‘Why Are You Not Crying?’

This article analyses the ways in which young people with a migration background develop their own transnational engagement with their or their parents’ country of origin. Drawing on 17-months of multi-sited ethnographic fieldwork in the Netherlands and Ghana, we add to the emerging literature on ‘return’ mobilities by analysing young people of Ghanaian background, irrespective of whether they or their parents migrated, and by looking at an under-researched form of mobility that they engage in: that of attending funerals in Ghana. Funerals occupy a central role in Ghanaian society, and thus allow young people to gain knowledge about cultural practices, both by observing and embodying them, and develop their relationships with people in Ghana. Rather than reproducing their parents’ transnational attachments, young people recreate these according to their own needs, which involves dealing with tensions. Peer relationships—which have largely gone unnoticed in transnational migration studies—play a significant role in this process.

A place migrants would call home: open-ended constructions and social determinants over time among Ecuadorians in three European cities

Is there a place in particular that international migrants would call home? How do they talk about it, where does it lie, and what characteristics is it expected to have, given their demographics and patterns of settlement? Similar questions are meaningful in themselves and in illuminating migrant biographical, family and housing trajectories. We address them, in this paper, through the categorization and multinomial analysis of the responses to a dedicated open-ended question in a survey on Ecuadorians in Madrid, Milan and London (n = 1175). This original dataset allows us to explore migrant views of home against the background of their demographics and of their migration and housing conditions. We analyse respondents’ ways to articulate, spatialize and prioritize key aspects of home through a logit model, thereby assessing their association with age, length of stay, housing tenure, family networks and city of residence. Overall, their predominant construction of home points to a place in the country of settlement, but not necessarily to their own dwelling. Younger and newcomer immigrants see home as a primarily relational construct, whereas older and long-stayers emphasize its place-based and private dimension. Significant variations in the expected emplacement and bases of home can be found across cities of residence. However, no significant variations are associated either with gender or with migrants’ transnational engagement.

Transnational constitutional engagement: A contextualization of global constitutionalism by the Constitutional Court of South Korea

Through the analytical framework of ‘transnational constitutional engagement’, this article examines the dynamically developing practices of the South Korean Constitutional Court as it engages with international and foreign elements, both within and beyond constitutional adjudication processes. Diverse underlying factors and orientations in varied contexts, and the complex interactions between them, are responsible for shaping the modes of a local constitutional actor’s engagement with the transnational. In the vertical aspect, the court adopts international human rights law as a substantive standard of constitutional review through a version of cosmopolitan constitutional interpretation, while it has nevertheless exhibited ambiguity and incoherency in concrete applications. The horizontal aspects of transnational engagement include the court’s practice of referencing foreign law and cases in constitutional adjudication. The vibrancy and the evolving patterns of its citation practice reflect the court’s growing self-perception vis-à-vis the world – although limitations remain, such as geographical asymmetries among referenced jurisdictions. The court has also been enthusiastic in interacting with various transnational counterparts beyond adjudication processes, demonstrating eminent leadership in regional network-building among constitutional courts in Asia. With both cosmopolitan aspirations and nationalist ambitions playing a role in their shaping, the modes of transnational constitutional engagement are not to be generalized, but require contextualization, and the relevant practices should be subject to constant evaluations for their contribution in producing sound and effective concretizations of the values of global constitutionalism.

"We Want Justice!”: Transnational Political Activism Among Second Generation Tamil Youth And Identity (Re) Construction Within Transnational Social Spaces

Drawing on the experiences of the 2009 transnational political activism of second generation Tamil youth, this study explores transnationalism among the second generation in Canada and identity construction within transnational social spaces. It also engages in discussions on the importance of recognizing the existence of transnationalism as not just a phenomenon of the first generation. Based on a sample of nine second generation Tamil youths, findings suggest that the second generation is selective in its transnational practices, while expanded forms of transnationalism exists and fluctuates over the life course. Both Tamil and Canadian identities were found to be hybrid, fluid, shifting and situational, marked by a sense of belonging to both Canada and Sri Lanka. The second generation are thus situated between various and opposing ideas and information flows in which they are able to traverse and stimulate transnational engagement, when and if they wish to do so.

"We Want Justice!”: Transnational Political Activism Among Second Generation Tamil Youth And Identity (Re) Construction Within Transnational Social Spaces

Drawing on the experiences of the 2009 transnational political activism of second generation Tamil youth, this study explores transnationalism among the second generation in Canada and identity construction within transnational social spaces. It also engages in discussions on the importance of recognizing the existence of transnationalism as not just a phenomenon of the first generation. Based on a sample of nine second generation Tamil youths, findings suggest that the second generation is selective in its transnational practices, while expanded forms of transnationalism exists and fluctuates over the life course. Both Tamil and Canadian identities were found to be hybrid, fluid, shifting and situational, marked by a sense of belonging to both Canada and Sri Lanka. The second generation are thus situated between various and opposing ideas and information flows in which they are able to traverse and stimulate transnational engagement, when and if they wish to do so.

Transnational Diaspora Engagements in HIgher Education:

The literature on diaspora engagement in higher education focuses on broadenvironmental, policy, and institutional issues as critical determinants ofthe scope and efficiency of engagement. Using data from interviews with 16Ethiopian diaspora academics in the United States, this article undertakesa micro-examination of factors in their personal spaces and immediateenvironment that influence such engagement. Using a phenomenologicalapproach, it examines how professional, personal, familial and otherindividual attributes shape the trajectories of diaspora engagement. Itdemonstrates how nuances in personal and micro-environmental factorsshape motivation for, and sustenance of, engagement, while they maintaina complex and interdependent relationship. The article concludes byhighlighting the importance of a holistic approach to the study of diasporaengagement in higher education that pays attention to personal and microenvironmentalfactors as well as institutional, legal, and political issues. Key words: Ethiopia, Ethiopian diaspora, diaspora engagement, highereducation, transnational engagement

Eternity in a Global Context

This chapter analyses eternity clauses in a transnational context, as part of the story of the internationalized nature of constitution-making processes and the growing diffusion of global values in democratic constitutionalism. It explains this diffusion along two axes: the internationalization of constitutional authorship and the rise of international and regional organizations as constitutional norm entrepreneurs. The chapter also describes the adjudication of unamendability as transnationally embedded, which takes the form of national courts that rely on international law or a transnational referent when developing unconstitutional constitutional amendment doctrines. It also explores the possibility of international courts developing supranational forms of unconstitutional constitutional amendment doctrines. This chapter raises awareness about the impact of the transnational on the content and authorship of eternity clauses, but also cautions against assuming positive transnational engagement in the adjudication of unamendability. The chapter highlights the mounting backlash against universalistic values and international law as anchors to ground and orient unconstitutional constitutional amendment doctrines.

Digital Technology, Physical Space, and the Notion of Belonging among Chinese Migrants in Japan

This paper illustrates how, among Chinese migrants in Japan, the notion of belonging is constructed and modified by their use of digital technology, by presenting digital technologies as a continuum of physical and digitized life experiences. Drawing on interviews with 55 Chinese migrants in Japan, this paper argues that Chinese migrants are increasingly engaged in digital spaces that combine the online and offline and permit their presence at a transnational scale, through a collectively imagined ‘Chinese’ identity. However, because of the influence of physical spaces on Chinese migrants’ transnational, diasporic experiences, this transnational engagement does not lead to the construction of a transnational or a relatively static nation-state sense of belonging. Instead, for Chinese migrants in Japan, the notion of belonging can be based on the situation and context, and it can switch between the home and host countries.

Ascriptive Organizational Stigma and the Constraining of Pakistani Immigrant Organizations

Existing research on the incorporation of immigrants generally celebrates immigrant organizations (IOs) as essential conduits for political mobilization, civic integration, and transnational engagement. Less attention, however, has been given to the external contexts or conditions that can constrain IOs. In this article, I introduce the concept of ascriptive organizational stigma (AOS) and examine how domestic and geopolitical contexts contribute to the stigmatization and constraining of Pakistani immigrant organizational capacities. Data come from 59 in-depth interviews conducted with leaders and members of Pakistani IOs in New York City and London. Findings suggest Pakistani IOs in both cities experienced AOS, and that external pressures to prioritize stigma management over core missions, impeded efforts to serve domestic and homeland constituents. Findings also indicate the stigmatization of ascriptive status markers can contribute to the conflation of immigrants’ group and organizational identities. This article contributes to existing scholarship by revealing how external contexts can lead to the constraining of immigrants’ domestic and homeland-oriented organizational capacities.