Transnationalism Bibliography

Question(s) addressed by the author and working arguments

Rethink the dynamics of the migratory process under conditions of globalization.

International migration suddenly became a key issue in international politics at the beginning of 1990s, when the breakdown of the bi-polar power constellation of the Cold War seemed to have opened the floodgates for vast new population flows. Governments responded with tight border restrictions and international control measures such as the Schengen Agreement.

Globalization is not just an economic phenomenon; flows of capital, goods and services cannot take place without parallel flows of ideas, cultural products and people. International migrants have, by definition, always crossed national borders. Migration trend to increase and migrants to become more diverse in social and cultural characteristics.

New developments in information and transport technology increase the volume of temporary, repeated and circulatory migration. Increasing number of migrants orient their lives to two or more societies and develop transnational communities and consciousness International migration fits extremely well with the logic of globalization. In immigration countries, newcomers become concentrated in industrial areas or urban centres where there are changes of employment and where previous migrants can provide help with settlement.

Typically, certain neighbourhoods become centres for immigrant settlement, marked by distinctive business, associations, and social facilities and places of worship.

Neo-classical economies –which has had a dominant influence in migration policy in many Western countries- focuses on individual expectations of higher wages and better economic opportunities in destination areas compared with place of origin.

As globalization reduces barriers to flows, it seems likely that the rate of increase in migration may accelerate.

People have always migrated for a variety of reasons. However, in the last half century, three types of primary migration have been most common: permanent settlement migration, temporary labour migration and refugee movement. Highly skilled migration is the type of migration currently most popular with governments of receiving countries.

Low-skilled migration was crucial in post-1945 industrial growth in most rich countries, but is now generally rejected on the grounds that is economically unnecessary and socially harmful. Forced migration is a broader term which fits better with current realities than the old notion of he individually prosecuted refugee as laid down in the Geneva Convention of 1951.

All the above forms of migration continue to lead to family reunion. Multiculturalism implies abandoning the myth of homogeneous and monocultural nation-states. Multiculturalism maintains the idea of a primary belonging to one society and a loyalty to just one nation.

Transnational communities are not new, even if the term is. The Diaspora concept goes back to ancient times, and was used for peoples displaced or dispersed by force as well as for trading groups. Transnational identities are complex and contradictory. They can take on a variety of forms, which may either complement existing modes of immigrant incorporation or work against this. Transmigrants are sometimes portrayed as cosmopolitans capable of crossing cultural boundaries and building multiple or hybrid identities. Cultural diversity in global cities does not in any way indicate equality or harmony between ethnic groups.

Conceptual references to transnational – transnationalism

Transnational communities and consciousness, transnational identities and Transmigrants.

Conclusions or Final Remarks

Transnational Communities resulting from migration will, through thousand of micro-strategies, seek security and human conditions for their members. The future will probably be as messy as the past, and all predictions are likely to be wrong, but one thing is clear: there is no return to the neat idea of closed-off nation-states with homogeneous national communities.