Gjesteforelesning: Migrant transnationalism: Why do cross-border ties matter?

Migrant transnationalism: Why do cross-border ties matter?

In the current context, characterized simultaneously by an increasing prominence isolationism in political rhetoric, but also increasing salience of international trade and connectivity, migrants transnational ties, offer an opportunity to examine and consider how and why cross-border ties matter, and for whom.

In this guest lecture, Marta Bivand Erdal, Research Professor at the Peace Research Institute Oslo, and a human geographer, will discuss three cases of migrant cross-border ties, offering research insights on their rationale and consequences. First, remittances – the money which migrants send back to countries of origin, and which globally exceed the volumes of Overseas Development Aid by some three times. Second, external voting – when migrants vote in country of origin elections from abroad, an issue which has gained attention as dual citizenship becomes ever more common, and where varyingly external voters may (or may not) tip the balance in election results. And third, diaspora development engagements – when migrants collectively set out to affect change, in terms of socio-economic improvements, in places of origin.

The lecture draws on ongoing research in the projects MIGNEX (Aligning Migration Management and the Migration–Development Nexus) and DIASPOLITIC (Understanding the Political Dynamics of Émigré Communities in an Era of European Democratic Backsliding), as well as international collaborative work on Migrant transnationalism within the IMISCOE-network