Structuring Social Remittances: Transnational Networks of Polish Migrants

Author(s):  
Łukasz Krzyżowski
2021 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
Author(s):  
Isabel Soloaga

This paper explores how transgender refugees living in the United Kingdom, Europe and the United States leverage social remittances and transnational ties to advocate for their rights within intolerant receiving countries. Even after migration, their frequent experiences of persecution in so-called “safe” countries often necessitate a continuation of their activism. This study centers on the lived experiences of transgender refugees through a combination of case studies, interviews, and participatory photography. Focusing on three case studies, it analyzes the role of social remittances and transnational ties in the activism of transgender refugees. The results illustrate how transgender individuals build activist networks through interpersonal connections, especially within what research participants described as “chosen families” in receiving countries. Grassroots nonprofit organizations serving transgender refugees prove essential to building this collectivity formation. Such organizations act as loci of activism and allow for safe sharing of lifesaving social remittances to those still living in origin countries. In addition, new technologies, including end-to-end encrypted messaging platforms, allow for the secure one-on-one exchange of ideas and survival practices around gender identity. This sharing creates a ripple effect, leading to the creation of robust transnational networks between transgender activists worldwide. I argue that systemic oppression, racism, and transphobia in receiving countries push transgender refugees, victims of violence worldwide, into roles as activists. By investing in chosen families, participating in nonprofit organizations dedicated to supporting transgender refugees, and sharing their activism worldwide through transnational networks, transgender refugee activists fight to access their fundamental human rights.


2013 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 91-100 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francesca Alice Vianello

This article examines different forms of Ukrainian migrant women’s social remittances, articulating some results of two ethnographic studies: one focused on the migration of Ukrainian women to Italy, and the other on the social impact of emigration in Ukraine. First, the paper illustrates the patterns of monetary remittance management, which will be defined as a specific form of social remittance, since they are practices shaped by systems of norms challenged by migration. In the second part, the article moves on to discuss other types of social remittances transferred by migrant women to their families left behind: the right of self-care and self-realisation; the recognition of alternative and more women-friendly life-course patterns; consumption styles and ideas on economic education. Therefore, I will explore the contents of social remittances, but also the gender and intergenerational conflicts that characterise these flows of cultural resources. 


2013 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 71-80 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lucile Gruntz ◽  
Delphine Pagès-El Karoui

Based on two ethnographical studies, our article explores social remittances from France and from the Gulf States, i.e. the way Egyptian migrants and returnees contribute to social change in their homeland with a focus on gender ideals and practices, as well as on the ways families cope with departure, absence and return. Policies in the home and host countries, public discourse, translocal networks, and individual locations within evolving structures of power, set the frame for an analysis of the consequences of migration in Egypt. This combination of structural factors is necessary to grasp the complex negotiations of family and gender norms, as asserted through idealized models, or enacted in daily practices in immigration and back home.


2013 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 11-22 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peggy Levitt ◽  
Deepak Lamba-Nieves

This article explores how the conceptualization, management, and measurement of time affect the migration-development nexus. We focus on how social remittances transform the meaning and worth of time, thereby changing how these ideas and practices are accepted and valued and recalibrating the relationship between migration and development. Our data reveal the need to pay closer attention to how migration’s impacts shift over time in response to its changing significance, rhythms, and horizons. How does migrants’ social influence affect and change the needs, values, and mind-frames of non-migrants? How do the ways in which social remittances are constructed, perceived, and accepted change over time for their senders and receivers?


Author(s):  
Lorgia García-Peña

Building on the growing body of scholarship on comparative race and ethnicity, this article considers how immigrants of color and their descendants interpret, translate, and deploy politicized ethno-racial terms (Black, Latinx) to confront racism in contemporary Italy. Through the analysis of cultural texts, including interviews, speeches, and a novel, I argue that terms, ideologies, and racial processes have become both local and global as immigrants and new citizens build transnational networks of contestation from which to confront the violence of coloniality and exploitation that led them to migrate while asserting belonging in the nations in which they reside. 


Author(s):  
Tyas Retno Wulan ◽  
Lala M. Kolopaking ◽  
Ekawati Sri Wahyuni ◽  
Irwan Abdullah

Social remittances (ideas, system practice, and social capital flow from the receiving country to the home country) of Indonesian female migrant workers (BMP) in Hong Kong appeared better and more complete than other BMP in other countries like Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, or Singapore.  Based on that research, we are encouraged to do extensive research in order to identify factors  that push  BMP’s social remittances development  in Hong Kong, to identify kinds of social remmitances they receive  and to understand on how far their social remittances become a medium to empower them and their society.  This study is done in qualitative method that uses an in-depth interview technique and FGD.  Subjects of study are BMP, the government (Ministry of Manpower and Transmigration and BNP2TKI), NGOs, migrant workers’ organization and researchers of BMP. The study done in Cianjur (West Java), Wonosobo and Banyumas (Central Java) and Hong Kong indicates that during their migration process, female migrant workers not only have economical remittance that can be used for productive activities, but also social remittances.  The social remittances are in the form practical knowledge such as language skill and nursery; knowledge on health, financial management; ethical work; the mindset changing and networking. The study  indicate that female migrant workers are extraordinary women more than just an ex-helper.  Their migration has put them into a position as an agent of development in society.Key words: Indonesians  female migrant workers, social remmitances, empowerment


Religions ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (8) ◽  
pp. 422
Author(s):  
Marek Wódka ◽  
Stanisław Fel ◽  
Jarosław Kozak

This paper is based on sociological quantitative studies carried out in 2019 on a sample of 620 Polish Catholics living in London, Swindon, or Oxford. Those studies and their findings are limited only to those Catholics who make up the communities around major Polish institutions in the UK, such as Polish parishes, Saturday schools, and community houses. The goal of this paper is to describe selected aspects of Polish migrants’ religiosity in the new social and cultural milieu. What we focus on here is how Poles themselves describe their faith, how they understand and evaluate their membership of parishes or other religious communities, and how they approach religious practices, especially Sunday Mass attendance. We address the following questions: how do the Poles living abroad describe their attitudes towards faith? How many of them are active members of Polish parishes? What do their religious practices and membership of other community organisations look like? How do specific factors affect the results across these areas?


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