that are not anchored in territories. In contrast, ‘transnationalism from below’ examines relationships that emanate from yet span two or more nation-states, and crucially where ‘everyday’ people are the principal agents. Every contribution in this volume focuses analysis on the daily lives, activities and social relationships of people.

Transnational Perspectives on International Migration

The contributions in this book make a convincing case that a transnational perspective can reveal new insights into international migration. These new insights can be categorized in three main ways. First, transnational perspectives can refocus our attention. That is, they can highlight processes that are probably not novel, but have largely been ignored until recently. For example, more traditional approaches have tended to conceive international migrants as exceptions from the norm. Attention has been divided broadly between the process of migration – emphasizing the importance of geographical movement across international borders – and the product of migration – emphasizing the impacts of migrants on societies in which they settle. In contrast, transnational approaches such as those adopted in this volume conceive of international migrants not as anomalies, but rather as representative of an increasingly globalized world. They refocus attention on the utilization by international migrants of modes of telecommunication and transport, their pooling of resources and successful exploitation of global markets, and their association with new social forms, political challenges and cultural resources generated by linkages across several geographical locations.

As well as uncovering some of the ‘hidden’ aspects of many migrants’ lives, this change of emphasis also has conceptual implications. A good example, which is explored in some depth in several chapters in this volume, concerns the distinction between labour migrants and refugees. Traditionally, this distinction has been sharp, as labour migrants have been conceived as representing the economic aspect of international migration, and refugees the political aspect. This distinction has rested largely on the different motivations of each migrant type to leave their home country – it is often also depicted in terms of a contrast between voluntary and involuntary migration. In contrast, transnational perspectives remove the focus from motivations for migration. They may be important in determining the extent to which a migrant develops a transnational identity or engages in transnational activities, but no more important than any other number of important factors, such as gender, class or race. Arguably, a transnational perspective allows us to investigate whether there are any empirical differences between labour migrants and refugees, without assuming from the outset a conceptual difference.

A second way that transnational perspectives can provide a new insight into international migration is through focusing on processes which once again are not necessarily novel, but which have taken on new or different forms through their interaction with contemporary processes of globalization. First, as transport and electronic communications have grown, migrants have found it possible to have multiple localities and arguably also multiple identities. As a result, family and kinship ties have moved from a largely local to a global scale. In turn, the volume of migrant remittances has grown enormously, and the use to which remittances are put has changed. Finally, several contributions suggest that as the volume and density of family and kin-based economic transactions enlarge, ‘home’ and ‘host’ societies, and the relationship between them, are becoming restructured.

Perhaps the most contentious question concerns the extent to which there is something genuinely ‘new’ associated with transnationalism, which pertains to international migration. The contributions to this volume suggest three possibilities. One is that states are beginning to reappraise traditional concepts of sovereignty and citizenship. Sometimes this reappraisal has been voluntary – a good example in this volume is the case of Eritrea, which conforms to the depiction by Basch et al. of a ‘deterritorialized nation-state’ (Basch et al., 1994) – and has taken steps formally to institutionalize migrant communities living abroad. At other times change has been imposed upon states, for example where international agreements have guaranteed immigrants’ rights, thus limiting the state’s role (Sassen, 1996). A second outcome of transnationalism which is repeatedly raised in the contributions is the development of new identities among migrants, who are anchored (socially, culturally and physically) neither in their place of origin nor in their place of destination. These ideas resonate with the resurgence of interest in diaspora populations (Cohen, 1997; Tölöyan, 1991). Finally, through their focus on home, several contributors suggest that transnationalism can be conceived as a reconstruction of ‘place’ or ‘locality’.

New Perspectives on Transnationalism

By equal measure, the contributions in this volume at times cast a fresh, and often critical, perspective on the concept of transnationalism. They do this in three main ways. First, all of the contributions are empirically driven. One of the principal criticisms of transnational approaches to international migration is that they have simply used new terminologies to describe old processes. In contrast, the starting point for all of the chapters in this volume is the contemporary everyday lives of migrants, and they try to identify what is old, what is new and what might appropriately be described as ‘transnational’.

A second significant way in which we try to expand and problematize existing debates on transnational migration is through the geographical axis of this collection. The prevailing literature on transnational migration has tended to focus on labour migration in the North American context. Instead, our geographical focus is mainly transnational migrants in Europe, originating from Eastern Europe, Africa and the Middle East. In this way we hope to provide a more global and comprehensive overview of transnational migration. An associated point is the inclusion in this volume of several chapters that focus on refugees rather than the more common research on labour migrants. Widening the research lens in this way allows us to highlight the way that opportunities for, and constraints on, transnationalism vary in different contexts.

Another crucial aim, and we hope contribution, of this volume is to move beyond a tendency to essentialize transnational migrants – whether migrants or refugees. Any analyses of transnational practices among certain migrant groups must consider not only consider the specific political, social and economic contexts but also differences within – including age, gender and class. All too often migrant and refugee communities are homogenized and presented in an undifferentiated manner. For example, much of the discussion on transnationalism has been clearly gender blind – a gap which this volume tries to address. Yet gender is but one of the various variables that might influence the ways in which people negotiate and create their life-worlds and ‘homes’.

The need to look for specificities extends to analyses of the role of nation-states in shaping, hindering or encouraging transnational practices. The various case studies in this volume leave no doubt that receiving as well as sending states influence the emergence and maintenance of transnational practices and fields significantly. This is not to suggest that the empirical evidence presented in this book emphasizes ‘transnationalism from above’. Rather we argue that there are factors that create an environment in which ‘transnationalism from below’ is more likely to occur. These include specific state policies towards migrants – which involve both legislation and the shaping of public opinion and attitudes towards migrants’ economic conditions – as well as international relations between given states. To put it more bluntly, far from indicating what has been coined ‘post-nationalism’, the different manifestations of transnationalism addressed in this book reveal that the legal, social, political and economic context of nation-states cannot be ignored. In contrast, it appears pivotal to pay attention to the specific contexts in both sending and receiving states.

Finally, the book sheds light on the diversity of underlying motivations and driving forces for transnational practices. And here it is important conceptually to distinguish between motivations for migration on the one hand, and the incentives to become involved in transnational activities on the other. Strategies for survival in the context of war, conflict or natural disasters, political motivations, economic factors, or opportunities in terms of education and work might prompt people to migrate. Obviously, there exists a link between the underlying motivations for migration and for transnational practices. However, empirical research discloses a broad range of factors and reasons why people feel motivated or even compelled to become agents of transnationalism.

Apart from the more palpable reasons pertaining to globalized capitalism and international labour migration, migrants might seek transnational ties with their countries because of nationalist sentiments, political motivations and in search of prestige and increased status. These have all been stressed in the context of labour migration from Latin America to the United States. In some cases, transnational activities and engagements are more a result of social pressure, unwelcome family responsibilities or even feelings of guilt. These factors demand a more critical appraisal of transnationalism, away from simplistic notions of transnationalism as being empowering and liberating. In-depth studies of the diverse motivations behind transnationalism also correspond to the previous point we made about the heterogeneity of migrant communities. Even within one group of migrants, there can be a range of factors and diverse motivations, prompting people to become involved in similar activities.

Transnationalism, International Migration and Home

Many of these arguments are crystallized through this volume’s specific interest in the relationship between transnational migrants and conceptions of home. One implication of emerging and increasing transnational practices among international migrants is that the ‘meaning of home’ has been changing and evolving. Following post-modern sensibilities, we would assume that migrants and refugees develop new, globally oriented identities and pluri- or trans-local understandings of ‘home’. For example, Roger Rouse has suggested discarding old paradigms in favour of the new social and psychological spaces we create for ourselves. ‘Home’, for the Mexican migrants working across the border in Silicon Valley, he argued, has become a moveable concept, it is ‘pluri-local’ (Rouse, 1991: 14): ‘Home’ has become more than either the Mexican township people left in search of employment, or the place in the United States where they found work. ‘Home’ has become a space, a community created within the changing links between ‘here’ and ‘there’. But to what extent is this conceptualization of ‘home’ applicable to other transnational migrants?

This volume explores the links between specific circumstances of migration and distinct conceptions of home. The various case studies presented give evidence of the fact that it is not only transnational fields and practices, but also particular living conditions before and after migration in the country of origin and residence, which impact on migrants’ articulations of ‘home’. Moreover, as is revealed throughout this book, ‘homes’ are gendered spaces, inhabited by people of various social classes, different generations and political orientations with diverse experiences of previous and current homes and the movements between them. Accordingly, conceptions of home tend to vary even within one specific group of refugees or migrants at any given point in time.

Equally significant, conceptions of home are not static but dynamic processes, involving the acts of imagining, creating, unmaking, changing, losing and moving ‘homes’. The distinction and movement between ‘here’ and ‘there’ described by Rouse (and referred to by Heidi Armbruster and Nadje Al-Ali in this volume) already presents an abstract ideal that glosses over the multiplicity of ‘heres’ and ‘theres’ as well as the interactions between, and transformations of, these notions. Apart from the physical place of dwelling and shelter, ‘home’ has commonly been linked to ‘family’, ‘community’ or ‘homeland/nation’. Yet all of these traditional meanings of home have been subject to social, cultural, economic and political changes and have been radically redefined (Bammer, 1992: viii). Transnational migration is but one aspect of a series of accelerated changes in (post-)modernity which has unsettled previously bounded, singular and stable conceptualizations of home. That these were more mythical than real in the first place is another issue altogether. What is important in the context of this volume is the fact that socially homogeneous, communal, peaceful, safe and secure homes (Rapport and Dawson, 1998) belong to the past (whether imagined or real).

The existing literature on ‘home’ reveals an ongoing tension between definitions pertaining to physical places and those referring to symbolic spaces. Many writers on home would converge to the view that the concept entails both meanings. As Nikos Papastergiadis (1998) puts it: ‘The ideal home is not just a house which offers shelter. … Apart from this physical protection and market value, a home is a place where personal and social meaning are grounded’ (p. 2). The various chapters in this book expose conglomerate notions of ‘home’ including not only territorial attachment, but also adherence to transportable cultural ideas and values. Often a great sense of belonging to a specific place is accompanied by the wish to reproduce and/or reinvent ‘traditions’ and ‘cultures’ associated with ‘home’. It is not only national, cultural and social belongings, but also a sense of self, of one’s ‘identity’, which corresponds to various conceptualizations of home.

Sometimes ‘home’ can be recognized in an abstract ideal, a longing for a nostalgic past or a utopian future. It has been suggested that on an everyday level, home is more tangible in certain routine sets of practices, specific rituals and habitual social interaction (Rapport and Dawson, 1998). But what happens if these everyday activities revolve around notions of home that are not fixed in space? To put this another way: how do transnational social fields and practices manifest themselves in daily lives, and how (if at all) do they impact on abstract conceptualizations of home? Several of the authors in this volume challenge the assumption that the people they studied found their home in movement (Rapport and Dawson, 1998). Despite the unsettling of previously rooted and fixed notions of home, people engaged in transnational practices might express an uneasiness, a sense of fragmentation, tension and even pain. Everyday contestations of negotiating the gravity of one’s home is particularly distressing for those who are vulnerable, for example the poor, women, illegal immigrants and refugees. This is not to deny the possibility, and indeed existence, of the more positive experiences of migrants living across physical and cultural boundaries and enjoying a multiplicity of fixed and\or moving homes.

Similar to conceptualizations of belonging and identity, ‘home’ has often been defined by its relation to the outside. Fear, danger, the unknown, foreign and alien places and traditions, unfamiliar faces and habits are all part of that what is not home. Just as perceptions of home have been radically changed and redefined in light of migration and emerging transnational activities, so have notions of ‘non-home’, the unfamiliar, the outside. Over a period of time, the taken-for-granted knowledge linked to a specific home – physical and cultural – might prove inadequate in view of transformations of previous homes. It appears inevitable that former homes develop strange, unusual and alien elements in the eyes of those who migrated abroad. The ‘here’ and ‘there’ become more and more blurry and difficult to sustain.

Many of these issues are explored in greater depth in the various contributions to this volu...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half Title page
• Series
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• List of Contributors
• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• 1 Transnationalism, International Migration and Home
• Part I Transnational Communities and the Meaning of ‘Home'
• 2 Homes in Crisis Syrian Orthodox Christians in Turkey and Germany
• 3 Sudanese Identity in Diaspora and the Meaning of Home The Transformative Role of Sudanese NGOs in Cairo
• 4 Shifting Meanings of ‘Home' Consumption and Identity in Moroccan Women's Transnational Practices between Italy and Morocco
• 5 Senegal is our Home The Anchored Nature of Senegalese Transnational Networks
• Part II The Implications of Transforming Homes for Transnational Communities
• 6 The Meaning of Homeland for the Palestinian Diaspora Revival and Transformation
• 7 Trans- or a-National? Bosnian Refugees in the UK and the Netherlands
• 8 Homeland Lost and Gained Croatian Diaspora and Refugees in Sweden
• 9 From Refugees to Transnational Communities?
• Part III Transnational Communities and the Transformation of Home
• 10 Mobilizing for the Transformation of Home Politicized Identities and Transnational Practices
• 11 The Kashmiri Diaspora Influences in Kashmir
• 12 Working for a Solution through Europe Kurdish Political Lobbying in Germany
• 13 Sustaining Societies under Strain Remittances as a Form of Transnational Exchange in Sri Lanka and Ghana
• References
• Index