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Transnational Belonging, Non-ethnic Forms of Identification and Diverse Mobilities: Rethinking Migrant Integration?

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Migrations: Interdisciplinary Perspectives

Abstract

The integration of migrants is a key topic in ethnic and migration studies in Western countries and generation of scholars have elaborated sophisticated theories to provide a detailed understanding of integration processes. Nevertheless, when it comes to cultural aspects and questions of belonging, I argue in this chapter that the popular paradigms share some common ground in the sense that they suffer from shortcomings. First, they largely neglect the intertwined nature of processes of incorporation and transnational forms of identification and belonging. Second, most theories are more or less blind to non-ethnic forms of identification because they use ethnicity as an unproblematic explanans for both describing and explaining processes of integration. Finally, they fail to take into account all types of mobility that go beyond migration-cum-settlement as a one-way process and have varied effects on migrants½sense of belonging and identity. On behalf of three short biographies of migrants, I will elaborate and discuss these three theoretical shortcomings and propose directions for future research and theory building.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    In this chapter, I use the compound term migrant integration in a broad sense with the aim of subsuming the most important theoretical approaches.

  2. 2.

    All names are fictitious; the biographies have been selected from various research projects undertaken by the author over the last few years.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Maison d’analyse des processus sociaux (MAPS), University of Neuchâtel, Faubourg de l’Hôpital 27, 2000, Neuchâtel, Switzerland

    Janine Dahinden

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  1. Janine Dahinden
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Correspondence to Janine Dahinden .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Argentinierstrasse 67/18, Vienna, Austria

    Michi Messer

  2. , Department of Biochemistry, Max F. Perutz Laboratories, Dr Bohr-Gasse 9/5, Vienna, 1030, Austria

    Renee Schroeder

  3. , Dpt. of Ling. and English Language, Lancaster University, County South, Lancaster, LA1 4YL, United Kingdom

    Ruth Wodak

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Dahinden, J. (2012). Transnational Belonging, Non-ethnic Forms of Identification and Diverse Mobilities: Rethinking Migrant Integration?. In: Messer, M., Schroeder, R., Wodak, R. (eds) Migrations: Interdisciplinary Perspectives. Springer, Vienna. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-7091-0950-2_11

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