Transnationalism is a social phenomenon and scholarly research agenda grown out of the heightened interconnectivity between people and the receding economic and social significance of boundaries among nation states.
The term "Trans-National" was popularized in the early 20th century by writer Randolph Bourne to describe a new way of thinking about relationships between cultures. However, the term itself was coined by a colleague in college.
Merriam-Webster Dictionary states 1921 was the year the term
"transnational" was first used in print, which was after Bourne's death.
Transnationalism as an economic
process involves the global reorganization of the production process,
in which various stages of the production of any product can occur in
various countries, typically with the aim of minimizing costs. Economic
transnationalism, commonly known as globalization,
was spurred in the latter half of the 20th century by the development
of the internet and wireless communication, as well as the reduction in
global transportation costs caused by containerization. Multinational corporations
could be seen as a form of transnationalism, in that they seek to
minimize costs, and hence maximize profits, by organizing their
operations in the most efficient means possible irrespective of
political boundaries.
Proponents of capitalists transnationalism seek to facilitate the flow of people, ideas, and goods among regions.
They believe that it has increasing relevance with the rapid growth of
capitalist globalization. They contend that it does not make sense to
link specific nation-state boundaries with for instance migratory workforces, globalized corporations, global money flow, global information flow, and global scientific cooperation.
However, critical theories of transnationalism have argued that
transnational capitalism has occurred through the increasing
monopolization and centralization of capital by leading dominant groups
in the global economy and various power blocs. Scholars critical of
global capitalism (and its global ecological and inequality crises) have
argued instead for a transnationalism from below between workers and
co-operatives as well as popular social and political movements.
Transnationalism as concept, theory and experience has nourished
an important literature in social sciences. In practice transnationalism
refers to increasing functional integration of processes that
cross-borders or according to others trans bordered relations of
individuals, groups, firms and to mobilizations beyond state boundaries.
Individuals, groups, institutions and states interact with each other
in a new global space where cultural and political characteristic of
national societies are combined with emerging multilevel and
multinational activities. Transnationalism is a part of the process of
capitalist globalization. The concept of transnationalism refers to
multiple links and interactions linking people and institutions across
the borders of nation-states.
Although much of the more recent literature has focused on popular
protest as a form of transnational activism, some research has also
drawn attention to clandestine and criminal networks, as well as foreign
fighters, as examples of a wider form of transnationalism.
Some have argued that diasporas, such as the overseas Chinese, are a historical precursor
to modern transnationalism. However, unlike some people with
transnationalist lives, most diasporas have not been voluntary. The
field of diaspora politics
does consider modern diasporas as having the potential to be
transnational political actors and be influenced by transnational
political forces.[10]
While the term "transnationalism" emphasizes the ways in which nations
are no longer able to contain or control the disputes and negotiations
through which social groups annex a global dimension to their meaningful
practices, the notion of diaspora brings to the fore the racial
dynamics underlying the international division of labor and the economic turmoil of global capital. In an article published in 2006, Asale Angel-Ajani claimed that "there is the possibility within diaspora studies to move away from the politically sanitized discourse that surrounds transnational studies". Since African diaspora studies have focused on racial formation, racism, and white supremacy, diaspora theory
has the potential to bring to transnationalism "a varied political, if
not radical political, perspective to the study of transnational
processes and—globalization".
What drives transnationalism
Different
approaches have attempted to explain this. Some argue that the main
driver of transnationalism has been the development of technologies that
have made transportation and communication more accessible and
affordable, thus dramatically changing the relationship between people
and places. It is now possible for immigrants to maintain closer and
more frequent contact with their home societies than ever before.
However, the integration of international migrations to the demographic
future of many developed countries is another important driver for
transnationalism. Beyond simply filling a demand for low-wage workers,
migration also fills the demographic gaps created by declining natural
populations in most industrialized countries. Today, migration accounts
for 3/5 of population growth on western countries as a whole. And this
trend shows no sign of slowing down.
Moreover, global political transformations and new international legal
regimes have weakened the state as the only legitimate source of rights.
Decolonization, coupled with the fall of communism and the ascendance of human rights,
have forced states to take account of persons qua persons, rather than
persons qua citizens. As a result, individuals have rights regardless of
their citizenship status within a country.
Others, from a neo-Marxist approach, argue that transnational class
relations have come about which have occurred concomitant with novel
organizational and technological advancements and the spread of
transnational chains of production and finance.
Immigrant transnational activities
When
immigrants engage in transnational activities, they create "social
fields" that link their original country with their new country or
countries of residence. "We have defined transnationalism as the process
by which immigrants build social fields that link together their
country of origin and their country of settlement".
These social fields are the product of a series of interconnected and
overlapping economic, political, and socio-cultural activities:
Economic transnational activities
Economic transnational activities such as business investments in home countries and monetary remittances
are both pervasive and well documented. The Inter-American Development
Bank (IDB) estimates that in 2006 immigrants living in developed
countries sent home the equivalent of $300 billion in remittances, an
amount more than double the level of international aid. This intense
influx of resources may mean that for some nations development prospects
become inextricably linked—if not dependent upon—the economic
activities of their respective diasporas.
Political transnational activities
Political
transnational activities can range from retained membership in
political parties in one’s country of origin and voting in its elections
to even running for political office. Less formal but still significant
roles include the transfer or dissemination of political ideas and
norms, such as publishing an op-ed in a home country newspaper, writing a
blog, or lobbying a local elected official. There is also the more
extreme example of individuals such as Jesus Galvis, a travel agent in
New Jersey who in 1997 ran for a Senate seat in his native Colombia. He
was elected and intended to hold office simultaneously in Bogota and
Hackensack, New Jersey where he served as a city councilor.
Political economy
The
rise of global capitalism has occurred through a novel and increasingly
functional integration of capitalist chains of production and finance
across borders which is tied to the formation of a transnational
capitalist class. This approach has led to a broader study of corporate networks, the global working class and the transnationalization of state apparatuses and elites.
Socio-cultural transnational activities
Transnationalism
is an analytic lens used to understand immigrant and minority
populations as a meeting of multiple simultaneous histories.
Socio-cultural transnational activities cover a wide array of social
and cultural transactions through which ideas and meanings are
exchanged. Recent research has established the concept and importance of
social remittances which provide a distinct form of social capital
between migrants living abroad and those who remain at home.
These transfers of socio-cultural meanings and practices occur either
during the increased number of visits that immigrants take back to their
home countries or visits made by non-migrants to friends and families
living in the receiving countries or through the dramatically increased
forms of correspondence such as emails, online chat sessions, telephone
calls, CDs/ VDOs, and traditional letters.
In the late 1980s, ethnic studies scholars would largely move towards models of diaspora to understand immigrant communities in relation to area studies, although lone patterns of international flow would become accompanied by the multiple flows of transnationalism.
However, to say that immigrants build social fields that link those
abroad with those back home is not to say that their lives are not
firmly rooted in a particular place and time. Indeed, they are as much
residents of their new community as anyone else.
Transnationalism is criticized for being too far removed from
ethnic studies' efforts to empower solidarity in minority communities. Asian American Studies
provides a counterargument in that its inception was based in
comparative analysis of the racial discrimination against Asian
Americans and Vietnamese during the Vietnam War.
Migration
Transnationalism has significant implications for the way we conceptualize immigration.
Traditionally, immigration has been seen as an autonomous process,
driven by conditions such as poverty and overpopulation in the country
of origin and unrelated to conditions (such as foreign policy and
economic needs) in the receiving country. Even though overpopulation, economic stagnation, and poverty all continue to create pressures for migration, they alone are not enough to produce large international migration
flows. There are many countries, for example, which lack significant
emigration history despite longstanding poverty. Also, most
international immigration flows from the global South to the global
North are not made up by the poorest of the poor, but, generally by
professionals. In addition, there are countries with high levels of job
creation that continue to witness emigration on a large scale.
The reasons and promoters for migration are not only embodied
within the country of origin. Instead, they are rooted within the
broader geopolitical and global dynamics. Significant evidence of
geographic migration patterns suggests that receiving countries become
home to immigrants from the receiving country's zone of influence. Then,
immigration is but a fundamental component of the process of capitalist
expansion, market penetration, and globalization. There are systematic
and structural relations between globalization and immigration.
The emergence of a global economy
has contributed both to the creation of potential emigrants abroad and
to the formation of economic, cultural, and ideological links between
industrialized and developing countries that later serve as bridges for
the international migration. For example, the same set of circumstances
and processes that have promoted the location of factories and offices
abroad have also contributed to the creation of large supply of low-wage
jobs for which immigrant workers constitute a desirable labor supply.
Moreover, the decline of manufacturing jobs and the growth of the
service sector, key drivers of the globalization of production, have
transformed western economies’ occupational and income structure.
Unlike the manufacturing sector, which traditionally supplied
middle-income jobs and competitive benefits, the majority of service
jobs are either extremely well-paid or extremely poorly paid, with
relatively few jobs in the middle-income range. Many of the jobs lack
key benefits such as health insurance. Sales representatives, restaurant
wait staff, administrative assistants, and custodial workers are among
the growth occupations.
Finally, the fact that the major growth sectors rather than
declining sectors are generating the most low-wage jobs shows that the
supply of such jobs will continue to increase for the predictable
future. The entry of migrant workers will similarly continue to meet the
demand. In turn, this inflow provides the raw material out of which
transnational communities emerge.
List of transnational organizations
Transnational organizations include:
- Médecins Sans Frontières
- National Alliance of Latin American and Caribbean Communities
- Roman Catholic Church
- No Border network
