Transnational migration: taking stock and future directions

Increasing numbers of sending states are systematically offering social and political membership to migrants residing outside their territories. The proliferation of these dual memberships contradicts conventional notions about immigrant incorporation, their impact on sending countries, and the relationship between migration and development in both contexts. But how do ordinary individuals actually live their lives across borders? Is assimilation incompatible with transnational membership? How does economic and social development change when it takes place across borders? This article takes stock of what is known about everyday transnational practices and the institutional actors that facilitate or impede them and outlines questions for future research. In it, I define what I mean by transnational practices and describe the institutions that create and are created by these activities. I discuss the ways in which they distribute migrants’ resources and energies across borders, based primarily on studies of migration to the United States. In her 1990 inaugural address, Ireland’s President-elect, Mary Robinson, claimed she was assuming the stewardship of a new, more tolerant Ireland that included those in residence and Irish emigrants and their descendants as well. She invited those whose families left Ireland generations ago to reassert their membership in this extended Irish family and offered to be their spokesperson. Beyond our state there is a vast community of Irish emigrants extending not only across our neighbouring island ... but also throughout the continents of North America, Australia and of course Europe itself. There are over 70 million people living on this globe who claim Irish descent. I will be proud to represent them. And I would like to see Aras an Uachtatian [the president’s official residence] serve – on something of an annual basis – as a place where our emigrant communities could send representatives for a get together of the extended Irish family abroad. Former President Robinson’s message was directed at individuals who are well integrated into the countries where they live. Since Irish immigration to the United States began over a century ago successive waves of newcomers have moved up the socio-economic ladder, achieved political prominence, and become leaders in the business community. Though these individuals express strong pride in their ancestry, they are also loyal citizens of the United States. Why, then, would the new Irish