BORDERS MAKE THE DIFFERENCE: MIGRANT TRANSNATIONALISM AS A BORDER EXPERIENCE

Ruben Gielis

Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, 2009, vol. 100, issue 5, 598-609

Abstract: This paper tries to accomplish cross‐fertilisation between border studies and transmigration studies, research fields which exist almost separated from each other. It claims that the concept of border can contribute to the theoretical growth to maturity of the relatively young field of transmigration studies, and especially to a deeper understanding of the in‐between lifeworlds of transmigrants (migrant transnationalism). In transmigration studies, borders are usually considered as boundaries, the physical lines on the ground, and therefore are seen as beginnings and endings of migrant transnationalism. In this paper, it is argued that borders can also have a constitutive role in migrant transnationalism. This constitutive function of borders has been thoroughly theorised in border studies in the last two decades. Contemporary border scholars regard borders not as passive lines, but as active and polymorphous social constructions which are the outcome of people's need to make differences. By bringing this broader notion of borders to the transmigration debate, it is argued that migrant transnationalism is about experiencing the border, or experiencing the difference. This broader sense of borders might help to bare the soul of migrant transnationalism, namely the condition of being continuously between here and there.

Date: 2009
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9663.2009.00572.x

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bla:tvecsg:v:100:y:2009:i:5:p:598-609

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.blackwell ... bs.asp?ref=0040-747X

Access Statistics for this article

Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie is currently edited by Jan van Weesep

More articles in Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie from Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley Content Delivery ().