Transnationalism
Definition: Transnationalism describes a tendency among immigrants particularly in
recent decades to maintain ties with their country of origin while also integrating in the
destination country.
Transnationalism refers to the increasing tendency among migrants to maintain ties with
their country of origin – and thus to develop identities and social relations in multiple
national contexts rather than being rooted in only one country at any given time. Some
migrants now travel back and forth as a matter of routine, send remittances on a regular
basis, communicate routinely with family and friends (via telephone, email, Skype, etc.), and
even engage in political actions such as voting in two (or more) different countries. It is then
less plausible to use national-level concepts in a straightforward way when describing
migrants’ activities and identities: the geographical boundaries implied by such concepts
arguably no longer actually “bound” what migrants do (Basch et al. 1994). One can perceive
here affinities with the concept of diasporas (cf. Vertovec 2009) – but while that term in the
past was applied to a limited number of specific groups (e.g. Jews and Armenians),
transnationalism describes a more general tendency in which migrants increasingly have
loyalties and engagements that span national boundaries in pervasive and durable ways.
Certain ethnographic descriptions can be read as emblematic of the transnationalism
perspective. Smith (2006) describes a trip undertaken by immigrants living in Brooklyn to
their community of origin in Mexico to help with a project for installing new water pipes in
that community’s municipal water system: after having raised the majority of the funds for
the project from other Mexican immigrants in Brooklyn, they travelled over a weekend to
inspect the pipes and meet with contractors, returning in time to arrive at their New York
jobs on the Monday. This story demonstrates a key element of transnationalism: emigrants
often continue to be members of the communities they have left behind – and perhaps it is
then inaccurate to say that emigration means they have left these communities behind.
As with most new concepts, arguments about transnationalism were developed in explicit
opposition to earlier understandings of how immigrants adapted to their new
circumstances. In earlier perspectives (developed in research on earlier migration streams),
immigrants typically embarked on a one-way trip, often travelling for weeks by boat to a
destination which they then never left; ties with the origin country were (so it seemed)
severed as immigrants focused on making new lives for themselves in the destination.
Immigrants in the US, for example, thus became “hyphenated Americans”: an “ItalianAmerican” was first and foremost an American, someone in the process of shedding a part
of his or her identity that was now at best irrelevant. A return trip to the country of origin,
either to visit or to stay, would have been expensive and time-consuming – but more
importantly it would have been a step backwards, a sign of failure to assimilate and to adopt
a new loyalty appropriate to one’s new situation.
In part as a result of new technologies reducing the cost of travel and communications,
migrants now are increasingly inclined to engage with their country of origin in a variety of
ways – and in the transnationalism perspective doing so is by no means a step backwards.
Transnationalism has at least three distinct dimensions: economic, political and cultural
(Portes et al. 1997). The economic dimension is embodied in the vastly increased flows of
migrant remittances. Some “transmigrants” (as they are sometimes described) have also
developed a distinctive form of entrepreneurship, selling goods from the origin to fellow
migrants (and, subsequently, to natives) in the destination – as well as selling goods
produced in the destination to non-migrants in the origin country (e.g. Landolt et al. 1999).
Transnationalism also has a political dimension, as when migrants continue to vote in the
country of origin – perhaps while also voting in the destination country, if they have dual
citizenship (e.g. Østergaard-Nielsen 2003). The cultural dimension of transnationalism
follows from and reinforces the other two components: in maintaining economic and
political ties with their country of origin, migrants are less likely discard cultural
endowments such as language, music & arts, and a more pervasive sense of identity.
Instead of becoming a “Dominican-American”, then, a migrant might consider herself both a
Dominican and an American, with neither element dominating the other.
That latter point carries significant implications regarding tendencies towards assimilation –
implications that some in destination countries are inclined to find disturbing. In a more
conventional perspective that seeks to take the nation-state for granted, immigration (of
foreigners, inevitably) creates an anomaly that can only be resolved to the extent that the
immigrants themselves (if they are to remain) become fully a part of the nation in their new
home. Concepts like “dual loyalty” signal a problem for some: a “disloyal” (i.e., less than
fully loyal) citizen is perhaps a contradiction in terms, though of course that view is fervently
contested. The rise of transnationalism no doubt exacerbates the concerns some observers
have expressed concerning related trends towards multiculturalism (e.g. Schlesinger 1992).
On the other hand, those who are inclined to greater involvement in transnational activities
often participate more fully in the collective life of their destination country as well (Smith
2006; Portes 2003). Assimilation is no longer the sole path to successful integration; indeed,
success sometimes emerges instead from preservation and active maintenance of one’s
“cultural endowment” (Portes et al. 1997).
Discussions of transnationalism commonly describe the activities of migrants at a “grass
roots” level. But these practices also have consequences at the macro-social level (Portes
2003). The previous paragraph indicates consequences in relation to national identity –
arguably, transnationalism among individuals contributes to a process of fragmentation for
the nation as a whole, and to new modes of identity that bind populations across borders
(rather than allowing borders merely to divide populations). There are also macro-economic
impacts: rising volumes of remittances have enhanced origin countries’ credit ratings,
enabling access to credit at lower cost (Guarnizo 2003). The on-going involvement of
emigrants in their communities of origin also means that transnationalism affects the lives
not just of migrants but of non-migrants as well, as Levitt (2001) shows in her analysis of
“social remittances” (a concept that points to a fourth dimension, social transnationalism, in
addition to the three identified above).
Another macro-level consequence can be discerned in the concept of “transnational
citizenship” – a significant departure from more conventional notions of exclusivity in
national belonging (Bauböck 1994, 2003). As noted above, immigrants can engage in
political action in different jurisdictions; such action does not even require physical presence
(Martiniello and Lafleur 2008). Mexican voters living in the US, for example, are actively
courted by Mexican candidates, who sometimes engage in cross-border campaigning (Smith
2008). Basch et al. (1993) argue that migrant transnationalism thus results in
“deterritorialized” nation-states – though this point seems overstated insofar as most
nation-states remain firmly rooted in particular territories even while cultivating ties with
emigrant populations.
The trends described as transnationalism are obviously important. Even so, early research
on transnationalism arguably exaggerated the newness of the tendencies discussed here.
Assertions about assimilation and the severing of ties among earlier immigrant cohorts were
themselves overdrawn: immigrants from e.g. Italy in the early 20th century also maintained
ties with origin communities and travelled home for visits or for good (Foner 1997). On
reflection, it would be puzzling if migrants generally engaged in a wholesale purge of
previously held identities and attachments; a well-known folk song (“Kilkelly, Ireland”) uses
a series of verses based on letters sent between 19th-century immigrants in the US and
family in Ireland to portray both the pain of separation and the sustained effort to preserve
relationships – including a transatlantic visit.
But the lowered costs of travel and communication have undeniably enabled migrants to
engage more intensively in the patterns described by scholars as transnationalism.
Moreover, some components of transnationalism seem genuinely new, or at least so much
more prevalent as to constitute a qualitative change, as with the significant increase in
provisions for dual citizenship, for example. If nothing else, the transnationalism
perspective has enabled scholars and others to perceive something we were unable to see
clearly before, not only in current trends but in historical patterns as well (Smith 2003).
That is, “transnationalism” has helped us not only to understand recent changes in
migration patterns but also to see that earlier arguments about assimilation had overlooked
patterns of transnationalism in earlier migration streams.
Scholars have also come to recognize that current trends towards transnationalism
themselves have limits. Many (perhaps even a majority of) migrants engage in transnational
behaviours only sporadically if at all; ties may not be severed, but frequently they do fade
over time. Transnationalism in a political sense is especially rare – and in most migrant
groups it is limited particularly to educated middle-age men (Guarnizo et al. 2003). In
earlier contributions to the transnationalism literature, some migration scholars argued that
transnationalism held potential for emancipatory social change, insofar as it embodied a
new form of social action embraced particularly by previously marginalized groups such as
migrant women. More recent research suggests that these hopes were probably overstated
– instead, in many instances transnationalism might only reinforce existing inequalities and
hierarchies. In other respects as well it would be a mistake to imagine that transnational
involvements always have positive consequences, a point apparent in the activities of
transnationalized gangs (Smith 2006) and in the dysfunctions of many transnationalized (i.e.,
separated) families (cf. Dreby 2010).
Early work on this topic relied heavily on ethnographic studies of what we can call “positive
cases” of transnationalism. But ethnography is not the right technique to identify or explain
variation in transnationalized patterns. Portes (2003) therefore encourages further research
using comparative and quantitative methods, particularly to investigate why some migrants
are more inclined than others to live their lives in a transnationalized mode. A closely
related point emerges from the observation that there is no single mode of migrant
transnationalism: there is significant scope for research exploring heterogeneity,
differentiation, etc. (Vertovec 2009). In any event, the concept itself is now firmly
established in migration studies (as in other fields – cf. transnational corporations), with
ongoing research that demonstrates increasing nuance and a healthy appreciation of limits.
(Vertovec 2009) (Basch, Glick Schiller, and Blanc 1994) (Landolt, Autler, and Baires 1999) (Smith
2006) (Levitt 2001) (Foner 1997) (Østergaard-Nielsen 2003) (Smith 2003) (Guarnizo 2003) (Guarnizo,
Portes, and Haller 2003) (Dreby 2010) (Portes 2003) (Portes, Guarnizo, and Landolt 1997) (Bauböck
1994) (Martiniello and Lafleur 2008) (Bauböck 2003) (Smith 2008)
References
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projects, postcolonial predicaments, and deterritorialized nation-states. New York:
Routledge.
Bauböck, Rainer (1994), Transnational citizenship: membership and rights in international migration.
Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.
Bauböck, Rainer (2003), 'Towards a Political Theory of Migrant Transnationalism', International
Migration Review, 37 (3), 700-23.
Dreby, Joanna (2010), Divided By Borders: Mexican Migrants and their Children. Berkeley: University
of California Press.
Foner, Nancy (1997), 'What's New About Transnationalism? New York Immigrants Today and at the
Turn of the Century', Diaspora, 6 (3), 355-75.
Guarnizo, Luis E. (2003), 'The economics of transnational living', International Migration Review, 37
(3), 666-99.
Guarnizo, Luis Eduardo, Alejandro Portes, William Haller (2003), 'Assimilation and Transnationalism:
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Landolt, Patricia, Lilian Autler, Sonia Baires (1999), 'From Hermano Lejano to Hermano Mayor: the
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