Marta Bivand Erdal

How does Conflict in Migrants’ Country of Origin Affect Remittance‐Sending? Financial Priorities and Transnational Obligations Among Somalis and Pakistanis in Norway

This article examines how conflict in the country of origin interacts with other factors in shaping migrants’ remittance-sending practices. Our data come from a survey of 10 immigrant groups in Norway and semi-structured interviews with Somali and Pakistani remittance-senders and receivers. First, we conduct an in-depth comparison to explore the differences in how Somali and Pakistani migrants decide about remittance-sending. Second, we use survey data on all 10 migrant groups to evaluate whether the differences that are not explained by socioeconomic characteristics, may partly reflect whether or not there is ongoing conflict in the country of origin. In our analyses we differentiate between (1) the effect of migrants’ capacity to remit and their prioritizing of local and transnational expenditures, and (2) the impact of state collapse and absence of human security on migrants’ and refugees’ desire to remit. We find that ongoing conflict in the country of origin exerts an upward pressure on remittance-sending.

Liquid migration, grounded lives: considerations about future mobility and settlement among Polish and Spanish migrants in Norway

ABSTRACT The 2004 EU extension and the 2008 financial crisis triggered new migration flows within Europe, and subsequent debates about what the novelty of these migration flows consists of. We draw on adult Polish and Spanish migrants’ in Norway’s considerations about future mobility and settlement, and explore how these situate themselves in relation to conceptualisations of intra-European migration as ‘liquid’. Family concerns, economic factors and working life conditions in countries of origin appear as significant in migrants’ reflections about the future. This seems to contrast with conceptualisations of intra-European migration as ‘liquid’ in the sense of increasing individualisation, lifestyles of mobility and a migrant habitus. Rather a ‘normal life’ is emphasised by migrants’ underscoring desires to lead more grounded lives, under less ‘liquid’ conditions. Migrants’ already established lives in Norway, together with deregulated labour markets in Poland and Spain, are experienced as reasons not to return. Migrants’ considerations about the future suggest that key characteristics of South–North and East–West intra-European migration flows to Norway, appear to be converging: with a trend of transition to longer-term settlement and a wish for more grounded lives, where dignity is central and ongoing mobility is less prominent.

Who is the Money for? Remittances within and beyond the Household in Pakistan

The household is usually the unit of analysis in the literature on migrant remittances, reflecting assumptions that remittances represent flows between family members and are pooled within households. By importing ideas from development studies and using the individual as the unit of analysis, this article challenges these assumptions and interrogates the household as a ‘black-box’ remittance-receiving entity. The study is based on a survey of remittance receivers in Pakistan, and a qualitative study of the Norway-Pakistan remittance corridor. The findings reveal that remittances in chain-migration often consist of transactions to targeted individuals within the household and to individuals beyond the household, exposing kinship, gender, and religious dimensions that are not as visible when the household is the unit of analysis.

This is My Home

Considerations about return are a persistent dimension of identity work in migrant populations. The question of where and what constitutes ‘home’ for migrants is central to understanding processes of integration, sustained transnational ties, and return considerations, because reflections about ‘home’ are reflective of belonging. Based on analysis of migrants’ and descendants reflections about the possibility of return migration, this paper asks: how is ‘home’ located in the transnational social field, and in which ways do the mutually overlapping spatial, temporal, emotional and rational dimensions of home matter? The paper draws on semi-structured interviews and focus groups with a total of 75 migrants and descendants from Pakistan and Poland living in Norway. Data from the two migrant groups with distinct migration histories are combined. Perhaps surprisingly, more similarities than differences are found between the two groups, with regard to their reflections about belonging. Considerations about return are found to be revealing of changing perspectives on home. For many there is an inherent ambivalence, reflected in home being located here, or there, or both, or neither. However, both migrants’ and descendants exert agency in their own ways of locating ‘home’ and managing the spatial, temporal, emotional and rational dimensions involved.

Polish migration within Europe: mobility, transnationalism and integration

Polish migration within Europe is by now a well-researched field, with a growing number of scholars exploring a variety of its features across different disciplines and geographic locations. A decade on from Poland’s EU accession and the ensuing free mobility which led to large-scale migration, we seek to take stock of directions and developments in the field of research on Polish intra-European migration. Since 2004, much research has examined the reasons for the large scale of Polish migration post-2004; explored individual strategies of specific migrant sub-groups; as well as investigated the impact of sudden large-scale inflows on host societies. More recently, a shift has occurred in the academic focus, which has led to a greater emphasis on the impacts of migration experiences on perceptions and attitudes at the individual level, for migrants, and a growing interest in processes of change that shape social relations in the sending society. This recent scholarship focuses on more established Polish post-migration communities in Western Europe, including this population’s continuing mobility, and acknowledges the influence of transnational ties and of integration – within both sending and receiving contexts. With this Special Issue, we seek to pay tribute to this on-going turn to processes of transnationalism and integration, and thus explore how Polish post-accession migrants straddle transnational ties with Poland and integration processes in a variety of European countries of settlement. We locate these explorations in the context of changing perspectives on mobility, transnationalism and settlement among Polish intra-European migrants, which are reflective of and contribute to conceptual debates about the nature and extent of interactions between integration and transnationalism. Two analytical dimensions of the present Polish intra-European migration flows are apparent in the collection of articles, that of proximity and of volume. We return to these as conceptual lenses below. A decade on from Poland’s accession to the EU, it has become evident that many Polish EU citizens have come to stay (Drinkwater & Garapich, 2015; Okólski & Salt, 2014; White, 2010; White & Ryan, 2008). The fact that migration inflows declined between 2008 and 2010, but only few Polish migrants returned as a result of the financial crisis in Europe, is an important indicator of this trend. Meanwhile the literature on Polish migration in the post-accession period has often been framed in relation to ideas of ‘liquid migration’ (Engbersen, Snel, & De Boom, 2010). This idea, borrowing from Bauman’s notions of ‘liquid modernity’ was supposed to reflect the nature of new Polish migration in a context of free mobility. This contexts still exists, and there is a proportion of Polish migration which indeed remains circular and can hence be seen as ‘liquid’, however, this scenario applies less and less to many Polish EU citizens who have settled across different geographic contexts in Europe. In some instances, even circular migration becomes permanent, and thereby less liquid, but instead an instance of ritualized transnational mobility. For migrants who settle, the simultaneity of integration and sustained transnational ties is often also the norm, which is why this Special Issue focuses on the parallel processes of mobility and settlement by bringing together a collection of articles that combine the analytical lens of the literature on transnationalism with the literature on integration. The articles in this Special Issue analyze the different types of interactions of

The Social Dynamics of Remittance-Receiving in Pakistan: Agency and Opportunity among Non-migrants in a Transnational Social Field

Remittances are usually understood as private transfers of money from a migrant to a relative remaining in the country of origin.1 However, the term remittances refers to a broad range of different transfers, sent not only by international but also by internal migrants, in contexts where migration may have taken place for a number of different reasons. The simple description of remittances as transfers from a worker abroad may be appropriate for contexts of short-term labour migration — for instance, from Pakistan to the Gulf States. However, in the context of long-standing transnational social fields, remittances become intrafamily exchanges that encompass many kinds of transfers to family and the broader kinship group or beyond, for a variety of purposes. When remittances are no longer transfers only within a household, but also beyond the household (Erdal, 2012c), the agency of remittance receivers becomes more apparent. A nar- row definition of remittances serves the analysis of remittances from short- term labour migrants well; however, it does not equally speak to empirical patterns of maturing emigration contexts. In the Pakistani context, there are more families with short-term regional labour migration experiences, but there is an increasing proportion of transnational extended families, where remittances are part of the larger picture within a particular trans- national social field.

Contributing to Development? Transnational Activities among Tamils in Norway

The theme of this article is the transnational activities of members of the Tamil diaspora in Norway and their significance to development in the Northeast region of Sri Lanka. Our analysis acknowledges the complexity of Tamil transnational activities, particularly in regard to issues which may be seen as political. A key observation among the majority of the Tamil diaspora concerns their pragmatic and seemingly apolitical approach to development. This is explained with reference to the positionality of the Tamil diaspora, as a key actor in regard to politics and development in Northeast Sri Lanka, but simultaneously trapped by the dynamics of war and peace. Thus, members of the Tamil diaspora employ transnational strategies, but in forms that cater to complex and sometimes contradictory needs for Tamil identity and belonging, political interests of national self-determination and security, and survival for families.

Do we have to agree? Accommodating unity in diversity in post-terror Norway:

Fostering unity in diversity while ensuring spaces for disagreement is a key challenge for all liberal democracies with ethnic and religious diversity. Increasing polarization, not least due to the threat of terror attacks, exacerbates this challenge. Drawing on the case of Norway in the aftermath of the 2011 terror attacks motivated by ‘Eurabia’ sentiments, we find that both consensus and contestation are necessary to counter conflictual polarization. Consensus establishes a necessary common ground for interaction, while contestation permits diverging interpretations to emerge. Working with 21 semi-structured interviews with people in influential roles in Norway, we propose an analytical framework that draws on both political theory and empirically based analyses of interaction in diverse societies. We find that consensus-oriented approaches immediately following terror attacks can build unity and bridge divides across existing ethnic, religious, and political diversity. Over time, however, they may contribute to conflict, as they are perceived to conceal underlying disagreements. Perspectives founded on dualistic contestation can also cultivate conflict if opponents increasingly perceive each other as enemies in a hostile environment. A plurality of contestations, by contrast, can de-escalate conflict and thereby ease renewed cooperation. Thus, our findings point to the need for a perspective that transcends the dualism of “us” and “them”, and acknowledges the plurality of human beings in order to de-escalate the spiral of polarization.

Political geographies of citizenship

This special issue on political geographies of citizenship originates from the Norwegian Research Network in Political Geography (based at the University of Oslo), which includes geographers working within a broad array of research topics, approaches and contexts. Thematically, it reflects the increased interests in spatiality in citizenship studies and the parallel attention paid to citizenship within political geography (e.g. Kofman 1995; Painter 2002; Rasmussen & Brown 2002; Barnett & Low 2004; Desforges et al. 2005; Staeheli 2010). The present special issue explores the notion of citizenship as a potential convergence point for geographical research in migration, development, democratization, social movement and labour studies concerned with questions about power, agency and spatiality in state–society relations. Our proposition is that citizenship may provide an integral framework for common concerns among human geographers regarding cultural, juridical, social and political inclusion – in other words, cultural identity and recognition, legal status and protection, social rights and redistribution, and political participation and representation. This general agenda is discussed in more detail in Stokke’s (2017) article in this special issue. We thus limit this guest editorial to a brief review of the core arguments and how they are addressed in the thematic articles in this issue.

Descent, birthplace and residence: Aligning principles of citizenship with realities of migrant transnationalism

ABSTRACT The article presents a theoretical argument for aligning principles of citizenship with realities of migrant transnationalism and dual citizenship. Migrant transnationalism and dual citizenship challenge zero-sum understandings of belonging and residence as rooted in one place only. Through the lens of residence, the authors connect insights from migrant transnationalism literature with citizenship studies’ focus on principles of citizenship. Principles of citizenship based on descent and birthplace build on particular genealogies of belonging that define membership, and are the basis on which citizenship is granted. Neither of the two principles provides adequate answers to how naturalisation, in terms of belonging to the political community, can be justified as anything other than exceptions. Jus domicili offers a complementary alternative, wherein belonging is connected to residence, thus moving naturalisation out of the realm of exceptions. A configuration of principles of citizenship that is aligned with realities of migrant transnationalism and dual citizenship must build on complementary genealogies of belonging, including descent, birthplace and residence. Doing so requires acknowledging differing temporalities of belonging. A legal framework that strengthens the potential for realising equal citizenship in diverse societies necessitates a rejection of the hierarchies reflected in genealogies of belonging that underlie citizenship principles.