Transnational migration: taking stock and future directions

TLDR

Increasing numbers of sending states offer social and political membership to migrants abroad, creating dual memberships that challenge conventional views of immigrant incorporation and the link between migration and development. The article asks how ordinary individuals live across borders, whether assimilation conflicts with transnational membership, and how economic and social development shifts when occurring across borders. The authors define transnational practices, describe the institutions that shape and are shaped by them, and examine how these institutions distribute migrants’ resources and energies across borders, mainly using studies of migration to the United States.

Abstract

Increasing numbers of sending states are systematically offering social and political membership to migrants residing outside their territories. The proliferation of these dual memberships contradicts conventional notions about immigrant incorporation, their impact on sending countries, and the relationship between migration and development in both contexts. But how do ordinary individuals actually live their lives across borders? Is assimilation incompatible with transnational membership? How does economic and social development change when it takes place across borders? This article takes stock of what is known about everyday transnational practices and the institutional actors that facilitate or impede them and outlines questions for future research. In it, I define what I mean by transnational practices and describe the institutions that create and are created by these activities. I discuss the ways in which they distribute migrants’ resources and energies across borders, based primarily on studies of migration to the United States.