Concepts and Methodologies of Transnationalism

• In Event: 505 - Section on Global and Transnational Sociology Roundtables (one-hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 07. Migration and Transnationalism

Abstract

The term “transnationalism” has been used to refer to different activities. In this paper, I will compare and contrast concepts and methodologies of three major approaches to transnationalism. The first approach investigates the relationship between transnationalism and assimilation, which I call the transnationalism/assimilation approach. This approach measures immigrants’ participation into economic, political, and civil activities in both host and home countries. Methodologically, the transnationalism/assimilation approach takes “nation-states” as the unit of analysis. On the contrary, the other two approaches conceptually and methodologically deviate from using the “nation-state” as the analytical unit. The second approach of transnationalism—the transnational social field approach—conceptualizes transnationalism as networks of social relationship through which ideas, practices, and resources are exchanged. The transnational social field focuses on networks of social relations that span across national borders. This approach suggests a methodology of multi-sited ethnography to capture the transnational social networks. The third approach—the agency/structures approach—conceptualizes migration as “circuits” in which people exercise their agencies and use migration as a way to negotiate between economic structures across national borders. The major methodology used in the agency/structures approach is ethnography or in-depth interviews that focus on the exercising of agency in everyday life. These three approaches are not conceptually or empirically exclusive to each other. Rather, I suggest they are complementary to each other. Future research in transnationalism can benefit from combining conceptual and empirical strengths of these three approaches.

Author

• Chi Cheng Wat, University of Toronto