We advance a concept of political remittances that offers a distinct analytical perspective and enables a comparative assessment across time and space. By providing a new conceptualisation of political remittances, this article elaborates on the link between different kinds of remittances, delimiting the boundaries between political, social, economic, or cultural remittances. We understand political remittances as influencing political practices and narratives of belonging, thereby linking migrants' places of destination and origin. The state, in this conceptualisation, mediates political remittances. The article distinguishes between factors influencing the transmission of political remittances such as the characteristic of the messengers, the relative space between sending and receiving contexts and the composite nature of political remittances. Illustrating the contours of a future research agenda, we suggest ways to operationalise research into political remittances drawing on the articles in this special issue which closely analyse political practices, narratives of belonging and the role of the state. Covering migration processes since the early 1800s, the case studies exemplify that political remittances are not a new phenomenon as such but rather a relatively recent analytic perspective.

Research with refugees poses particular ethical challenges, especially if data is collected in places where most refugees today live: namely countries neighbouring conflict, ones that are sometimes at war with their country of origin and where refugees are exposed to different degrees of legal vulnerability, posing security risks to participants and researchers alike. These challenges are exacerbated when data is collected across countries and includes survey research. The article adds to the emergent literature on ethics in forced displacement by highlighting how security precautions and ethical considerations influence and shape methodological choices. Based on recent fieldwork with Syrian refugees in Lebanon and Turkey in 2018, the article discusses a mixed-methods approach combining in-depth interviews with an individual survey based on multistage cluster sampling, random walks and limited focused enumeration. Advocating for a refugee-centred approach, it elaborates on: (i) how to negotiate ‘ethics in practice’; (ii) how risks and violence influence the choice of fieldwork sites; and (iii) how ethical considerations impact in particular quantitative or mixed-methods studies. It describes the advantages of including members of refugee populations in research teams, as well as open challenges with regard to risks, informed consent, confidentiality, sensitive issues, positionality, advocacy and collaborative writing efforts.

This paper explores the nexus between political remittances, political activism and narratives of belonging. Drawing on semi-directive interviews with activists of three Egyptian youth groups in Vienna and a discourse analysis of their Facebook activism between 2012 and 2017, it shows that major political events in the place of origin can play a keyalbeit ephemeralrole in mobilising descendants of Egyptian migrants abroad. Political discussions and practices in Egypt were reproduced abroad, though to a far less extent. However, personal experiences in Vienna also heavily impregnated ideas about events in Egypt. Interviewees emphasised that the revolution in 2011 led to a renegotiation of their relationship to Egypt and for many, their activism was a way to claim their right to multiple identity constructions. Perceiving Egypt as an integral part of their dual identity, they sought to engage in political debates on integration issues in Austria parallel to raising awareness about political events in Egypt. However, as the government grew more authoritarian after the summer of 2013, identity constructions and political activities started to focus more on the Viennese context again, underlining how closely political activities and narratives of belonging are intertwined.

No abstract