Thomas Faist

The Volume and Dynamics of International Migration and Transnational Social Spaces

1. Lacunae Of Migration And Post-Migration Theories 2. A Review Of Dominant Theories Of International Migration 3. Situating The First Puzzle: Why So Few Migrants And Why So Many? 4. The Crucial Meso Link: Social Capital In Social And Symbolic Ties 5. The Selective Functions Of Social Capital: Why So Few Migrants Out Of Most Places? 6. The Selective And Diffusion Functions Of Social Capital: Why So Many Migrants Out Of So Few Places? 7. The Bridging Function Of Social Capital: Transnational Social Spaces 8. The Adaptive Functions Of Social Capital: Transnationalization And Nation-State Membership 9. Elements For Multilevel Research On International Migration And Post-Migration Processes

Transnational social spaces out of international migration: evolution, significance and future prospects

Transnational social spaces denote the circular flow of persons, goods, information and symbols across countries that have been triggered in the course of international labor migration and refugee flows. The question is how such transnational phenomena can be described, catagorued and explained. What are the implications for the adaptation of international migrants and their descendants in the economic, political and cultural realms in the countries of setdement? First, this discussion clarifies basic concepts, such as transnational social space and the main resources involved, such as various forms of social capital, the norm of reciprocity, solidarity, information and control. Second, the analysis outlines some causal macro-factors that may have opened up opportunities for migrants to build transnational spaces to a greater extent than before World War Two. Third, a few forays into the empirical realm serve to sketch the lineaments of the German-Turkish transnational social spaces: the emergence of Turkish niche businesses in Germany and transnational businesses spanning both countries; efforts of some Kurdish organizations to establish a homeland called ‘Kurdistan’; and collective identity among secondgeneration German-Turks in the religions realm, involving Islamic thought and organizations, but also secular forms of everyday culture. The article concludes with a discussion of factors that may limit the future growth of transnational social spaces.

The mobility turn: a new paradigm for the social sciences?

Abstract A new paradigmatic turn has reached migration studies, the mobility turn. Following on from many turns in the recent past, such as the linguistic turn, the cultural turn and the spatial turn, the mobility turn seems to be the newest effort in diagnostic descriptions of modern society. Like other turns, the mobility turn generalizes one aspect of contemporary society to the detriment of other features. While such a turn may usefully highlight various forms of spatial mobility, it cannot be fruitfully employed unless the scholars working with this paradigm critically reflect underlying political assumptions about the nexus between spatial and social mobility. Moreover, any analysis of spatial and social mobilities needs to go beyond descriptions and start accounting for the mechanisms underlying the production of social inequalities.

International Migration, Immobility and Development: Multidisciplinary Perspectives

Contributors Ishtiaq Ahmed, Associate Professor in Political Science, University of Stockholm, Sweden Gunilla Bjern, Associate Professor in Social Anthropology, University of Stockholm, Sweden Grete Brochmann, Research Director at the Institute for Social Research, Oslo, Norway Thomas Faist, Senior Researcher in Social Policy, University of Bremen, Germany Peter A. Fischer, Senior Researcher at the Institute for Economic Policy Research, Bundeswehr University, Hamburg, Germany Tomas Hammar, Professor and Director of the Centre for International Migration and Ethnic Relations, University of Stockholm, Sweden Kenneth Hermele, economist Gunnar Malmberg, Associate Professor in Geography, Umea University, Sweden Reiner Martin, Researcher at the Institute for Economic Policy Research, Bundeswehr University, Hamburg, Germany Thomas Straubhaar, Professor of Economics, Bundeswehr University, Hamburg, Germany Kristof Tamas, Political Scientist and Researcher at Ceifo, University of Stockholm, Sweden

Diversity – a new mode of incorporation?

Abstract Lately, cultural diversity in Western societies has, in terms of religions, languages, ethnic we-groups, transnational ties, and countries of origin, once more undergone immense growth. Modes of migrant incorporation reflect endeavours to respond to this change. While some approaches such as assimilation and multiculturalism emphasize the social integration of migrants in the host societies, the vague term ‘diversity’ harbours innovative measures in two respects. First, diversity addresses not only the incorporation of migrants, but also how societies and particularly their organizations deal with cultural pluralism. Second, diversity can then be understood both as an individual competence of migrants as members of organizations and the civil sphere, and as a set of programmes which organizations adopt to address cultural pluralism. Also, novel forms of diversity have emerged, such as transnationality. Yet in the absence of a rights-based foundation the question arises of how social inequality can be dealt with.

Social Citizenship in the European Union: Nested Membership

The ‘European social dimension’ offers a strategic entry point for analysing the development of citizenship in the European Union (EU). The first part of this contribution discusses the functions of social citizenship in this emerging multi-level governance network. Second, the analysis deals with two prominent and stylized paradigms that have sought to grasp the new multiple-level quality of social citizenship in the EU: residual and post-national concepts of membership in liberal democracies and advanced welfare states. Although each of these approaches captures selected elements of social citizenship, they are unable to deal with rights and duties in multiple governance levels in a satisfactory way. Therefore, the discussion moves to an alternative concept–nested citizenship. This means that European citizenship is nested in various sites: regional, state and supra-state forms of citizenship function in complementary ways–while the associated norms, rules and institutions are subject to constant revision and further development on all governance levels. Third, the analysis shows that the concept of nested citizenship can help to overcome the fruitless dichotomy of Euro-optimism and Euro-pessimism concerning social policy and citizenship. This discussion suggests a conception of European social citizenship as a common project, evolving towards common present- and future-oriented understandings of substantial rights and democratic principles in the EU.

Towards Transnational Studies: World Theories, Transnationalisation and Changing Institutions

A transnational studies perspective should be able to deal with both new social formations sui generis, such as transnational social spaces, and how ‘old’ national, international and local institutions acquire ‘new’ meanings and functions in the process of cross-border transactions. There is now a voluminous literature dealing with the emergence and above all the forms of transnational activities of migrants and the attendant consequences for the social integration of immigrants. If transnational ties and formations are consequential for social change and perhaps even social transformation, we also need to find indications about changing institutions in the national, international and local realms of transnational spaces. From this perspective we need not only to look at various transnational ties and formations across the borders of national states, but also at the repercussions for national and local institutions. In order to address this problem, the paper argues that both the concept of transnationalisation—including transnational social spaces—and world approaches, such as world systems and world polity theories, could be useful lenses to describe different aspects of transnational processes and boundaries. Second, transnational studies needs to engage both world theories and a transnational optic to ask about the social mechanisms by which transnational processes affect institutional change: path-dependency on a systemic or macro level, social closure, opportunity hoarding and brokerage on a collective or meso level, and symbolic recognition on a cognitive or micro level.

How to define a Foreigner? The symbolic politics of immigration in German partisan discourse, 1978–1992

This article tries to answer two questions. First, how did Germany, a de facto country of immigration, manage to espouse a counter‐factual ideology in the 1980s and early 1990s? Second, what have been the political consequences of upholding a political discourse that denied the reality of immigration? In a polity that officially denies migration and the development of a multiethnic society, issues such as immigration regulation and the settlement of the regulation of labour migrants’ immigration have not been directly addressed in partisan discourse. An ethno‐cultural conception of citizenship has facilitated a politics of exclusion of ‘guestworkers’ from voting rights, but inclusion of ethnic Germans, and a redefinition of asylum as labour migration. This has reinforced the symbolic uses of politics by Christian Democratic and populist parties and politicians: immigration, asylum and the multiethnic polity have come to be meta‐issues that can be referred to as causes of manifold problems in a context of ...

Dual Citizenship as a Path-Dependent Process

Over the last few decades, dual nationalities worldwide have increased rapidly. This is astonishing when one considers that a few decades ago citizenship and political loyalty to a national political community were considered inseparable. Overall, there has been a bumpy-line trend towards increasing tolerance. Yet, the degree to which dual nationality is tolerated by states differs. Based on the findings of postnational and national perspectives, this analysis proposes to view tolerance and resistance towards dual nationality as a path-dependent process. The questions dealt with are: What are the factors encouraging the generally increasing tolerance towards multiple nationalities? How can cross-national differences regarding de jure and de facto tolerance towards dual nationality be explained? The main tendency over the past decades has been the growing emphasis on individual rights vis-à-vis state prerogatives in liberal democracies. The expansion of de jure tolerance towards dual nationality is due partly to inter-, supra- and national-level developments, which are connected to diverse factors such as gender equity, understandings of nationhood, immigrant incorporation and general characteristics of the political systems.

Beyond a Border: The Causes and Consequences of Contemporary Immigration

Acknowledgments CHAPTER 1: Introduction: Moving Across Borders SECTION I: Movement CHAPTER 2: Accounting for Immigration Flows CHAPTER 3: Counting Contemporary Immigration Flows SECTION II: Settlement CHAPTER 4: Assimilation: Historical Perspective and Contemporary Reframing CHAPTER 5: Transnationalism and the Persistence of Homeland Ties CHAPTER 6: Multiculturalism: A New Mode of Incorporation SECTION III: Control CHAPTER 7: The State and Immigration Control CHAPTER 8: Citizenship and the State in a Globalizing World References Index About the Authors