The Politics of Migrants’ Transnational Political Practices

Abstract

This article critically examines transnational political engagement of migrants and refugees in local, national and global political processes. Based on inductive reading of existing scholarship and in particular the author's own research on Turks and Kurds in Europe, the article discusses key concepts and trends in our understanding of why, how and with what consequences migrants engage in transnational political practices. These practices, this article suggests, are influenced by the particular multilevel institutional environment, which migrant political actors negotiate their way through. This environment includes not only political institutions in the sending and receiving country, but also global norms and institutions and networks of other nonstate actors. Finally, the article argues for critical examination of the democratic transparency and accountability of migrants' transnational networks in any analysis of their long and short‐term impact on domestic and global politics.

International Migration and Home Country Politics

“…Building on the sporadic but increasing number of published contributions to the topic in political science, the collection encourages a dialog between two well-established but largely separate literatures: (1) work by sociologists and anthropologists on outmigration and transnationalism (see for instance Levitt 1998Levitt , 2001Portes et al 1999;Goldring 2002;Guarnizo et al 2003;Østergaard-Nielsen 2003b;Smith 2003;Fox 2005;Waldinger 2008;Waldinger et al 2008); and (2) work by political scientists on the quality of democracy and governance in new democracies (see for instance Schedler 1998;Agüero and Stark 1998;Przeworski et al 1999;Mainwaring and Welna 2003;O'Donnell 2004;Diamond and Morlino 2005;Hagopian and Mainwaring 2005;Kitschelt and Wilkinson 2007). In the process, it contributes to a broader effort to build a coherent corpus of theoretical knowledge about the relationships between migration, remittances, and key aspects of democracy such as electoral and nonelectoral participation, political accountability, and representation.…”

La estructura de oportunidad política transnacional y el giro relacional en el análisis de la participación política y el asociacionismo migrante

“…Las prácticas políticas de los migrantes no deben analizarse solo desde el país de residencia de estos, sino que los estudios deben situarse también en el contexto político institucional de origen y destino (Østergaard-Nielsen, 2009). Diversos estudios han puesto de relieve el papel de las iniciativas de vinculación de los estados de origen en las prácticas políticas de los migrantes (Østergaard-Nielsen, 2003;Moraes et al, 2009). Aunque, pese a ello, como también se ha señalado, estas estrategias de vinculación pueden adolecer de credibilidad y no llegar efectivamente a todos los migrantes.…”

“…En el enfoque transnacional de las EOP no puede quedar fuera tampoco el Estado receptor, que «[…] juega un papel central al marcar los límites de la inclusión, exclusión, ciudadanía, permitiendo o prohibiendo las distintas formas de movilización política dentro de sus fronteras» (Østergaard-Nielsen, 2009: 27). Varios estudios han mostrado cómo la EOP del país de recepción influye en la participación política en el país de origen, pero, al mismo tiempo, diferentes modelos de incorporación política llevados a cabo por diferentes Estados de recepción pueden fomentar prácticas políticas transnacionales similares (Østergaard-Nielsen, 2003). Aspectos todos ellos que tornan compleja y multidimensional la interpretación de los determinantes de la movilización y de la organización local, nacional y transnacional de los migrantes.…”

Learning to be Palestinian in Athens: constructing national identities in diaspora

“…There have been numerous attempts to explain the consequences and repercussions of such cross-border (dis)connections on cultural notions of diasporic and migrant identity as well as home and belonging (see for example, Al-Ali and Koser 2002;Blunt 2005;Clifford 1997;Hall 1999;Kennedy and Roudometof 2002). There have also been attempts to assess the geopolitics of diaspora (Carter 2005), transnational and diaspora politics (Itzigsohn 2000;Østergaard-Nielsen 2001Østergaard-Nielsen , 2003 and the construction of long-distance nationalism, which focus on how national identities are created from afar using transnational/crossborder relations. Such discussions are useful but there is a need for more research on how different individuals and generations within diasporas strategically and actively construct diasporic nationalism in relation to political and cultural identities.…”