Transnational Approach To Migration

In the period after World War II, the worldwide integration of finance and labor markedly increased, resulting in an expansion of global capitalism. For this reason, it became more common for job-seekers to move where their skills were required and where the conditions seemed most promising. Additionally, developments in technology and electronic communications have led to a lower “distance tariff”, meaning that they have compressed time and space, especially through airplanes, telephones and the Internet (23). As a consequence, travelling, trading and communicating have become cheaper, making it less difficult to maintain social, economic and political ties over large geographical distances. In summary, contemporary globalization, facilitated

Although the transnational perspective does not directly dispute these concepts, it mainly focuses on mobile migrants who take part in processes of transnationalism: Transnational migrants or transmigrants move to another nation state where they settle down and participate in the cultural and social lives but “at the same time, they are engaged elsewhere in the sense that they maintain connections, build institutions, conduct transactions, and influence local and national events in the countries from which they emigrated” (Glick Schiller et al. 1995:48). Accordingly, transnational circulation is not limited to the physical movement of human bodies but also includes other (possibly recurrent) exchanges across nations, “such as travel, communication, and remittances” (Duany 2011:21). These exchanges can take place with direct state involvement or in the absence of the state. José Itzigsohn and others (1999) have distinguished between “narrow” and “broad” transnational activities. The former includes a high level of institutionalization and a large degree of human mobility between two countries. In contrast, the latter is characterized by little institutional involvement and infrequent movement of people (Itzigsohn et al.

According to M. Kearney, borders represent geographical and cultural zones between nations that are not always clearly distinguishable. State boundaries, on the other hand, are the physical and political lines separating states from each other (Kearney 1991:52). Such boundaries often preset obstacles to migration (Gielis 2009:599). Lower boundaries may lead to increasing migration and support transnational activities. Furthermore, borders and boundaries of a nation state often do not correspond perfectly with each other – especially because the crossing of cultural borders and legal boundaries by migrants disturbs the theoretical division. Transnational migration is about experiencing the border or experiencing the difference. It puts migrants in the condition of always being in-between two places (Gielis 2009:598). Such an experience does not take place only at physical dividing lines but also in other places and situations, as well as in mental and symbolic ways. When migrants cross boundaries they re-establish and renegotiate such boundaries, and thereby shape their own transnational identity