Skip to main content
Comparative Migration Studies
Download PDF

Migrants’ Multi-Sited Social Lives

Interactions between Sociocultural Integration and Homeland Engagement

Comparative Migration Studies volume 2, pages 283–304 (2014)Cite this article

Abstract

This paper challenges the assimilationist assumption that suggests migrants cannot be simultaneously embedded in multiple societies. Based on survey data collected among Afghan, Burundian, Ethiopian and Moroccan migrants in the Netherlands, the paper shows that overall sociocultural integration in the Netherlands and sociocultural homeland engagement are significantly positively correlated. Moreover, it demonstrates that migrants with more contact with their co-ethnics in the Netherlands tend to engage more in sociocultural activities oriented towards their home country. Besides, the influence of favourable political and security situations and economic prospects in the home countries is brought to the fore in relation to migrant groups’ sociocultural homeland engagement. The paper consequently highlights the prevalence of transnational ways of living and calls for theoretical adjustments in line with migrants’ multi-sited social lives and more inclusive policy approaches that recognize the relevance of dual-citizenship in this contemporary context.

References

  • Aguilera, M.B. (2002). The impact of social capital on labor force participation: Evidence from the 2000 Social Capital Benchmark Survey. Social Science Quarterly, 83(3), 853–874.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Aguilera, M.B. & Massey, D. S. (2003). Social capital and the wages of Mexican migrants: New hypotheses and tests. Social forces, 82(2), 671–701.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Al-Ali, N., Black, R. & Koser, K. (2001). Refugees and transnationalism: the experience of Bosnians and Eritreans in Europe. Journal of Ethnic and Migration studies, 27(4), 615–634.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Basch, L., Glick Schiller, N. & Blanc-Szanton, C. (1994). Nations unbound: Transnational projects: Post-colonial predicaments and deterritorialized nation-states, Langhorne: Gordon and Breach.

    Google Scholar 

  • Basilio, L. & Bauer, T.K. (2010). Transferability of Human Capital and Immigrant Assimilation-An Analysis for Germany. Ruhr Economic Paper, (164).

  • Bilgili, Ö. & Weyel, S. (2009). Migration in Morocco: History, current trends and future prospects. Paper Series: Migration and Development Country Profiles.

  • Bilgili, Ö. & Siegel M. (2012). The Netherlands Country Report. IS Academy Project Output. Maastricht Graduate School of Governance.

  • Cernea, M. (1990). Internal refugee flows and development-induced population displacement. Journal of Refugee Studies, 3(4), 320–339.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chiswick, B. & Miller, P.W. (2007). “The International Transferability of Immigrants’ Human Capital Skills” IZA Discussion Paper 2670.

  • Chiswick, B.R. & Miller, P.W. (2009). The international transferability of immigrants’ human capital. Economics of Education Review, 28(2), 162–169.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • De Haas, H. (2007). Morocco’s Migration Experience: A Transitional Perspective. International Migration, 45(4), 39–70.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Erdal M.B. & Oeppen, C. (2013). Migrant balancing acts: understanding the interactions between integration and transnationalism. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 39(6), 867–884.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Faist, T. (2013). Transnationalism and cross-border migration. The Encyclopedia of Global Human Migration.

  • Glick Schiller, N., Basch, L. & Blanc-Szanton, C. (1992a). ‘Transnationalism: A new analytic framework for understanding migration’, Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 645 1–24.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Glick Schiller, N., Basch, L. & Szanton-Blanc, C. (1992b). Towards a transnational perspective on migration: race, class, ethnicity, and nationalism reconsidered, New York: New York Academy of Sciences.

    Google Scholar 

  • Glick Schiller, N. & Caglar, A., (2009). Toward a comparative theory of locality in migration studies: migrant incorporation and city scale. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 35(2), 107–202.

    Google Scholar 

  • Itzigsohn, J. & Saucedo, S. (2002). Immigrant incorporation and sociocultural transnationalism. International Migration Review, 36(3), 767–98.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jacobs, D. & Tillie, J. (2004). Introduction: social capital and political integration of migrants. Journal of ethnic and migration studies, 30(3), 419–427.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Khagram, S. & Levitt, P. (eds) (2008). The Transnational Studies Reader: Intersections and Innovations. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Koopmans, R. & Statham, P. (2003). ‘How national Citizenship Shapes Transnationalism: Migrant and Minority Claims-making in Germany, Great Britain and the Netherlands’, in Joppke, C. & Morawaska, E. (eds). Toward Assimilation and Citizenship: Immigrants in Liberal Nation-States, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan

    Google Scholar 

  • Levitt, P. (1998). Social remittances: Migration driven local-level forms of cultural diffusion, International Migration Review, 32(4), 926–48.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Levitt, P. (2008). Taking Culture Seriously: Unexplored Aspects of the Migration-Development Nexus, SSRC Migration and Development Conference Paper No. 13.

  • Levitt, P. & Glick Schiller, N. (2004). Conceptualizing simultaneity: A Transnational Social Field Perspective on Society. International Migration Review, 38(145): 595–629, Fall 2004.

    Google Scholar 

  • Levitt, P. & Lamba-Nieves D. (2011). Social remittances revisited. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 37(1), 1–22.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Levitt, P., DeWind, J. & Vertovec, S. (2003). ‘International perspectives on transnational migration: an introduction’, International Migration Review, 37(3), 565–575.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Marcelli, E.A. & Lowell B.L. (2005). Transnational Twist: Pecuniary Remittances and the Socioeconomic Integration of Authorized and Unauthorized Mexican Immigrants in Los Angeles County. International Migration Review, 39, 69–102.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Marx, E. (1990). The social world of refugees: A conceptual framework. Journal of Refugee Studies, 3(3) 189–203.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mazzucato, V. (2008). The double engagement: transnationalism and integration. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 34(2): 199–216.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Morawska, E. (2003). Immigrant transnationalism and assimilation: a variety of combinations and the analytic strategy it suggests. See Joppke, C. & Morawska, E. 2003, pp. 133–76.

  • Mügge, L. (2010). Beyond Dutch borders: transnational politics among colonial migrants, guest workers and the second generation. Amsterdam University Press.

  • Phinney J.S., Romero I., Nava M. & Huang D. (2001). The role of language, parents, and peers in ethnic identity among adolescents in immigrant families. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 30(2), 135–153.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Portes, A., Guarnizo, L. & Landolt, P. (1999). The study of transnationalism: pitfalls and promises of an emergent research field, Ethnic and Racial Studies, 22(2): 217–37.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Portes A., Guarnizo L. & Haller W. (2003). Assimilation and Transnationalism: Determinants of Transnational Political Action among Contemporary Migrants. American Journal of Sociology, 108(5): 1211–1248.

    Google Scholar 

  • Putnam, R.D. (2007). E Pluribus Unum: diversity and community in the twenty-first century the 2006 Johan Skytte prize lecture. Scandinavian Political Studies, 30, 137–174.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ryan, L., Sales, R., Tilki, M. & Siara, B. (2008). Social networks, social support and social capital: the experiences of recent Polish migrants in London. Sociology, 42(4), 672–690.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sana, M. (2005). Buying membership in the transnational community: Migrant remittances, social status, and assimilation. Population Research and Policy Review, 24, 231–261.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schans, D. (2009). Transnational family ties of immigrants in the Netherlands. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 32(7), 1164–1182

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Snel, E., Engbersen, G. & Leerkes, A. (2006). Transnational involvement and social integration. Global Networks, 6(3), 285–308.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tamaki, E. (2011). Transnational Home Engagement among Latino and Asian Americans: Resources and Motivation. International Migration Review, 45, 148–173.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tsuda, T. (2012). Whatever Happened to Simultaneity? Transnational Migration Theory and Dual Engagement in Sending and Receiving Countries. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 38(4), 631–649.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Van Bochove, M., Rusinovic, K. & Engbersen, G. (2010). The multiplicity of citizenship: transnational and local practices and identifications of middle-class migrants. Global Networks, 10(3), 344–364.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Van Bochove, M. E. (2012). Geographies of belonging: the transnational and local involvement of economically successful migrants. Faculteit der Sociale Wetenschappen (FSW); Faculty of Social Sciences (FSS).

  • Van Meeteren, M. (2012). Transnational activities and aspirations of irregular migrants in Belgium and the Netherlands. Global Networks, 12(3), 314–332.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Veltman C. (1983). Language Shift in the United States. New York: Mouton.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Vervoort M., Flap H. & Dagevos J. (2011). The ethnic composition of the neighbourhood and ethnic minorities’ social contacts: three unresolved issues. European Sociological Review, 27(5), 586–605.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Maastricht Graduate School of Governance and Barcelona Center for International Affairs, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands

    Özge Bilgili (Evaluation researcher, PhD research fellow)

Authors
  1. Özge Bilgili
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Özge Bilgili.

Rights and permissions

Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits use, duplication, adaptation, distribution, and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Bilgili, Ö. Migrants’ Multi-Sited Social Lives. CMS 2, 283–304 (2014). https://doi.org/10.5117/CMS2014.3.BILG

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.5117/CMS2014.3.BILG

Keywords