Transnational Migration And Border Making

This book deals with the ongoing processes of migration and boundary-(re)making in Europe and other parts of the world.

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.

Examining the ongoing processes of migration in Europe and beyond Case studies focusing on Europe, Russia, the Middle East, and South America Integrates issues of current migration and boundary-making processes Various experts discussing social and political factors pertaining to current dynamics of migration and boundary-making in different cultural settings Sociological and political analyses of current trends in transnational migration and rebordering Brings together studies from different continents This book deals with the ongoing processes of migration and boundary-(re)making in Europe and other parts of the world. It takes stock of recent and hitherto unpublished research on the refugee crisis in Europe, migration dynamics in the Middle East and migration flows in Africa and Latin America, specifically in relation to their political, social and cultural framing. In particular, chapters in this collection focus on newer cases of transnational migration and their socio-political implications. Alongside the refugee and migrant crisis in Europe, which can be seen as one of the most divisive political issues in recent European history, new patterns of migration and re-bordering can also be seen across Europe, the Middle East and beyond. These include both the rise of anti-immigration populism within the nation-states and practices of discouraging migration at the regional level such as the EU.

Research paper from the year 2008 in the subject Politics - International Politics - Topic: Miscellaneous, grade: 1,7, Free University of Berlin (Center for Global Politics), course: Migration, language: English, abstract: Transnational migration and the creation of transnational social spaces is not a new phenomenon as such. It has existed long time before it has become a fashionable desired study subject. However, when globalization took off in the 1980s, transnational ties have changed quantitatively as well as qualitatively, and thus the topic has gained in importance. Various revolutionary technical innovations facilitated to maintain transnational contact between country of origin and the new destination on an instantaneous basis. Currently hence, such ties can be as intense as ever. The new thing about transnational migration is rather – in compliance with Glick Schiller – that scholars provided the social sciences “with a vocabulary and a framework to analyze the way in which migrants and their descendants participate in familial, social, economic, religious, political, and cultural processes that extend across the borders of nation-states” enabling scholars to “conceptualize simultaneity, the ways in which individuals settle into a new locality and also maintain various kinds of social relationships that extend into other nation-states (2006, p. 8).

The volume places the migration-development-security nexus in the field of transnational studies. Rather than treating these three categories as self-evident, the essays excavate aspects of power and privilege built into their governing frameworks and conflicting rationales apparent in practices of control. Bringing together diverse experiences and case studies, the volume highlights the problematic nature of maintaining distinct and disconnected frameworks of governance. It argues for a new approach that demonstrates the significance and usefulness of comparative ethics in conceptualising migration from a human-centered and gendered perspective in order to address the multi-facetted and multi-dimensional nature and meanings of "security".

"This book tells the stories of a selected group of geographers who migrated to one side to another of the Canada-US border. The often emotional autobiographical testimonials of those academics go a long way toward capturing the full range of feelings and experiences related to migration and settlement decision-making, especially as personal processes play out within the larger context of North American mobility"--Project Muse website.

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.

This book contributes to a better understanding about the dynamics of transnational migration and diaspora in Northern Thailand border areas with Myanmar and Laos. Border cities in Southeast Asia are places that have unique characteristics because of rapid development which includes the process of transnational migration and diaspora communities from neighboring countries. Historically, different ethnic groups had migrated in the border areas of mainland Southeast Asian countries and China. Border cities, such as Mae Sai and Chiang Khong, are strategic places for refugees, minority groups, and others from neighboring countries to reside either temporary or permanently. The infrastructure and economic developments of those two cities in the border areas have not only influenced the formation of those two cities into multicultural societies, but also become more modern cities with various economic activities. Both Mae Sai and Chiang Khong gradually became more densely populated and have transformed into economic and tourist destinations because they have low-price goods, duty free markets, and even casinos. The arrivals of various ethnic groups in different times have formed a multicultural community, which plays a very important role in the development of border cities and surrounding areas. On top of these, the policies on border areas have been more complex considering the transnational movements of people, goods and ideas.