Conceptualising the Emergence of Immigrants' Transnational Communities

Abstract

Under which circumstances do immigrant transnational political activities emerge into a sustainable transnational community? First, this depends on the transnational political opportunity structure (TPOS) including both immigrant’s country of settlement and the (ancestral) country of origin. Governments’ integration and emigration models – that politically incorporate or exclude immigrants or emigrants – may invite or discourage transnational political action. Second, different models of citizenship of both countries, used to define a migrant’s membership in society, strongly influence the type of transnational activities. At the same time citizenship contains the norms, values, and loyalties immigrants have in their notion of acting as a good (transnational) citizen.