Exploring Identity, Belonging, and Transnationalism among Migrants in Europe

Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to announce a call for paper submissions for a Special Issue of Genealogy encompassing the themes of identity, belonging and transnationalism among migrants in Europe. As members of the editorial team, we invite you to contribute to the Special Issue by exploring the multifaceted ways in which identities and belonging(s) are perceived, reconstructed, maintained and negotiated in migrants’ ‘transnational social fields’ (Fouron and Glick-Schiller, 2001).

In their recent article, Kaya (2024, pp. 124–125) observed that migrants and their descendants living in Europe have been exposed to various intellectual, social, cultural and political processes of transformations, and have generated different tactics in everyday life to be able to cope with their new social and political conditions characterized by deindustrialization, marginalization, unemployment, subordination, exclusion, financial crisis, Islamophobism, European integration and refugee crisis. Integration and assimilation policies/politics have been boxing migrants in a framework of ‘they either become one of us, or not’ (Kaya, 2024, p. 125). Arguing that every identity is specific, relational and constructed, Kaya and many scholars increasingly ask: is there a third position that individuals of migrant origin can embrace to move away from the dichotomies imposed by both receiving and sending societies?

This Special Issue critically examines the concept of ‘migrant’ which has become a central political figure of our time. The juxtaposition of ‘migranthood’ to ‘nativeness’ reinforces the belief in stable national communities threatened by migrants (Anderson, 2019). The distinction between ‘migrant’ and ‘citizen’ is fundamental to the creation and governance of nation-states and their borders (Dahinden and Anderson, 2021). We encourage submissions that critically engage with the term ‘migrant’ and explore how immigration, race, nationality, gender, religion, ethnicity and class intersect, reinforce and contest each other, complicating binaries such as migrant/citizen and foreign/native.

The transnational turn in migration, diaspora and identity studies has shifted focus toward the social, political and economic interactions between migrants that extend beyond national borders. Transmigrants are seen as a new type of migrating population whose lives encompass both host and home societies (Glick-Schiller et al., 1992). With the transnational and post-colonial lenses, diaspora scholars increasingly view diasporas as fluid, dynamic formations, rejecting the classical approach that emphasizes sameness through ethnic and racial groupism (Hall, 1990; Brah, 2005). In a nutshell, the theorizations of transnationalism demonstrate that ancestry, ethnicity, nationality, language and religion do not have to be uniform or rigid in their nature. Instead, one of the features of transnationalism is that it creates space for new identities to emerge for migrants ‘who are anchored (socially, culturally, physically) neither in their place of origin nor in their place of destination’ (Al-Ali and Koser, 2002, p. 4). This Special Issue seeks to address how identities and belongings are formed and constructed among contemporary migrants in Europe, considering the complex relations between the places where they live and the places they have ties to.

Anthias (2008) introduces the concept of ‘translocational positionality’, which addresses identity and belonging as shifting and context-dependent, moving beyond fixed categories of gender, ethnicity and class. Anthias differentiates between identity, involving narratives of the self and other, and belonging, which pertains to the experience of being part of the social fabric and the manifestation of social bonds and ties. We invite papers that provide critical insights into these themes, exploring identity as positionalities, hierarchies, strategies and perceptions. We are particularly interested in contributions that address how narratives of the self and other shape social agency and intentionality in the context of migrant experiences.

As such, this Special Issue invites both empirical and theoretical contributions from relevant disciplinary backgrounds, addressing, but not limited to, the topics listed below. Comparative cases which analyze multiple European settings or multiple migrant communities are welcome.

• Diasporic identities and transnational belonging;
• Selective, elective, multiple belonging;
• Re-negotiation of identities, home and belonging;
• Everyday transnationalism and belonging;
• Gender identities, intersectionality and diasporas;
• Religion and ethnic identities;
• Discrimination and belonging;
• Migranthood, queer identities and transnational belonging;
• Identities, belonging and integration/acculturation;
• Place-based identities, translocality and homemaking;
• Third spaces, third cultures, hybrid identities;
• Identities, belonging and transnationalism among ‘second generation’, ‘third generation’, lifestyle migrants, highly educated/skilled migrants, international students, refugees;
• Navigating and negotiating identities and performativities in European cities;
• Transnational networks;
• Transnational and diasporic youth identities;
• Transnational citizenship and identity;
• Boundary-making, boundary-maintaining and boundary-eroding practices;
• Transnational families, transnational geographies of emotions;
• Hyphenated identities;
• Postmodern, consumerist, cosmopolitan identities;
• Transnational identities, transnational/transcultural capital;
• Post-migrant identities and belonging.

We request that prior to submitting a manuscript, interested authors initially submit a proposed title and an abstract of 400–600 words summarizing their intended contribution. Please send it to the Genealogy Editorial Office (genealogy@mdpi.com). Abstracts will be reviewed by the Guest Editors for the purposes of ensuring proper fit within the scope of the Special Issue. Full manuscripts will undergo a double-blind peer review.

References

Al-Ali, N., & Koser, K. (2003). Transnationalism, international migration and home. In Al-Ali N. & Koser, K. (eds) New approaches to migration? (pp. 1-14). Routledge.

Anderson, B. (2019). New directions in migration studies: towards methodological de-nationalism. Comparative Migration Studies, 7(1), 1-13.

Anthias, F. (2008) ‘Thinking through the lens of translocational positionality: an intersectionality frame for understanding identity and belonging’, Translocations: Migration and Social Change, 4(1), 5-20.

Brah, A. (2005). Cartographies of diaspora: Contesting identities. London: Routledge.

Dahinden, J., & Anderson, B. (2021). Exploring new avenues for knowledge production in migration research: A debate between Bridget Anderson and Janine Dahinden pre and after the burst of the pandemic. Swiss Journal of Sociology, 47(1), 27-52.

Fouron, G., & Schiller, N. G. (2001). All in the family: gender, transnational migration, and the nation‐state. Identities Global Studies in Culture and Power, 7(4), 539-582.

Glick-Schiller, N. G., Basch, L., & Blanc‐Szanton, C. (1992). Transnationalism: A new analytic framework for understanding migration. Annals of the New York academy of sciences, 645(1), 1-24.

Hall, S. (1990) ‘Cultural identity and diaspora’ in Rutherford, J. (ed.) Identity: community, culture, difference. London: Lawrence and Wishart, pp. 222-237.

Kaya, A. (2024) Deconstructing migration studies and identity studies: The need for an alternative scientific lens. International Migration, 62, 124-130.

Dr. Nilay Kılınç
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Genealogy is an international peer-reviewed open access quarterly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• identity
• belonging
• transnationalism
• home
• diasporas
• highly skilled migration
• lifestyle migration
• second generation
• Europe