Transnationalism Unbound: Detailing New Subjects, Registers and Spatialities of Cross‐Border Lives

Abstract

Abstract The emergence of transnationalism as a central focus in the study of migration in the early 1990s marked a significant departure in scholarly understandings of cross‐border movements and their consequences. Indeed, the recognition that migrants do not simply follow linear pathways of departure, settlement and assimilation or return has both highlighted the importance of and provided an empirical base for reconfiguring conceptualisations of nations, societies and cultures in the light of globalising processes. Initially, this emergent cross‐disciplinary field was dominated by anthropologists, sociologists and political scholars and less so by geographers, resulting in a reduced concern for the spatial characteristics and consequences of transnationalism. More recently, however, geographers have taken significant interest in both the theoretical and empirical study of transnationalism and have made a significant contribution to understandings of different subjects, registers and spatialities of this phenomenon. This article examines the different ways that geographers have engaged with issues relating to transnationalism. In particular, I argue that the work of geographers has served to unbind the study of transnationalism from its concern only with sustained forms of transnational activity, as well as the latent representational fixes and limited geographical foci of the field. Latent gaps within and future possibilities for the study of transnationalism within geography are also outlined.

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