Theorising Transnational Migration

Societal transformations have recently stimulated political debates and policies on the integration of migrants and minorities in most Western European countries. While transnational migration studies have documented migrants’ cross-border activities there have been few empirically grounded efforts to theorise these developments in the framework of integration and status theory. Based on a case study of Ghanaian migrants, this book seeks to understand integration processes and develops a theorem of the status paradox of migration which explores the interaction between migrants’ integration into the receiving country and the maintained inclusion into the sending society. It describes a characteristic problem for a large class of labour migrants from the global south who gain status in the sending countries by simultaneously losing it in the receiving countries of migration. This transnational dynamic of status attainment, which goes along with specifically national forms of status inconsistency, is what is called the status paradox of migration. By bringing together two modes of national status incorporation within one framework, the status paradox provides an innovative perspective on migration processes and demonstrates the usefulness of a transnationalist integration theory. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of migration, transnationalism, politics, sociology and anthropology.

Increasing interconnections between nation-states across borders have rendered the transnational a key tool for understanding our world. It has made particularly strong contributions to immigration studies and holds great promise for deepening insights into international migration. This is the first book to provide an accessible yet rigorous overview of transnational migration, as experienced by family and kinship groups, networks of entrepreneurs, diasporas and immigrant associations. As well as defining the core concept, it explores the implications of transnational migration for immigrant integration and its relationship to assimilation. By examining its political, economic, social, and cultural dimensions, the authors capture the distinctive features of the new immigrant communities that have reshaped the ethno-cultural mix of receiving nations, including the US and Western Europe. Importantly, the book also examines the effects of transnationality on sending communities, viewing migrants as agents of political and economic development. This systematic and critical overview of transnational migration perfectly balances theoretical discussion with relevant examples and cases, making it an ideal book for upper-level students covering immigration and transnational relations on sociology, political science, and globalization courses.

Diaspora & transnationalism are widely used concepts in academic & political discourses. Although originally referring to quite different phenomena, they increasingly overlap today. Such inflation of meanings goes hand in hand with a danger of essentialising collective identities. This book analyses this topic.

Decolonising Lifelong Learning in the Age of Transnational Migration examines how colonialism has shaped migration and migrants’ transnational learning experiences. With the development of modern transportation and advanced communication technologies, migration has shifted from international to transnational, characterised by the multiple and circular migration across transnational spaces of migrants who maintain close contact with their country of origin. The book interrogates the colonial assumptions and Eurocentric tendencies influencing the current ideological moorings of lifelong learning theories, policies, and practices in the age of transnational migration. It calls for an approach to lifelong learning that aims to decolonise the ideological underpinnings of colonial relations of rule, especially in terms of its racialised privileging of ‘whiteness’ and Eurocentrism as normative processes of knowledge accumulation. This volume cover a wide range of topics, including: • Theorising decolonisation in lifelong learning and transnational migration • Decolonising racism, sexism, and settler colonialism • Decolonising knowledge production and recognition • Decolonising the life course • Decolonising lifelong learning policies • Decolonising pedagogic and curricular approaches to lifelong learning Overall, the chapters represent the collective efforts of the contributors in attempting to decolonise lifelong learning in the age of transnational migration. This book was originally published as a special issue of the International Journal of Lifelong Education.

Expansion of transnational capital and mass media to even the remotest of places has provoked a spate of discourse on transnationalism. A core theme hi this debate is the penetration of national cultures and political systems by global and local driving forces. The nation-state is seen as weakened by transnational capital, global media, and emergent supranational political institutions. It also faces the decentering local resistances of the informal economy, ethnic nationalism, and grass-roots activism. "Transnationalism From Below "brings together a rich combination of theoretical and grounded studies of transnational processes and practices, discussing both their positive and negative aspects. The editors examine the scope and limits of transnationalism. The volume is divided into four parts: "Theorizing Transnationalism"; "Transnational Economic and Political Agency"; "Constructing Transnational Localities"; and "Transnational Practices and Cultural Reinscription." Contriburtors include Andre C. Drainville, Josephine Smart, Alan Smart, Minna Nyberg S0rensen, George Fouron, Nina Glick Schiller, Luin Goldring, Sarah J. Mahler, Linda Miller Matthei, Louisa Schein, David A. Smith, and Robert C. Smith. Moving easily between micro and macro analyses, this book expands the boundaries of the current scholarship on transnationalism, locates new forms of transnational agency, and poses provocative questions that challenge prevailing interpretations of globalization. "Transnationalism From Below "is a pioneering collection that will make a significant addition to the libraries of anthropologists, sociologists, international relations specialists, urban planners, political scientists, and policymakers.

Although globalisation brings work to (some) places all over the world, the growing international mobility of workers (and refugees) will be one of the strongest social and political challenges at the end of this century. At the same time and in part originated by globalisation and transnational migration, there is emerging a qualitative new social reality of 'transnational social spaces' built by pluri-locally spanned social institutions, life trajectories and the biographical projects in specific institutional settings and material infrastructures. This volume presents conceptual frameworks and empirical studies of transnational migration processes and the emergence of pluri-social transnational social spaces.

This work comprising 15 papers develops a broad understanding of the emerging transnational experience of current immigrants to the United States, compares the patterns of transnationalism of different migrating populations, and re-examines current cconceptualisations of race, ethnicity, nationalism, class and gender.