Forms of Migrants’ Political Transnationalism: Towards an Operational Typology

1. Forms of Migrants’Political Transnationalism: Towards an Operational Typology Simona Kuti, Institute for MigrationandEthnicStudies, Zagreb Divided Societies XII: Building up the Polities; The Balkans IUC, Dubrovnik, 20-25April, 2009

2. Contents • Introduction – transnationalism • definitions • criticisms • Types of transnationalism • economic • socio-cultural • political etc. • Political transnationalism • research (American vs. European perspective) • determinants • Elements for an operational typology • narrow/broad and core/expanded dichotomies • form/substance • degree of institutionalisation, focus of activities, etc.

3. Definitions (1) • Glick Schiller et al.- transnationalism as "A New Analytic Framework for Understanding Migration" (1992) • "the processes by which immigrants build social fields that link together their country of origin and their country of settlement. Immigrants who build such fields are designated “transmigrants”. Transmigrants develop and maintain multiple relations - familial, economic, social, organizational, religious, and political that span borders. Transmigrants take actions, make decisions, and feel concerns, and develop identities within social networks that connect them to two or more societies simultaneously."

4. Definitions (2) • "'transnationalism' broadly refers to multiple ties and interactions linking people or institutions across the borders of nation-states." (Vertovec, 1999)

5. Definitions (3) • "it is preferable to delimit the concept of transnationalism to occupations and activities that require regular and sustained social contacts over time across national borders for their implementation." (Portes et al., 1999)

6. Meanings of Transnationalism • Vertovec (1999) - transnationalism as: • 1) social morphology (transnational networks, transnational communities) • 2) type of consciousness (dual or multiple identifications) • 3) mode of cultural reproduction (cultural interpenetration and blending) • 4) avenue of capital (transnational transactions, TNCs) • 5) site of political engagement (INGOs, TSMOs) • 6) (re)construction of 'place' or locality (translocalities, virtual neighbourhoods)

7. New vs. Old Transnationalism • "contemporary transnationalism involves more rapid and denser linkages between immigrants and the sending countries" (Itzigsohn, 2000) • "For all their significance, early transnational economic and political enterprises were not normative or even common among the vast majority of immigrants, nor were they undergirded by the thick web of regular instantaneous communication and easy personal travel that we encounter today." (Portes etal.,1999)

8. Transnational Actors • Guarnizo and Smith (1998) • "transnationalism from above" • governments and corporations • "transnationalism from below" • immigrants, grassroots entrepreneurs, activists

9. Cross-border activities by different types of actors (Portes 2001; 2003)

10. Areas of Transnational Activities • Portes etal., 1999 • economic, political and socio-cultural transnationalism • Itzigsohn et al.,1999 • civil-societal • Levitt, 2003 • religious • Al-Ali et al., 2001

11. Categorisation of individual and community activities by type andgeographical focus (Al-Ali et al., 2001)

12. Participation in hometown associations as indicator of: • socio-cultural transnationalism • Itzigsohn and Saucedo, 2002; Portes, 2003 • civil-societal transnationalism • Itzigsohnet al., 1999 • political transnationalism • Landoltet al., 1999; Portes, 2001;Itzigsohn, 2000 • economic transnationalism • Vertovec, 2004; Porteset al., 2002

13. Political Transnationalism (1) • "wide range of phenomena" (Bauböck, 2003) • "very dispersed field of inquiry" - includes activities such as transnational election campaigns and cross-border voting, migrants' rallies and demonstrations, engagement in hometown associations' projects in the region of origin (Østergaard-Nielsen,2003)

14. Political Transnationalism (2) • European vs. American perspective (Østergaard-Nielsen, 2001; 2003) • amount • focus • receiving vs. sending country • level of analysis • top-down vs. bottom-up

15. Definition • transnational political practices include "various forms of direct cross-border participation in the politics of their country of origin by both migrants and refugees, as well as their indirect participation via the political institutions of the host country" (Østergaard – Nielsen, 2001; 2003) • the question of mobility

16. Research • "Comparative Immigrant Enterprise Project" - CIEP, 1996-1998 - Colombian, Dominican, and Salvadoran immigrants (USA) • Guarnizo et al., 2003: • transnational electoral participation - membership in a political party in the country of origin, monetary contributions to the parties, active involvement in political campaigns in the polity of origin • transnational nonelectoral politics - membership in a hometown civic association, monetary contributions to civic projects in the community of origin, membership in charity organizations sponsoring projects in the home country

17. Determinants of Immigrants' Political Transnationalism • gender • marital status • age • human capital • social capital • lenght of U.S. residence (Guarnizo et al., 2003)

18. participation in transnational economic and political activities - exceptional and restricted to a minority of relevant populations • regularengagementinelectoralpolitics - 9.9 % (15 % - Dominicans) • regularengagementinnonelectoralpolitics – 18 % • hometown civic associations - 16.3 % - Salvadorans (Portes, 2001; 2003; Guarnizoet al.2003; Porteset al.2002)

19. Dichotomies • "narrow" and "broad" transnational practices (Itzigsohn et al., 1999) • "core" and "expanded" transnationalism (Guarnizo, 2000; Levitt, 2001)

20. "Dimensions of narrow and broad transnationality" (Itzigsohn et al., 1999)

21. "Core" and "expanded" transnationalism • activitiesof "core" transnationalism • form an integral part of the individual’s habitual life • undertaken on a regular basis • patterned and predictable • activitiesof "expanded" transnationalism • engagement in occasional transnational practices (Guarnizo, 2000; Levitt, 2001)

22. Transnational political activities • electoral – non-electoral activities • direct – indirect participation • institutional – confrontational participation • home – host country focus of activities • etc.

23. "Dimensions of migrants' transnational political practices" (Østergaard - Nielsen, 2003) • immigrant politics • homeland politics • emigrant politics • diaspora politics • translocal politics

24. Emergence of transnational practices • linear transnationalism (Portes, 1999) • reactive transnationalism • + resource dependent transnationalism (Itzigsohn and Saucedo, 2002)

25. Concluding Remarks • multilevelpoliticalinstitutionalenvironmentofmigrants' transnationalism (Østergaard – Nielsen, 2003) • 3 instrumental reasons for theinvolvementofsendingstates (Bauböck, 2003): • human capital upgrading • remittances • political lobbying of receiving-country governments

26. Concluding Remarks • 5 types of sending state policies (Levitt and de la Dehesa,2003): • bureaucratic reforms • investment policies • political rights: dual citizenship and external voting • extension of state services abroad • symbolic policies • effectsofinternationalactivities on transnationalinitiativesandtypesofresponses(Portes) • migrants' transnational activism as a constructive phenomenon (Guarnizoet al., 2003)