Transnational Political Practices Research Articles

Transnational citizenship: political practices of Kurdish migrants’ descendants in France and Germany

ABSTRACT Over the last decades, scholars have increasingly called for the ‘deterritorialization’ of the notion of citizenship. The realities concerning citizenship have changed with new expressions of transnationalism. However, whereas the main body of research has focused on the transnational aspects of citizenship among migrants in the form of their transnational political practices and dual nationalities, their descendants have received far less attention. This paper examines the political practices of Kurdish migrants’ descendants in France and Germany and their narratives of identity and citizenship. We employ migrant descendants’ political activism as an empirical entry point to gain insight into the meanings they attach to citizenship. The paper draws from two qualitative datasets collected in France (2015–2017) and Germany (2015–2023) with individuals of Kurdish background, who were born to migrant families arriving from Turkey in the 1980s and 1990s. The findings show that national contexts – both in grandparents’/parents’ country of departure and the country of arrival – and the transnational, diasporic and even supranational space (EU) shape migrant descendants’ political activism, identity construction and consequently resonate in the meanings they attach to citizenship. This study highlights the need to approach migrants’ descendants as transnational citizens in their own right.

Yugoslav Emigrants in Brazil from the Habsburgs to Karađorđevićs: Transnational Political Engagement on the Peripheries?

Abstract This article addresses how the Habsburg Empire and interwar Yugoslavia engaged with their emigrants in Brazil, and examines emigration patterns. It suggests that despite these emigrants not insignificant presence in Brazil, both European states demonstrated minimal interest in their subjects in the largest Latin American country. By contrast, the emigrants themselves aimed at attracting their home state’s attention, thus making the Yugoslav emigrant network visible. Tracing emigrant transnational political practices on the eve of the First World War, this article examines the establishment and withering of the South Slavic community in Brazil. It does so by situating the emigrant network within the transnational social field, defined by the sending and receiving states and by emigrant activists. Without oversight from the home state, and restrictive policies by the receiving country, these activists manipulated emigrants’ interests for personal benefit, contributing to community disruption before the Second World War.

Transnational political practices and integration of second generation migrants

ABSTRACT Since the last few decades, migration scholars have acknowledged that immigrants and their forebears maintain different forms of ties with their home countries while incorporating into their host countries. The study contributes to the literature by investigating the interplay between transnational political practices and political integration of second generation Ghanaians in Amsterdam. Data for this research are drawn from semi-structured interviews, key informant interviews, informal interviews and participant observation among members of Ghanaian political party branches in the Netherlands. Data collection took place intermittently between 2014 and 2017 in Amsterdam. The study found that second generation migrants participate in multiple fields of politics in the host and home country. Dutch restriction on dual citizenship limits the rights of second generation Ghanaians to fully participate and represent in Ghana’s politics. The study concludes that transnational political practices of second-generation migrants are not invariably contradictory to their political integration in the host nation but citizenship laws of nation states dictates the extent of engagement in transnational political practices.

Un estado de la cuestión del transnacionalismo político de los migrantes colombianos

El estudio de las prácticas políticas transnacionales de los migrantes ha tenido diversos niveles de participación en el amplio campo de las migraciones internacionales, y ha sido una preocupación relativamente reciente en Europa y América Latina, donde está menos desarrollado que en Estados Unidos. En consecuencia, son escasos los trabajos que abordan el transnacionalismo político de colombianos, lo cual contrasta con el número de investigaciones que abordan el desplazamiento forzado y la migración colombiana.De los trabajos existentes, en Estados Unidos, resaltan especialmente las investigaciones comparativas entre grupos de inmigrantes, desde metodologías cuantitativas y bajo el enfoque analítico de las redes sociales; mientras que, en Europa, se destaca el estudio de casos específicos, que articulan la teoría de la acción colectiva y la teoría de los factores push-pull, bajo metodologías cualitativas. En todos los casos, las investigaciones que se preguntan por las prácticas políticas de los colombianos con respecto al contexto de salida, homeland politics, son aquellas que mayor atención han tenido a nivel general.El transnacionalismo político es un campo de estudios relativamente nuevo, y conviene resaltar su importancia en tanto que busca atender a la dimensión política de la migración, en este caso de colombianos, no solo como causa —pues al respecto existe un patrimonio importante de investigaciones—, sino como práctica política de participación de estos migrantes en otras latitudes.En este orden de ideas, el objetivo de esta investigación no es hacer teoría de las migraciones internacionales, sino aproximarme a describir las diferentes perspectivas desde las cuales ha sido abordado el transnacionalismo político de los colombianos. Para esto, trabajé desde el paradigma histórico hermenéutico, que me permitió hacer un rastreo comprensivo del fenómeno social a través del estado del arte; dicho paradigma se entiende como investigación de la investigación, en tanto que busca establecer un panorama del patrimonio investigativo existente sobre un tema, para derivar en nuevas reflexiones, preguntas y abordajes sobre este. Dicho esto mi objetivo en este trabajo no es hacer teoría de las migraciones internacionales, sino aproximarme a describir las diferentes perspectivas analíticas desde las que ha sido abordado el trasnacionalismo político de los colombianos, reconociendo que es un campo relativamente nuevo dentro de los estudios migratorios. En este sentido, organizaré la presentación así: primero, presentaré el abordaje metodológico que sustenta el estado de la cuestión; segundo daré cuenta de las investigaciones enfocadas a las prácticas de los inmigrantes con respecto al país de origen; tercero presentaré los trabajos que enfatizan en las prácticas políticas en el contexto de recepción con respecto a su situación de inmigrantes; cuarto presentaré los trabajos que triangulan “Inmigrant politics” y “homeland politics”; y quinto, daré mis conclusiones frente al campo de estudios y el panorama del transnacionalismo político de los colombianos.Para efectos de esta investigación trabajé desde el paradigma histórico hermenéutico, puesto que me permite hacer un rastreo comprensivo del fenómeno social bajo la perspectiva del estado del arte. Los estados del arte son entendidos como “investigación de la investigación”. en tanto buscan establecer un panorama del patrimonio investigativo existente sobre un tema, para derivar en nuevas reflexiones, preguntas y abordajes del mismo.Palabras claves: transnacionalismo político, migración, colombianos, organizaciones sociales, participación política.

Countering insurgency: Turkey’s policy toward the PKK’s transnational dynamics in Europe

ABSTRACTInsurgents often develop international connections and benefit from external assistance from a variety of sources. Support from diaspora communities has long been considered one of the critical external factors in the persistence of insurgent groups. Yet how the counterinsurgent state addresses external support from transnational ethnic communities and what factors influence the state's policies remain understudied. By focusing on the transnational political practices of the Kurdish community and the PKK in Western Europe, this paper examines how Turkey has addressed the diasporic support for the PKK since the 1980s. It shows that three major factors – the composition of foreign policy decision-makers, their ideological contestation over the Kurdish question, and the European political context – have affected Turkey's policy regarding the PKK's transnational dynamics in Europe.

The monarchical engagement of Portuguese immigrants in Brazil: A case of nineteenth-century transnational politics

ABSTRACTThis article examines the transnational political practices of the Portuguese immigrant community in Brazil during the late nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth. In the light of fresh empirical evidence, it aims to prove the true impact of the political engagement of those Portuguese living abroad during the course of late nineteenth-century political changes in Portugal. It focuses particularly on the struggle between Portuguese monarchist and republican parties to captivate the political sympathy of the emigrants and, later on, on the transatlantic monarchical counter-revolutionary network created after the republican revolution in 1910. It argues that this sort of migrant political activity can be analyzed beyond the framework of the diffusion of domestic politics and acknowledged as a truly transnational phenomenon. Therefore, it seeks to demonstrate how the transnational nature of these Portuguese migrants’ action was decisive to their success on seriously compromising the first republican experience in Portugal.

Contribuyendo a la democracia en países de origen: el voto externo de los migrantes andinos

Este artículo analiza cómo las prácticas políticas de los migrantes contribuyen a la calidad de las democracias en sus países de origen. Para ello nos centramos en el fenómeno del «voto externo», comparando las experiencias de tres países andinos: Colombia, Bolivia y Perú. En los tres casos se han creado mecanismos de inclusión política de los nacionales residentes en el exterior, pero en contextos históricos, socioeconómicos y políticos diferentes y con diversos resultados.

Transnational Political Activities of the Swedish Finn Youth Organization

This article looks at the Swedish Finn Youth Organization’s transnational political activities, and how they have developed. In the beginning, the youth organization modelled itself after its mother organization and joined the Finnish Expatriate Parliament (FEP), which made its participation in transnational practices easy. The case study of the Swedish Finn Youth Organization in Stockholm, Sweden, demonstrates that if the younger generation is given an opportunity to establish and govern their own associations, new forms of organization can be expected. The younger generation has distinguished itself from the older generation’s associations by cooperating with other minorities and taking more account of the multicultural nature of the Swedish society. Their transnational political practices have been developed through a more direct approach towards the Finnish government.

El voto extraterritorial en Uruguay. Inequidades y asimetrías en una trama política transnacional

A partir de los resultados de un estudio etnografíco multisituado este artículo describe e historiza dos procesos íntimamente asociados a las prácticas políticas y al ejercicio de la ciudadanía transnacional para el caso de las y los uruguayos residentes en Argentina. El primero es el proceso de estatización de la demanda por el derecho al voto extraterritorial y, el segundo, es el proceso de institucionalización de la gestión, movilización y desplazamiento del electorado frenteamplista. En este artículo, ambos procesos ofician como acceso a una dimensión de las prácticas políticas y cívicas transnacionales que, por lo general, ha sido poco explorada por parte de la literatura específica: las asimetrías e inequidades reproducidas en la propia acción transnacional que, en este caso, paradójicamente, la perspectiva nativa presenta como una respuesta posible a la desigualdad generada por la ausencia de un marco normativo que habilite el “voto a distancia”.

The East is Black: Cold War China in the Black Radical Imagination by Robeson Taj Frazier

Reviewed by: The East is Black: Cold War China in the Black Radical Imagination by Robeson Taj Frazier Keisha N. Blain THE EAST IS BLACK: Cold War China in the Black Radical Imagination. By Robeson Taj Frazier. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. 2014. In a fascinating new book entitled The East is Black, Robeson Taj Frazier explores the significance of China for a cadre of black activists and thinkers during the Cold War. Drawing on an impressive array of primary sources from the United States and China—including archival material, newspapers, oral histories, films, and travel narratives—Frazier describes how W.E.B. Du Bois, Shirley Graham Du Bois, Robert F. Williams, Mabel Williams, Vicki Garvin, and William Worthy “deployed and grappled with media, travel, and travel narrative in their interactions in China and in their formulations of transnational politics” (4). Using the terms “radical imagining” to describe the ideas, interactions, political practices, and creative expressions that he traces, Frazier deepens our understanding of the cultural and political exchanges and historical connections between people of African descent and persons of Asian descent. In five chapters (including a coda), Frazier examines the significance of China’s march towards socialism for black Americans during the Cold War. These men and women, Frazier asserts, “opposed U.S. imperialism abroad and capitalism and antiblack racism at home … [and] made it well known that the social and economic treatment of black Americans and racial minorities in the United States amplified the inadequacies of the country’s paradigm of international relations and world community” (5). [End Page 151] While Frazier is attentive to the myriad ways black men and women engaged China and endorsed Afro-Asian solidarity, he pays equal attention to the contradictions in their positions. In the first chapter, Frazier describes the significance of the Du Boises’ visit to China in 1959, highlighting the couple’s admiration for China’s modernization project, the “Great Leap Forward,” and the efforts to strengthen relations between Africans and the Chinese. According to Frazier, the Du Boises “believed that China’s rejection of U.S. domination and its projects to induce China’s economic advancement could aid decolonial efforts in Africa” (47). Yet, they overlooked the disastrous consequences of the “Great Leap Forward” and “perpetuated a paternalist framing of Sino-African relations: Africans as under Chinese tutelage” (49). In this chapter, Frazier also offers a close reading of Du Bois’s historical novel Worlds of Color (1961), unpacking some of the contradictions in the black radical imagination and interrogating global discourses on race and racial identity. In subsequent chapters, Frazier grapples with these tensions through an exploration of the ideas and activities of a diverse group of black men and women who engaged in transnational political practices through various mediums including journalism, media, and overseas travel. Frazier’s The East is Black is a deeply nuanced and well-researched book that enriches the literature on twentieth century black internationalism. It is a welcome addition to the growing body of scholarship on Afro-Asia by Gerald Horne, Robin D. G. Kelley, Yuichiro Onishi, and others. Among its many strengths, Frazier’s book highlights the gendered contours of black transnational ideas and activism; and draws insights from various fields including history, American studies, and critical race theory. Through careful and in-depth analysis, Frazier has written an important study, which will enhance undergraduate and graduate course syllabi on a range of topics including Race and Ethnicity, Transnationalism, and the modern African Diaspora. Keisha N. Blain University of Iowa Copyright © 2016 Mid-America American Studies Association

Demonstrating Identities: Multiculturalism, Citizenship, and Tamil Canadian Identities

Looking at political demonstrations that occurred throughout 2008 and 2009 in Toronto, this article explores popular understandings of diasporic identities within a Canadian multiculturalism framework. It also examines second-generation Sri Lankan Tamils’ (SLT) (re)negotiations of these representations in forming and informing their identities. Drawing on Kathleen Hall’s (2002) framework, identities are understood as constituted through processes of power, discourse, and representation. Through a critical discourse analysis of newspaper editorials and narrative explorations of second-generation Canadian Tamils, this article investigates how diasporic identities are incorporated into the wider Canadian polity. Fifteen semi-structured interviews were conducted with second-generation Tamil Canadians (ages nineteen to twenty-nine). I argue that popular constructions of diasporic identities and Canadian national identity as understood within a multiculturalism framework are not entirely in concurrence with Tamil diasporic minorities’ own identity narratives. The resultant “othering” causes feelings of marginalization and undermines notions of social citizenship. Concurrently, resistive practices by the second generation embodied by the political démonstrations of 2008-2009 contest “Canadian” identity as promoted in hegemonic representations by dominant elements of society, including the state. Divergences that emerge between the resistive discourses of second-generation Tamils and “mainstream” integrationist discourses demonstrate the need for a more sophisticated conceptualization of how Canadian multiculturalism and citizenship might incorporate the transnational political and cultural practices of its citizens.

Translateral Politics, Class Conflict, and the State

Transnational capitalist class (TCC) theory has established a clear set of economic practices that have laid the basis for class formation on a global scale. Less clear is the relationship of the TCC to national states, the military (particularly the US superpower), and what constitutes transnational political practices. The author argues that the emerging world system is characterized by uneven development between economic and political hegemony; and that this reflects a historic and natural pace of transformation as opposed to economic and political changes that occur in a tightly linked qualitative leap. Moreover, the article introduces the term ‘translateral’ to define the political practices that are building a new governance regime and mode of accumulation, differentiating it from both unilateralism and multilateralism that characterized the old international system of nation-centric relationships. La teoría de la Clase Capitalista Trasnacional (TCC) ha establecido un conjunto claro de prácticas económicas que han sentado las bases para la formación de clases a un nivel global. La relación de los TCC con los estados nacionales, los militares (particularmente el súper poder estadounidense), es menos clara, y lo que constituye las prácticas políticas trasnacionales. El autor sostiene que el sistema del mundo emergente es caracterizado por un desarrollo desigual entre la hegemonía política y económica; y que esto refleja un ritmo histórico y natural de transformación, a diferencia de los cambios políticos que ocurren en un salto cualitativo estrechamente ligado. Además, el artículo introduce el término ‘traslateral’ para definir las prácticas políticas que están construyendo un nuevo régimen de gobernanza y modo de acumulación, diferenciándose tanto del unilateralismo como del multilaterismo que caracterizó el antiguo sistema internacional de relaciones céntricas de los estados. 跨国资本主义阶级（TCC）理论已经建立一系列清晰的经济实践，以奠定全球范围的阶级形成的基础。但是，相对来说仍然不清楚的是，在军事（尤其是美国超级大国）和构成跨国政治实践等方面，TCC与民族国家之间的关系。本文作者认为，正在出现的世界体系以经济和政治霸权之间的不均衡发展为特征，相对于紧密联系的质的飞跃的经济与政治变化，这一特征反映的是历史的和自然的速度。进而，本文提出了一个术语“跨边的”（translateral），以便定义打造新的治理和积累方式的政治实践。“跨边的”是为了区别于旧的国际体系中的单边主义和多边主义。 حددت نظرية الطبقة الرأسمالية متعدية القوميات مجموعة واضحة من الممارسات الاقتصادية التي أرست أسس تشكل طبقي على نطاق عالمي. غير أنه من الأمور الأقل اتضاحًا علاقة هذه الطبقة بالدول القومية والجيش (خاصة في حالة الولايات المتحدة كقوة عظمى) وكذلك بالنسبة لما يشكل الممارسات السياسية متعدية القوميات. ويذهب الكاتب إلى أن النظام العالمي الناشيء يتصف بالتنمية غير المتكافئة بين الهيمنة الاقتصادية والسياسية، وأن هذا يعكس إيقاعًا تاريخيًا وطبيعيًا في التحول بالنظر إلى التغيرات السياسية والاقتصادية التي ترتبط ارتباطًا قويًا مع كل قفزة نوعية. وبالإضافة إلى ذلك، يستحدث المقال مصطلح "عبر الجانبين" لتحديد الممارسات السياسية التي تبني نظام حكم ونمطًا في التراكم يميزه عن كل من الأحادية وتعددية الأطراف اللتين وسمتا النظام الدولي القديم للعلاقات المرتكزة على الدول. 초국적 계급 이론은 지구적 규모에서 계급형성의 토대를 만든 경제적 행위에 대해서 분명하게 제시했다. 덜 분명한 것은 초국적 계급과 국민국가, 군대(특히 수퍼 파워 미국)와의 관계와 초국적 정치행위의 구성에 관한 것이다. 필자는 등장하는 세계체계는 경제적 헤게모니와 정치적 헤게모니 간의 불균등 발전을 특징으로 한다는 점을 주장한다. 그리고 이것은 밀접하게 연계된 질적 도약 속에서 나타나는 경제적, 정치적 변화에 반대하는 전환의 역사적, 자연적 속도를 반영한다. 나아가, 이 논문은 국민국가 중심의 과거 국제관계를 특징으로 하는 일방주의적 혹은 다자주의적 관계와는 다른 새로운 거버넌스 레짐과 축적 양식을 구축하는 정치적 행위를 정의하기 위하여 “초자주의적(translateral)”라는 용어를 도입한다.

The Transnational Political Practices of Chilean Migrants in Switzerland

AbstractThis paper examines the transnational political practices of the Chilean migrants residing in Switzerland. It is mainly interested in their political mobilization. It focuses on two particular questions: what are the main modes of transnational political mobilization of Chileans living in the Swiss Confederation? What are the conditions that promote the mobilization of these migrants and lead them to bring forth political demands? With respect to the first question, data shows that Chileans’ political mobilization combines mostly classical homeland politics (issues related to human rights), initiated during the period of exile, with emigrant politics concerning the transnational status and rights of migrants themselves. With respect to the second question, factors which explain the political mobilization of migrants are related to access to political opportunities for Chileans in Switzerland (dual citizenship, political networks, and presence of international organizations) and limitation of rights in the home country. This goes hand in hand with a strong political identity, important collective resources and the capacity to use them politically.

The Transnational Political Practices of “Latin American Italians”

AbstractThe article analyses the political institutional patterns between Italy and Latin America through a study of South American dual nationals who retain full political rights in Italy. It adopts a socio‐historical approach to study the genesis, evolution and consequences of Italy’s external citizenship policies, assessing their impact on the transnational political activities of “Latin American Italians”. It identifies the outputs and outcomes from the transnational political practices of “Latin American Italians”, both in Italy and the countries of residence, if and how these have created overlapping polities, affected the conception of membership, and challenged the definition of “home” and “host” country. The findings are based on over one year of field research, including interviews with key actors in Argentina, Uruguay, Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom; in‐depth interviews with seventy‐four Latin Americans who had recently obtained their Italian citizenship by descent; and a statistical analysis.The article concludes that the current rise of transnational institutions linking sending and receiving countries does not totally break with the past. The strategic use of European nationality laws influences political participation of Latin American Italians in a limited way, and when a transnational political engagement does occur, it produces a disjunction between politics and territory more in terms of a re‐territorialization than of a de‐territorialization of political practices. Thus, this article supports the hypothesis of strengths and weaknesses of the transnational approach to analyse migrant’s political activities.

Political cultures and transnational social fields: Chileans, Colombians and Canadian activists in Toronto

AbstractWe offer an institutional analysis of Chilean and Colombian transnational politics in Toronto to account for cross‐group variation in transnational political practices and the formation of different types of transnational social fields of political action. The article is based on interviews conducted with Chilean and Colombian community activists and Canadian refugee rights and social justice activists. We use the concept of political culture to account for differences in Chilean and Colombian transnational politics and to explain the different kinds of relationships the two groups have developed with non‐migrants. We introduce the concept of activist dialogues, understood as patterns of strategic political interaction between groups, to characterize how migrants and non‐migrants read and navigate their interlocutors' ways of doing politics. We argue that variation in the character of activist dialogues results in different types of transnational social fields of political action. Chilean–Canadian activist dialogues reflect a convergence of political cultures and strategies of action; Colombian–Canadian activist dialogues are marked by a relationship in which there is a divergence of strategies of action. Convergent dialogues produce thicker and more stable transnational social fields. Divergent dialogues are associated with a series of ad hoc initiatives, the absence of stable and strongly institutionalized partnerships, and a thinner transnational social field of political action.

Reflexiones etnográficas sobre la «ciudadanía transnacional». Prácticas políticas de andinos en el sur de Europa

This article explores from an ethnographic perspective the political practices of migrants in a transnational public sphere, based in a study case of Andean Ecuadorians in Spain. It emphasizes the connections between the impact of immigrants settling in Madrid and their efforts to maintain a socioeconomic and political presence in their community of origin, looking at the way new practices of transnational citizenship are established in current neoliberal age. It proposes the category of transnational social fields in the bourdieuan sense to scrutinize how territory, identity and residence are redefined to build up a new cartography of inclusion and exclusion from citizenship rights and duties across national frontiers. It offers some empirical findings to illustrate the way new structures of sociocultural stratification are built both in the origin and destiny countries through these new transnational political practices. These insights are contextualized within some key theoretical debates around the new proposals of transnational citizenship.

Turkey’s Kurds and the Quest for Recognition

The growing literature on transnationalism documents the ways in which immigrants and refugees stay connected with their communities and countries of origin, and shows how homeland governments reach out to their former constituents. Social, financial and political ties are extended across borders. We know little, however, about the specific ways in which oppositional transnational political practices are shaped and made effective. What is more, research on transnational political practices has often limited itself to investigations of the connections between nation states. This article illustrates how transnational political practices articulate different levels of policy making (local, national, supranational) in ways that multiply the effectiveness of engagement at any one site. It will be shown that homeland political activists can effectively shape the homeland political agenda through the mobilization of immigrants’ and refugees’ associations and institutions in multilevel constructions of networks, constituting a space of political engagement that needs to be considered in its own right.

The transnational political practices of Colombians in Spain and the United Kingdom: politics ‘here’ and ‘there’

Most existing scholarly work available on Colombian migrants’ transnational political practices has emphasized the divisions, mistrust and apathy affecting them. However, research conducted by the author among Colombians in the United Kingdom and Spain departs from previous studies by stressing the broad nature of migrants’ transnational political participation, which involves engagement in both formal and informal politics, at the individual and collective levels, and in initiatives coming from ‘above’ and ‘below’. It also shows how transnational political practices oriented towards the home country occur simultaneously with activities in the host society, contrary to what has generally been thought. This was more the case among Colombians in Spain than among those in the UK, which could be partly explained by differences in the historical development and size of each community, as well as the role played by individual factors, such as migrants’ previous political experiences.

Representing voiceless migrants: Moroccan political transnationalism and Moroccan migrants’ organizations in France

Most of the Moroccan migrants in France are politically voiceless, regarding their exclusion from voting rights in both countries of settlement and of origin. Like other transnational groups, these migrants have created many organizations in order to represent their interests and to express their sense of belonging. These organizations contribute to renewing the French and Moroccan citizenship models by developing transnational political practices and collective identities. Based on qualitative data and interviews with the militants of some of these organizations, this article explores this renewal by focusing on three dimensions of this Moroccan political transnationalism, which are its long and turbulent history, the particular places in which it occurs and the transformation of state policies it implies.

El Quinto Suyo from above and from Below: State Agency and Transnational Political Practices among Peruvian Migrants in The US and Europe

In this article, we examine emergent discourse and policy practices through which the Peruvian state aims to address Peruvians living abroad as el Quinto Suyo – an imagined “fifth region” in the Peruvian nation – and the responses hereto from Peruvian migrants in the US and Europe. We discuss challenges and constraints of migrants' participation in the Advisory Councils (one of the cornerstones of the new bureaucratic reforms) by focusing on how the relationships between diplomats and migrants and between different groups of migrants gets racialized in ways that reflect the hierarchical racial and political–economic organization of the Peruvian society itself. We conclude by discussing other kinds of migrant-initiated transnational practices through which Peruvians in the US and Europe define and contest their social, economic, and political relationships with the country of origin. The article draws on ethnographic materials from research in Italy, Spain, the US, and Peru.