Transmigrants

This chapter focuses on transmigrants, a particular kind of transnational personhood derived from the idea that identity is not fixed and people can act in reflexive, agentic ways to craft their sense of self based on context. It then compares and contrasts this approach to personhood with existing notions of identity and self in the diversity and cross-cultural management research fields. Specifically, diversity literature that acknowledges and examines dynamic aspects of identities does so by focusing on identity formation and using intersectional lenses. Similarly, attempts to capture the multi-faceted and dynamic nature of people in the cross-cultural management field are dominated by concerns over whether individuals are blending national culture and economic ideology in ways that converge or diverge in organizations as a means to understand how individuals may be crafting their own set of values beyond culture. Based on these trends, the chapter provides comparative critique on existing approaches in the diversity and cross-cultural management field that aim to speak of a diverse and globally-mobile subject. The chapter concludes with the implications of such a mobile understanding of self for work and organizational life.