Settlement, Transnational Communities and Citizenship

Abstract

International migration has given rise to emerging communities which may be described as 'transnational'. This term refers to communities made up of individuals or groups, settled in different national societies, sharing common interests and references -territorial, religious, linguistic -and using transnational networks to consolidate solidarity beyond national boundaries (Faist, 1998).The emergence of transnational communities is a 'global phenomenon', principally concerning post-colonial immigration. Immigrants are involved in networks based on economic interests, cultural exchanges, social relations and political affiliations. Their action is de-territorialised. Transnational communities may thus be considered as a new kind of migrant community. Clearly, migrants have always lived in more than one setting, at least for one or two generations, maintaining ties with a real or imagined community in the state of origin (Anderson, 1983). But in the recent years they have also taken into account "the context of globalisation and economic uncertainty that facilitates the construction of social relations that transcend national borders" (Rivera-Salgado, 1999). Increasing mobility and the development of communication have contributed to such relations, and create a transnational space of economic, cultural and political participation.The emergence of transnational communities is also a post-national phenomenon. That is, emigration took place after the age of nationalism, and the immigrants involved in constructing transnational communities do not refer to a 'mythical' (quote and quote rather to mythical territorial state, but come from and refer to a territorialised nation-state. In some cases, such as Turkey, the state of origin is centralised with unified national and political culture. In other cases, such as India or China, it has a federal structure maintaining cultural and political heterogeneity. In all cases, it is the chosen identity -linguistic, religious, regional -that constitutes a basis for transnational organisation.Transnational organisation allows the immigrant populations to escape national policies, and generates a new space of socialisation for immigrants involved in building networks beyond national borders (Appadurai, 1996;Gupta and Ferguson, 1997, Hannertz, 1996). The cultural and political specificities of national societies (host and home) are combined with emerging multilevel and multinational activities in a new space beyond territorially delimited nationstates, inevitably questioning the link between territory and nation-state. Moreover,

Toward a Critical Multilingualism in Canadian Classrooms: Making Local Inroads into a Cosmopolitan Identity

“…Despite some perspectives that argue for the contrary, cosmopolitanism also allows people to draw on the country of origin as a source of identity. Thus in our present conceptualization of cosmopolitanism, a cosmopolitan disposition does not preclude narrower identifications based on local or national loyalties (Appiah;Kastoryano, 2000;Pichler, 2009;Pollini, 2005;Robertson, 1992).…”

Multilayered Citizenship in Extended European Orders: Kurds Acting as European Citizens*

“…The literature on the political mobilization of Turkish–Kurdish networks in Europe stresses that they are very effectively mobilized in terms of using the European political institutions to pressure the Turkish state (Eccarius‐Kelly, 2002; Østergaard‐Nielsen, 2003). As a transnational community in Europe, Turkish Kurds are introducing new modes of citizenship practice based on active participation in the absence of legal status (Kastoryano, 2000) and transversing the continuing territorial logic of European politics (Soğuk, 2008). The presence of these effectively mobilized networks in Europe naturally opens up an effective channel of political participation for Kurds residing in Turkey.…”

Globalization, Civil Society and Citizenship in Turkey: Actors, Boundaries and Discourses

“…But they are embedded in the process of globalization and generate important impacts on the notion of citizenship in two related ways: as directly puzzling the established notion of citizenship and as deeply contributing to the flourishing civil society. In the case of the former, as noted by Kastoryano (2000), international migration leads to an institutional expression of multiple citizenship, where the country of origin becomes a source of identity, the country of residence a source of status, and the emerging transnational space, a space of virtues combining the two or even more countries. Related to this argument, and in the case of the latter, it is suggested that contemporary international migration introduces a new mode of participation in public life both on national and international levels, and consequently 'reflects the internationalization of civil society' (Pellerin, 1996).…”