The Strengths and Limits of Waldinger's The Cross Border Connection

Abstract

In this important book Roger Waldinger proposes a new analytical framework for the study of the migrant experience. He argues that migrants are at the same time immigrants and emigrants and their lives are subject to contradictory forces that on the one hand connect them with their country of origin and on the other hand pull them towards integrating into the country in which they reside. Waldinger affirms that this new analytical frame addresses the limits of assimilation theory – that is, methodological nationalism – and the blinders of the literature on transnationalism – that is, the exclusive focus on the connections between the places of origin and reception. I think that this is indeed true. At the same time, I believe that Waldinger's analysis has limits and blinders of its own. It is too critical of the literature on transnationalism and too uncritical concerning the process of incorporation. In spite of these limitations, this book is an original contribution to the study of the migration experience.