Introduction

Abstract

The introduction provides the reader with a context for transnational migration studies and its importance for studying people, work and organizations today. Starting out referencing contemporary trends, such as Brexit, the election of Trump and general rise of anti-immigrant, righ-wing regimes globally, the introductory chapter lays the foundation for a transnational migration perspective. Key ideas from transnational migration studies, an interdisciplinary field born out of sociology, are explained and their relevance for theorizing and studying difference in the context of globally-mobile people made explicit. The chapter then outlines how existing approaches to the study of people and work under these new times and in the context of mobility has taken shape in the management, focusing explicitly on diversity and cross-cultural management areas. These two scholarly areas represent the dominant approach to the study of people and difference albeit there have been critical interjections into static notions of identity, place and work in these areas. Altogether, the introduction lays the foundation for the book in terms of the need for and importance of transnational migration studies as a much-needed theoretical approach for rethinking identity, difference and work in the diversity and cross-cultural management fields.