Situating Fijian transmigrants: towards racialised transnational social spaces of the undocumented

Abstract

AbstractAs global interconnections have increased in our current era, many social scientists are placing added emphasis on immigration studies and rethinking migration processes. This paper offers a preliminary response to the call for more empirical, but theoretically grounded, work on ‘transnationalism’ and ‘transmigration’. It considers the case of indigenous Fijians, a growing but small population of largely undocumented immigrants to the United States. I situate and define Fijians as transmigrants by underscoring the important meso‐level links, including migration networks and social capital, which serve to build and maintain relationships between immigrants, their fellow immigrants, and their kin left behind in Fiji. Additionally, while I contend that Fijian transmigrants are contributing to the formation of transnational bridges and constructing multiple, but connected, localities in both Fiji and the US, I argue that because immigrant Fijians have yet to form staunch social and symbolic ties within the US, they have not emerged into transnational communities. The Fijian case, along with other groups of undocumented transmigrants, also raises questions about the nature and definition of transnational social spaces, since there has been little discussion that identifies or legitimises racialised transnational social spaces specifically organised and occupied by undocumented transmigrants. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.