Transnational Identification Research Articles

Islamic Middle East: Characteristics and Some Features of Modern Transformations of Political Identity

The subject of the study is the modern transformation of political identity in the Middle Eastern states and communities that profess Islam. The author examines in detail the complex of identifications that exist in the Middle East region. Particular attention is paid to the interaction and harmonization of religious, imperial, national and ethno-cultural identities. Regional features of identification transformations are considered both in the context of transformations in the global system of international relations, and taking into account the regional specifics of political processes and the general originality of the socio-cultural space. The general tendencies typical for all communities of the region under consideration are analyzed, as well as particular features of identity transformations as a factor of state policy on the example of Turkey and Iran. The novelty of the study lies in the analysis of transnational identification transformations in the Middle East region in the context of global trends towards the growing role of transnational identity in international relations and world politics. The author's special contribution to the study of the topic is the combination of fundamental theoretical approaches to the study of identity with the methodology of system analysis, which allows to more accurately describe the complex multi-level structure of modern identities, based on the current works of Russian, Western and Middle Eastern researchers. The main results of the study are the determination of general and particular features of identification transformations in the Middle East region, as well as the definition of the functions of religious and imperial identities in the system of identifications.

Transnational identification processes: An association of young business leaders

This article raises the question of how organisational identification emerges at distance and across cultural contexts. The question is explored in an empirical study of identification processes among Moroccan members of an international association that assemble young leaders and entrepreneurs in small- and medium sized companies. On the basis of a narrative analysis of interviews, observations, and documents, the article illustrates two mutually reinforcing identification processes: One is based on face-to-face social interaction with likeminded peers locally; another is imaginary in the sense that the Moroccan members envision members in other countries to be like themselves and what they aspire to become. This contributes to crosscultural management literature in three ways: first, the study adopts a transnational lens that shows the need to go beyond a national perspective and to explore identification at the intersection between the global and local; second, the study draws on concepts of imagined community (Anderson, 1983) and community of sentiments (Appadurai, 1996) to conceptualise the imaginary part of the identification processes, which transcends locality. Third, the study contributes methodologically by showing how the distinction between translocal and local narratives allows to analyse the interplay between an imagined transnational community and a local face-to-face community.

Transnational Activities and Identifications –A population-based study on three immigrant groups in Finland

ABSTRACT Our understanding of the lived experience of transnationalism is limited by the scarcity of high-quality quantitative evidence. Representative evidence on the emotional and identification aspects of transnationalism is especially missing. To address this gap, we investigated the transnational involvement of three migrant groups – Somali, Kurdish and Russian – in Finland. Using high-quality random sample survey data, the study examined transnational activities – remittance sending, following media, keeping in touch with and visits to the country of origin – as well as transnational identification with significant others living abroad. Multiple correspondence analysis (MCA) demonstrated that transnational involvement can be empirically divided into transnational activities and identifications, as suggested by prior theoretical works. Regression analysis showed that transnational activities and identifications varied strongly between the three groups. Russians were the most active in transnational activities while Somalis showed the highest levels of identification with their country of origin. Activities increased with the longer stay, while identification decreased. Family ties played a role in transnational identification. Our results point towards the complexity in the relationship between transnational involvement and economic integration in the host society.

Memory, place and agency: transnational mirroring of otherness among young Albanian ‘returnees’

ABSTRACT Return migration has been traditionally conceptualised within a framework of ‘homecomings’, emphasising primordial ethnicity at the expense of micro-level and cognitive aspects of migrants’ belongingness. Drawing on the narratives of Albanian-origin children and young people who moved (back) to Albania with their families from crisis-ridden Greece, this paper explores their experiences of otherness in the presumed homeland, and puts emphasis on their agency in the context of return migration. Memory emerges as an important aspect of agency in the process of what we term ‘the transnational mirroring of otherness’. Brought up in Greece, the Albanian-origin children are othered upon return because of their perceived ‘Greekness’ among the locals and limited ability to speak Albanian. Beyond establishing and maintaining transnational ties and identities, participants show initiative in positioning themselves against shifting transnational identification frameworks, as they contemplate a spatially mobile future.

Transnational ties, endowment with capital, and health of immigrants in Germany: cross-sectional study

Maintaining transnational ties may be an indication of poor integration into the host society (according to classical ‘assimilation theory’) or may convey additional capital resources to immigrants (the ‘transmigrant’ view of migration). Consequences for health would be negative in the first and positive in the second scenario. We tested the hypotheses that (1) maintaining transnational ties may lead to unfavourable health outcomes via outflow of resources and (2) transnational ties convey additional resources, thereby leading to improved health outcomes. An alternative hypothesis (3) is that the different forms of capital are an intermediate variable in the association between transnational ties and resource flows on the one hand and health on the other (mediation). We conducted a cross-sectional analysis using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP). Transnationality was measured by “financial transfers to country of origin”, “personal relations”, “transnational identification”, and “cultural practices”. Capital was measured as follows: economic: income; cultural: education; social: visits by friends, membership in associations. Logistic regression was used to assess determinants of low satisfaction with health (outcome), adjusting for age, sex, and socio-economic status, considering capital endowment. Among N = 1589 migrants, the chances of higher satisfaction with health decreased significantly with higher age (OR = 0.29), being a blue-collar worker (OR = 0.74), not being a blue- or white-collar worker (OR = 0.56), and living alone (OR = 0.67) and increased with high capital endowment (OR = 2.13). In the fully adjusted model, transnational ties showed no association with health satisfaction. We found no evidence that transnationality is an effect modifier in the association between capital endowment and health and that capital endowment is a mediator in the association between transnational resources and health. We found no evidence that immigrants who maintain close transnational ties (personal contact/sending remittances) to their country of origin are not sufficiently “integrated” into German society and will hence experience worse health (assimilation theory). However, they do not experience major health benefits from maintaining transnational ties either.

Complicating the conceptual language of the Bengal diaspora

ABSTRACTIn celebrating the volume by Alexander, Chatterji and Jalais “The Bengal Diaspora – Rethinking Muslim Migration”, this piece suggests that the text productively disturbs the central concepts of migration, diaspora and “Muslim”. This opens up further discussion about how interdisciplinary scholarship might rethink the multiple temporalities and cartographies of transnational identification.

Avsenik u Buenos Airesu: Procesi transnacionalne identifikacije kroz izvođenje polke među potomcima slovenskih političkih emigranata u Argentini

Avsenik u Buenos Airesu: Procesi transnacionalne identifikacije kroz izvođenje polke među potomcima slovenskih političkih emigranata u Argentini

Contested states and the politics of sport: the case of Kosovo – division, development, and recognition

ABSTRACTThis paper provides the first detailed analysis of the politics of sport in the small, post-conflict, contested state of Kosovo, located in the Western Balkan region of Europe. A former province of Yugoslavia, Kosovo endured a bloody civil war in the late 1990s between Serbian-led Yugoslav forces and Kosovo Liberation Army. In the post-conflict context, Kosovo has undergone a long period of reconstruction with major Western support; has been partially recognised by the international community since declaring independence from Serbia in 2008; and, has experienced significant regional ethno-national divisions and tensions, primarily between the Albanian majority and Serbian minority. We examine how sport in Kosovo influences and is influenced by these wider political processes. Our discussion is organised into three main parts. First, we set out our analytical approach, and then outline the main historical, social, and political features of Kosovo. Second, we examine the key political aspects of sport in Kosovo, with respect to development, the struggle for recognition, and social conflicts and divisions. Third, we address the cultural politics of sport in Kosovo with reference to issues of national and transnational identification, symbolic conflicts involving different national groups, and the role of the sport for development and peace (SDP) sector in building better cross-community ties. Our analysis is underpinned by international relations theories, notably a mix of critical and constructivist approaches; and draws on fieldwork and many interviews with key stakeholders in the sport, development, government, and education sectors in Kosovo.

The Mysteries of Voice: Love and Transnational Identification in Performing the Border, The Price of Sex, and Señorita extraviada

This article analyzes Performing the Border (dir. Ursula Biemann, Switzerland and Mexico, 1999), Señorita extraviada (Missing Young Woman, dir. Lourdes Portillo, Mexico, 2001), and The Price of Sex (dir. Mimi Chakarova, US, 2011), three documentaries that focus on the ways that poor and disenfranchised women in the hot zones of globalization have been made increasingly vulnerable by patterns of capital expansion. In these documentaries, women who have survived trafficking, rape, and abduction share their brutal experiences in filmed interviews; family members who have lost daughters and sisters describe their profound grief; and each filmmaker includes herself either in the frame or in the voice-over of the film—sometimes in both. Despite their distinct aesthetic investments, these three films share common thematic preoccupations with gender-based violence and filmically constructed justice. Together, these films encourage us to revisit debates about feminist postcolonial ethics in transnational documentary. How might one share the emotional intensity of the other ethically, without projecting a false similarity? What role does a bicultural and bilingual woman filmmaker play in mediating, without collapsing, significant differences between the women whose lives are at stake in these documentaries and the women who make and watch such films? The delicate balance that makes possible a transnational feminist ethics of identification in these films exists in the management of the tension between the voices of the documentary: that of the filmmaker and those of her subjects.

Critical Multicultural Citizenship Education among Black Immigrant Youth: Factors and Challenges

This study uses qualitative interviews with 18 participants across five states to examine the factors that promote enhancement of critical multicultural education for Black immigrant youth. Findings suggest that class discussion, influence of social media and technology, non-educational practices, and cultural and language differences are the leading factors that promote the advancement of critical multicultural citizenship education for participants. Participants utilized these factors to navigate the democratic education and the role of transnational identification. Findings support the need for teachers and educators to understand the cultures and best practices for teaching immigrant youth.

Is there assimilation in minority groups' national, ethnic and religious identity?

Ethnic and religious minority identity is a subject of intense public debate and academic scrutiny. While assimilation theories anticipate convergence of identity across the generations, discussions of reactive ethnicity, transnational identification and religious revival suggest that there may be a deepening or shifting of minority identity in the second generation. Yet the empirical evidence in support of these different perspectives is far from conclusive. Drawing on a rich data source for the UK, this paper addresses the question of whether minority ethnic groups in Britain show identity assimilation in the second generation. It concludes that both public and private forms of identification with the majority increase across generations, and minority identities tend to become less salient. This is true across ethnic groups, although there are differences in underlying levels and patterns of identity, reflecting variation in contexts of reception and migration.

Exploring Media Use among Migrant Families in Europe: Theoretical Foundations and Reflections

This article advocates the further development of research on media uses in the context of migrant families and reflects critically on the conceptual and theoretical framework for such research. First, the concept of migrant audiences is dissected. Why single out these particular audiences? We discuss the terms "migrants" and "immigrants", "ethnic minorities" and "diasporic audiences", focusing on issues of essentialism and pointing out the complexity of multiple, fluid, intersectional identifications and "super-diversity". Second, we discuss the family as a key context for media uses, both in general and specifically in relation to migrant audiences. Third, we further elaborate on two concepts which help us to theorise and research diasporic media uses. On the one hand, hybridity is often used to describe the transnational identification of (young) diasporic audiences, but there is a need for further empirical research on the various contexts shaping hybrid identity positions in Europe. On the other hand, cosmopolitanism could be a powerful framework for research, provided that we focus on concrete cosmopolitan competences in local, everyday and mediated social contexts. Overall, this paper makes a case for transnational, comparative research aiming to do justice to the diversity of diasporic family constellations and media uses across Europe.

Cosmopolitics in Border Film: Amores Perros (2000) and Sleep Dealer (2008)

The complex Mexico city drama Amores Perros and the Latino science fiction film Sleep Dealer explore issues of transnational identification and critique on different levels of cinematic communication: as productions targeting a general, universal young audience; as visual texts that illustrate and negotiate the distribution of images and data in a world of accelerated globalization; as film narratives centred on questions of human mobility and migration; as works of art scripted and directed by individuals who live and work in different countries. This study reads Amores Perros and Sleep Dealer in the context of the history of border film and analyses how the two films position themselves in contemporary debates on critical cosmopolitanism and economic globalization. As border films, set in Mexico, their cinematic politics go beyond local and national perspectives. Both films provide self-reflexive narratives about the topic of resistance within the space of global capitalism and contribute to the contemporary discourse of cosmopolitics.

Transnational Collective Identification: May Day and Climate Change Protesters' Identification with Similar Protest Events in Other Countries

Why do some people participating in transnational protest events identify with their foreign counterparts while others participating in the same events do not? We find that participants in a series of May Day and climate change events are aware that the events are part of a broader struggle, and many in fact identify with their overseas counterparts. However, there are differences between demonstrations. Some are populated with people who identify transnationally, while others are comprised of participants who more closely identify with their national companions. Focusing on differences in transnational identification at the participant level, our findings can be summarized in two statements: (1) protest participation is a stronger producer of transnational identification than associational activism; (2) expressive protesters identify more transnationally than instrumentally motivated protesters.

Mobilising Lidice: Cosmopolitan Memory between Theory and Practice

This paper interrogates the orthodoxies of cosmopolitanism via the example of an emerging commemorative network surrounding the Czech village of Lidice, drawing attention to a disjunction between idealised theories of memory and actual, instrumental memory practice. Razed by Nazi officials as an act of retaliation for the assassination of Reinhardt Heydrich in Prague, 1942, Lidice's male inhabitants – mainly miners and factory workers – were shot, and women and children deported. In a notable example of productive transnational identification, a group of coal miners in Stoke-on-Trent, England began a fundraising initiative which resulted in the construction of a new Lidice overlooking the former site (1947). Whilst the field-defining work of Daniel Levy and Natan Sznaider (2006) suggests that cosmopolitan memory-work avoids the homogenisation of Holocaust memories in the global sphere, I explore here the possibility that the complex motivations that guide such practices may undermine this premise. Accordingly the paper explores inscriptions of Lidice into local contexts via processes of de-territorialisation and re-territorialisation, focusing on its mobilisation in the 21st century in an examination the twinning of Lidice with Khojaly, Azerbaijan (February 2010) and with Stoke-on-Trent (underway). Campaigners in Stoke aim to inaugurate a new museum restore the town's ‘emotional bond’ with Lidice (Alan Gerrard 2010), whereas in Khojaly Lidice's memory is polemically aligned with the massacre of over 600 Azerbaijanis during the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict between ethnic Armenians and the Republic of Azerbaijan (1988–1992). The chapter considers the Lidice's twinning network as an example of cosmopolitan, supranational ‘glocalisation’ (Levy and Sznaider 2006). Whilst both cases rely on a sense of global-local solidarity rendered possible by the mobilisation of Holocaust memory, the motivations that ground them are significantly divergent; this essay assesses to what extent this may interfere with the potential of the twinning initiatives discussed to avoid a global homogenisation of Holocaust memory.

Between Prague Spring and French May: opposition and revolt in Europe, 1960-1980

List of Figures Introduction Martin Klimke, Jacco Pekelder and Joachim Scharloth PART I: POLITICS BETWEEN EAST AND WEST Chapter 1. 'Out of Apathy': Genealogies and Meanings of the British 'New Left' in a Transnational Context, 1956-1962 Holger Nehring Chapter 2. Early Voices of Dissent: Czechoslovakian Student Opposition at the Beginning of the 1960s Zdenek Nebrensky Chapter 3. National Ways to Socialism? - The Left and the Nation in Denmark and Sweden Thomas Jorgensen Chapter 4. The Parti communiste francaisin May 1968: The Impossible Revolution? Maud Bracke Chapter 5. 1968 in Yugoslavia - Student Revolt between East and West Boris Kanzleiter PART II: PROTEST WITHOUT BORDERS: RECONTEXTUALIZATION OF PROTEST CULTURES Chapter 6. Johnson War Criminal!A - The Vietnam Movements in the Netherlands Rimko van der Maar Chapter 7. Shifting Boundaries: Transnational Identification and Disassociation in Protest Language Andreas Rothenhofer Chapter 8. A Tale of Two Communes: The Private and the Political in late 1960s Berlin Timothy Brown Chapter 9. Indiani MetropolitaniA and StadtindianerA: Representing Autonomy in Italy and West-Germany Sebastian Hauman PART III: THE MEDIA-STAGING OF PROTEST Chapter 10. Mediatisation of Provo: From a Local Movement to a European Phenomenon Niek Pas Chapter 11. The Revolution Will Be Televised: The Global 1968 Revolts on Norwegian Television News Rolf Werenskjold Chapter 12. Performing Disapproval towards the Soviets: Nicolae Ceausescu's Speech on 21 August 1968 in Romanian Media Corina Petrescu PART IV: DISCOURSES OF LIBERATION AND VIOLENCE Chapter 13. Guerrillas and Grassroots - Danish Solidarity with the 3rd World, 1960-79 Karen Steller Bjerregaard Chapter 14. Sympathizing Subcultures?: The Milieus of West German Terrorism Sebastian Gehrig Chapter 15. The RAF Solidarity Movement from a European Perspective Jacco Pekelder PART V: EPILOGUE Chapter 16. The European 1960/70s and the World: The Case of Regis Debray Ingrid Gilcher-Holtey PART VI: CHRONOLOGY: THE EUROPEAN 1968 Rolf Werenskjold Select Bibliography

The Intriguing Intricacies of European Identities

A Community of Europeans? Transnational Identities and Public Spheres. By Risse Thomas. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2010. 287 pp., $24.95 paperback (ISBN-13: 978-0-801-47648-8). Among the increasing number of books that have emerged in the last few years in the field of European transnational identity research, A Community of Europeans? could become a classic. Thomas Risse, a distinguished International Relations professor at the Free University in Berlin who has headed a number of research programs on questions of identity and transnational governance over the past decade, delivers a sophisticated empirical analysis that not only provides evidence of the extent of transnational identification in Europe as measured by a variety of quantitative and qualitative indicators, but also specifically previews the consequences of these subtle transformations for the political arenas. In contrast to most other works dealing with the subject matter in a predominantly quantitative (McLaren 2006; Green 2007) or qualitative-conceptual manner (Demossier 2007; Katzenstein and Checkel 2009), his work blends both approaches in a way that fruitfully increases our understanding of the matter. In the introduction, the author contextualizes the fuzzy subjects of Europeanization, European Identity, and Public Spheres, and links these three concepts together: “Europeanized identities and European Public Spheres are closely linked, since European public discourses constitute spaces where collective identities are constructed as well as contested” (p. 5). Accordingly, the first chapter sets out …

Listening for spaces of ordinariness: Filipino-Canadian youths' transnational lives

I consider different ways that Filipino-Canadian immigrant youths and their mothers tell their stories of their transnational experiences. Second-generation youths tell of coming into Filipino identity in their teens and developing a strong sense of transnational identification. Filipino youths who have migrated recently to Canada through their mothers' involvement in the Live-in Caregiver Program provide a less fulsome picture of their transnational experiences. I puzzle over why this is so, reasoning that their experiences are more difficult to talk about because they involve revealing intimate details of family life, and because children often have little agency or information about family migration plans. Beyond this, there is the possibility that I simply failed to hear what they were saying because of the manner in which it was said. They do not construct their experiences in narrative form. Instead they tell of their experience in fragments, in what I call – following Berlant, spaces of ordinariness. I consider the practical and political implications of listening for different forms of agency and subjecthood.

Between assimilation and transnationalism: the debate on nationality acquisition among Koreans in Japan

Political identifications among postcolonial Koreans in Japan have been characterized by a tension between assimilative and transnational orientations. The tension has been reshaped in the course of a recent debate on nationality acquisition, which Korean activists and commentators started in response to Japanese policymakers’ move in the 2001 National Diet to simplify the naturalization process for postcolonial Koreans. At the heart of the debate stand the issues of citizenship rights and collective memory, which are central to Koreans’ political identifications. Advocates of nationality acquisition accept the reality of cultural and socioeconomic assimilation and are ready to become ethnic minority members of the Japanese state in return for getting full citizenship rights. Guided by the collective memory of the colonial past and social discrimination against Koreans in postcolonial Japan, critics of nationality acquisition refuse incorporation into the Japanese state and seek the possibility of transnational citizenship and identification. Koreans in Japan are predicted to become more diverse in identification, but their diversity will probably continue to revolve around the two orientations.

Diaspora, Islam, Australia: reflections on Australian Arab case studies1

Theoretical writings on diaspora and on Arab diasporas in particular have stressed the phenomenon of emerging transnational identities, particularly international Islam. This article draws on individual in-depth interviews with two Muslim Arabs in Australia to explore issues of identity and politics and to better understand aspects of the Arabic diaspora. Our first case study shows the persistence of a clear Arab nationalism and diasporic orientation, devoid of religious emphasis, in a Palestinian case. Our second case study shows a decided turning to aspects of Islam, but its motivations are fundamentally embedded in combating social exclusion and marginalisation in specific Australian contexts, with little concern for transnational religious or diasporic identification.