2004/09/01 by Steven Vertovec · 2 citations
Social Sciences · #Diaspora, migration, transnational identity #Migration and Labor Dynamics #Migration, Ethnicity, and Economy
paper · doi:10.1111/j.1747-7379.2004.tb00226.x
openalex publication_date 2004/09/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/30
Much of the literature on migrant transnationalism focuses on the ways that specific sociocultural institutions have been modified in the course of being stretched across the globe. Yet migrant transnational practices are involved in more deep-seated patterns of change or structural transformation. Such modes of transformation concern: 1) an enhanced ‘bifocality’ of outlooks underpinning migrant lives lived here-and-there; such dual orientations have considerable influence on transnational family life and may continue to affect identities among subsequent post-migration generations; 2) heightened challenges to ‘identities-borders-orders’ stemming from migrants’ political affiliations in more than one nation-state; these particularly arise around questions of dual citizenship and nationality; and 3) potentially profound impacts on economic development by way of the sheer scale and evolving means of remittance sending; money transfer services, hometown associations and micro-finance institutions represent three kinds of remittance-related organizations currently undergoing significant forms of adaptation with significant consequences for development. These modes of transformation, and the practices of migrant transnationalism surrounding them, both draw from and contribute to wider processes of globalization.