Diasporas, Transnational Ties, and Ethnic-Religious Minorities

This chapter explores situations affecting citizens whose ethnic or religious diaspora identities and transnational contacts have either gained them recognition or delegitimized their standing in the eyes of state authorities and sectors of public opinion. The analysis reviews the Jewish presence in the Americas before diving deeper into the case of Jewish Venezuelans, followed by presenting comparative observations on Jewish Cubans and on Muslims and Arabs living in the Triborder area where the jurisdictions of Brazil, Argentina, and Paraguay meet. As Latin America has been primarily a continent of Christians, these case studies explore the meeting ground between the states’ geopolitics and cultural premises and their implications for those whose intersectional identities may open grounds for sectors challenging their legitimate standing as citizens.

Heterogeneity and Instability: Theoretical–Methodological Outcomes of Three Investigations on Land and Agrarian Movements and the State

The article presents a theoretical–methodological proposal to research movements and its connections based on the associations they establish. The first investigation focuses on the transformations of the South African Landless People’s Movement, the second on interactions between Brazilian rural movements and the National Institute of Colonization and Agrarian Reform, the third focuses on the transnational ties of the Brazilian National Confederation of Agricultural Workers. We produce an ontological definition of movements and the state as collectives whose existence is defined by continuous assemblages of heterogeneous and unstable elements. Those collectives are not enclosed analytical units, but contingent and contextual. Methodologically, we suggest the observation of the processes in the long term to grasp the continuous constructions of those collectives, even before they reach public expression. Controversies are analytical categories for understanding which elements allow things to take the course we analyze.

Exploring Social Remittances and Transnational Activism Amongst Transgender Refugees

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.

The agroecological transition in Senegal: transnational links and uneven empowerment

Senegal is among the few African countries that counts with an important agroecological movement. This movement is strongly backed up by a network of transnational partnerships and has recently matured into an advocacy coalition that promotes an agroecological transition at national scale. In this article, we investigate the role of transnational links on the empowerment potential of agroecology. Combining the multi-level perspective of socio-technical transitions and Bourdieu’s theory of practices, we conceptualize the agroecological network as a niche shaped by the circulation of different types of capital. Using social network analysis, we investigate the existing flows of resources and knowledge, as well as membership and advocacy links to critically address within-niche empowerment processes. We show that transnational ties play a key role in building the niche protective space, showing a financial dependency of the agroecological niche on NGOs and international cooperation programmes based in Europe and North America. This configuration tends to favor the empowerment of NGOs instead of farmer unions, which only play a peripheral role in the network. However, the multiple innovations focus of agroecology may open up prospects for more gradual but potentially radical change. Based on our findings, we suggest to include more explicitly core-periphery dynamics in transition studies involving North–South relations, including circulation of capital, ideas and norms.

There's no place like home: Hanaian and Nigerian-Canadian children sent "back home"

For many African immigrants to Canada, their reason of relocating can fall under a variety of push and pull factors of migration. Immigrants often settle in the host country and then have children. Many scholars have showcased the benefits of transnational ties for immigrants to their home country but rarely has this been examined through second generation immigrant children as being vessels of which this occurs. This research uncovered reasons why some Ghanaian and Nigerian-Canadian parents decided to send their Canadian born children to Ghana or Nigeria temporarily. Through qualitative data interviews with Ghanaian and Nigerian-Canadian parents from the Hamilton and the Greater Toronto Area, this study explored how transnational identity impacted this type of migration for second generation African immigrant children in Canada. Through Durkheim’s socialization theory, the findings and themes explored the various aspects of transnational relationships and identities. Key Words: Transnationalism, Bifocality, Second Generation, Ghanaian/Nigerian-Canadian, Back Home, Socialization, Identity

There's no place like home: Hanaian and Nigerian-Canadian children sent "back home"

For many African immigrants to Canada, their reason of relocating can fall under a variety of push and pull factors of migration. Immigrants often settle in the host country and then have children. Many scholars have showcased the benefits of transnational ties for immigrants to their home country but rarely has this been examined through second generation immigrant children as being vessels of which this occurs. This research uncovered reasons why some Ghanaian and Nigerian-Canadian parents decided to send their Canadian born children to Ghana or Nigeria temporarily. Through qualitative data interviews with Ghanaian and Nigerian-Canadian parents from the Hamilton and the Greater Toronto Area, this study explored how transnational identity impacted this type of migration for second generation African immigrant children in Canada. Through Durkheim’s socialization theory, the findings and themes explored the various aspects of transnational relationships and identities. Key Words: Transnationalism, Bifocality, Second Generation, Ghanaian/Nigerian-Canadian, Back Home, Socialization, Identity

The Cultural Integration of Working Vietnamese People in Poland: An Analysis of Integration as the Process of Immigrants’ Lived Experience

This article is devoted to investigating the cultural integration of working Vietnamese immigrants in Poland. This study approaches cultural integration as a process of lived experience, paying particular attention to immigrants’ agency. The migrant group is viewed as active actors who are able to develop motivations for integration into their host culture or reinforce their loyalty to their original culture through interactions with new living settings in their country of residence. This study also examined the role of transnationalism in the process of cultural integration. Qualitative analyses showed that the motivations for cultural integration are strongly shaped by the immigrants’ impression of proper cultural standards and their admiration of the performance of social institutions, modernization, and living conditions in Poland. Motivations for integration played a crucial role in fostering the migrant group’s cultural acquisition. Concurrently, the migrant group exposed their disinclination to internalize cultural standards that challenged their established worldviews formed by socialization and education in the home country. This reluctance happens due to the role of transnational ties by which the migrant group can carry and practice their original culture. Consequently, transnationalism results in cultural resistance, hindering the cultural integration of the migrant group in Poland.

Growing Up Between Cultures: How Second-Generation Migrants Perceive and Construct “Home”

The word “home” can refer to a house, a family, a country, or even to a feeling of safety and comfort. Through increased mobility, the conception of home as a static place loses its meaning. For second-generation migrants, the children of migrants, the concept of home is ambiguous. They can have transnational ties to their parents’ home country and the country they grew up in. The ambiguity leads second-generation migrants to construct home through reflective practices. Through in-depth interviews with eight second-generation migrants, we found that home is necessarily a complex and varied concept. The most important aspects to constructing a home are family (nuclear as well as extended family), a sense of community through shared values, and lastly reflective practices on what it means to grow up between cultures. While nuclear family provides the first safe space to create a feeling of home, feeling like part of a community is essential for feeling at home in a town or country. Some second-generation migrants find a community in the country they grew up in, while others feel rejected due to discrimination. In those cases, second-generation migrants search for cosmopolitan communities that share values of openness to difference.