Political cultures and transnational social fields: Chileans,Colombians and Canadian activists in Toronto

We offer an institutional analysis of Chilean and Colombian transnational politics in Toronto to account for cross‐group variation in transnational political practices and the formation of different types of transnational social fields of political action. The article is based on interviews conducted with Chilean and Colombian community activists and Canadian refugee rights and social justice activists. We use the concept of political culture to account for differences in Chilean and Colombian transnational politics and to explain the different kinds of relationships the two groups have developed with non‐migrants. We introduce the concept of activist dialogues, understood as patterns of strategic political interaction between groups, to characterize how migrants and non‐migrants read and navigate their interlocutors' ways of doing politics. We argue that variation in the character of activist dialogues results in different types of transnational social fields of political action. Chilean–Canadian activist dialogues reflect a convergence of political cultures and strategies of action; Colombian–Canadian activist dialogues are marked by a relationship in which there is a divergence of strategies of action. Convergent dialogues produce thicker and more stable transnational social fields. Divergent dialogues are associated with a series of ad hoc initiatives, the absence of stable and strongly institutionalized partnerships, and a thinner transnational social field of political action.     

Refugees and transnationalism on the Thai–Burmese border

The past decade has seen the rapid development of transnationalism research, but transnationalism from below in situations of mass refugee influx has received little attention. However, the case study of Burmese refugees in Thailand clearly demonstrates that those refugees can maintain economic, social, cultural and political links with co‐nationals in all the domains of the refugee diaspora, even if their capabilities are in principle strained. It is argued here that the legal status of the person or diaspora organization concerned, as well as the country of origin and the host country have a larger influence on the type of transnationalism than the label ‘migrant’ or ‘refugee’. The concept of transnationalism should thus be conceived in a more encompassing sense, both geographically, thematically and including all emigrants regardless of their original motivations for migration. The article is based on fieldwork, including over 150 interviews with Burmese refugees and political activists.     

Return visits and belonging to countries of origin among young people from refugee backgrounds

In this article, we explore the return visits of resettled young people from refugee backgrounds to their personal and/or ancestral countries of origin. We draw on qualitative data from a longitudinal study of people who fled their country of origin at an early age, many of whom were born or lived for protracted periods in countries of asylum, and resettled in Australia. We demonstrate that return visits are not simply a homecoming; the young people's narratives reflect ambivalent relationships to the homeland experienced across multiple domains of belonging. Accounts of return visits refer to three core domains of belonging – practical national belonging, family connection, and attachment to material places. We argue that a return visit gives these youths a valued opportunity to negotiate and develop their homeland connections, though not necessarily an unambiguous opportunity to belong.     

When the phone stops ringing: on the meanings and causes of disruptions in communication between Eritrean refugees and their families back home

In recent years, a growing number of studies have highlighted the role of technology in facilitating the circulation of the information and images that underpin migrants' journeys and aspirations. However, less attention has been paid to the social circumstances that obstruct these communication flows. Based on ethnographic work in Italy and Eritrea, in this article I show that, despite the technological possibilities that are available, contacts between Eritrean refugees in Italy and their families back home are often extremely limited. This is not the result of infrastructural under‐development, but of a bundle of social and family expectations that my informants perceive as overwhelming. My respondents in Italy maintained many transnational relationships with friends and acquaintances around the world, but generally not with their parents in Eritrea. While revisiting the literature on the moral economy of transnational families, I show that my informants' attempts to move onwards from Italy emerge from their wish to reconnect with their left‐behind kin. Only by reaching the final destination of their geographical and moral journey can they support their families back home. Only this can give them respect in the eyes of their community and restore transnational communication with their families.     

Commodities,merchants, and refugees: inter‐Asian circulations and Afghan mobility

This article consists of an analysis of ethnographic material on Afghan trading networks involved in both the export of commodities from China to a variety of settings across Eurasia and the movement of ‘refugees’ from Afghanistan to Europe. Much recent work on trading networks has deployed the concept of trust to understand the functioning of such social formations. By contrast, in this article I assess the durability of Afghan networks in three ways. First, recognition of how they are polycentric and multi‐nodal. Second, how they are successful in transforming their collective aims and projects in changing shifting political and economic circumstances. Third, how they are made up of individuals able to switch their statuses and activities within trading networks over time. Furthermore, I argue that a focus on the precise ways in which traders entrust capital, people and commodities to one another, reveals the extent to which social and commercial relationships inside trading networks are frequently impermanent and pregnant with concerns about mistrust and contingency. Recognition of this suggests that scholars should focus on practices of entrustment rather than abstract notions of trust in their analyses of trading networks per se, as well as seek to understand the ways in which these practices enable actors to handle and address questions of contingency.     

Refugee resettlement,social media and the social organization of difference

Social media platforms allow refugees separated by distance to share information, provide support and exchange resources across borders. This connection has the potential to transform resettlement experiences as people maintain significant and ongoing relationships with transnational networks. Yet, since refugee resettlement programmes generally only scale up to the national imagination, integration remains a normative framework in most policy spheres. This article presents a 12‐month digital ethnography of 15 refugees settled in New Zealand with a view to examining their transnational practices of social media and its influence on integration and belonging. Drawing on a conceptual framework based on the social organization of difference, it contains a discussion on how online global networks increasingly inform the domains of encounters, representations and configurations. The role of social media for refugee resettlement futures and its implications for integration at times of rapid political, technological and social change concludes the article.