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This dissertation examines the effects of return migration on Nikkei (of Japanese descent) sending communities in the Soconusco Region (Acacoyagua), Chiapas, Mexico and Lima, Peru. Massive numbers of Nikkei Latin Americans have been returning to Japan in the last two decades filling a shortage in low-skill labor. The Nikkei mass exodus is indicative of the global economic pattern that has caught Latin American countries in a downward economic spiral resulting in joblessness and class polarization. For many, transnational migration is the only viable option for economic survival. This research illustrates how Nikkei are strategically making home, shaping family and defining selves through return migration. Nikkei Latin Americans (those who go and those who stay) approach return as Ganbatteando (doing one's best) embracing and making-their-own the Japanese concept of Ganbarimas. This study examines the local impacts of a global phenomenon broadening the traditional anthropological approach on spatially localized groups to address identity-formation as a discursive phenomenon situated in-between, across and outside, yet still connected to fixed or bounded locations or nations. I explore how Japanese in Latin America reconcile their Japanese roots with their embedded experience in their Latin American birthplace as well as their newest and current experiences in Japan to construct variable, changing and unique identities. Nikkei, situated in and creating a temporal and spatial borderzone are forming, reforming, and transforming home, family and identity as their local communities and marriage options, are depleted. By incorporating non-Nikkei-but-Nikkei-enthusiasts, Nikkei are sustaining and reinforcing endogamous marriage at a time when the emigration of large numbers of marriageable-aged Nikkei make that otherwise impossible. In this process, they are making intimate choices: reasserting ethnic strongholds in the homes of their choice, shifting and strategically broadening kinship and community boundaries, and at the same time more strictly regulating inclusion and exclusion. Nikkei are eating potato chips with chopsticks at the same time that non-Nikkei in Latin America are frying sushi. / Anthropology

This thesis examines how ethnic boundaries are constructed among, and understood by, different groups of first generation Sudanese-Canadians in Kitchener, Ontario. In particular, it seeks to examine how historical factors related to Sudanese history, contemporary events in Sudan and South Sudan, and conditions of exit from Sudan shaped boundary processes within the Sudanese diaspora in Kitchener. In this connection, this thesis examines the effect of secession/independence of South Sudan on the dynamics of this boundary and relationship between Southern and Northern Sudanese Canadians. Thus, the thesis aims to fill a gap in the literature. It also hopes to inspire further studies on Sudanese Canadians, who tend to be understudied in Canada. The research builds on the growing research tradition and theories of ethnic boundaries, identity, nationalism, and transnationalism. Qualitative approaches were used for collecting and analyzing data. Participant observation at community events, and thirty-seven semi-structured interviews were conducted with key informants in Kitchener, Ontario. The thesis emphasizes that ethnic boundaries, identities, and relations between Southern and Northern Sudanese Canadians are dynamic and ever changing, in the sense that they are sometimes undermined and broken down, and yet other times they are enforced and reinforced quite strictly. It also finds that the concept of ‘Northern’ is no longer geographic, as my respondents have limited its meaning to the riverine/Arab people. This concept contrasts with the concept of ‘black’ which includes many Northern Sudanese sub-national groups, in the geographic sense, along with Southern Sudanese. This indicates that the boundaries among the Southerners and riverine people have become stronger than between these Southerners and other Northerner groups. The thesis also shows that the relationships between Southern and Northern Sudanese Canadians’ have been significantly affected by the referendum and independence/secession of South Sudan insofar as the social gap between them has by and large become wider. Joint activities organized in collaboration between both groups before secession have since ceased. Also, the degree of general interaction between them has significantly decreased. They now tend to treat each other as strangers and avoid interaction. Even simple greetings are lacking and when interactions do happen, they are characterized by harshness, and the exchange of accusations. Moreover, instances of mutual support have also diminished. Invitations to, and attendance at private, and public events has noticeably decreased. Despite this increase in social distance at a community level some close friendships remain intact, especially among those who came to Canada from Egypt. Interestingly, Southern and Northern Sudanese continue to come together for attending death ceremonies and soccer games, and seating orders continue to be mixed at soccer games. The dynamics of intergroup relations in Canada have mainly followed their relations in Sudan. This means that transnational ties in this case tend to be unidirectional. This implies that living in the Canadian context has had a minor and indirect effect on these groups’ relations. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Economic remittances are money transfers worldwide from migrants to their country of origin. This study aimed to examine which significance the remittance has for the sender. How do the senders describe their experiences of remittances, what strategies are used in the process of remitting and how has the migrants’ social and economic situation in the host country been affected by remitting? The issues were answered through six semi-structured interviews with remitting migrants. The theoretical approach consisted of the concepts transnational social space, reciprocity and social exclusion. The findings were that remittances had great value to the senders with both negative and positive outcomes. Strategies formed to live up to expectations to remit were group wise, long-term and practical. Remittances had an impact on choices regarding recreational activities, housing and employment. Our conclusion is that remitting is an important act to maintain the bond to the country of origin, despite economic and social sacrifices. Being a participant in dual social worlds in which social and economic conditions differ shapes the experienced requirement to remitt.  Remittance cannot be seen as a sole factor for placing senders in social exclusion, though it can limit the sender economically and socially.

Migration over national boarders is common in today’s globalized world. As a result the number of individuals with connections to more than one nation are increasing. But how do they identify themselves? Ambition of this study was to explore how individuals with dual citizenship identify themselves and whether others identification of them has an effect on their own identification. This study had a qualitative approach and used semi- structured interviews to collect experiences from five individuals with dual citizenship.   This study contains theories of identity based on social constructivism, social identity, national identity, orientation, as well as key notions such as migration, citizenship and dual citizenship. Those are the theories used in the analysis of the empirical material.   The conclusion reveals that all of the informants identify themselves with both their nations, which demonstrates their hyphen identities. Differences in identifications are presented by three identities; the first is Transnational Identity, where the individual's identification is influenced by all nations, even though there is no longer any connection with the nations. The second is Hierarchical hybrid, where the individuals identify themselves with one nation more than the other. The last identity is Parallel affiliation, where individuals identify themselves equally with both nations while experiencing emotional attachment to both. Furthermore, the conclusion shows that individuals’ identification isn´t predominantly influenced by others perception of them.

'Marrying back home' (« se marier au pays ») est une pratique internationale que l’on trouve couramment au sein de la diaspora pakistanaise. Cette étude entreprend de saisir le mécanisme de ces mariages transnationaux et comment les liens transnationaux sont maintenus, produits et reproduits par l'organisation de mariages entre les familles résidant en France et au Pakistan. Les données ont été recueillies en utilisant des méthodes de recherche qualitative. Comme le mariage est un enjeu qui concerne l’ensemble de la famille au Pakistan, il est apparu essentiel d’interviewer les époux, mais aussi leurs parents. Les deux familles en lien (celle de l'époux et celle de la mariée) en France et au Pakistan ont été interrogées afin de mettre à jour les logiques du mariage transnational. Le choix privilégié des époux se fait à l’intérieur des différents niveaux de la parenté au Punjab. Les éléments déterminants pour définir les critères de sélection consistent principalement dans des relations réciproques bien affermies, un respect de la tradition du mariage au sein des liens de parenté et une confiance dans les personnes proches afin d’amenuiser le risque d’anonymat. D’autres critères viennent au second rang comme l'éducation, l'âge, la moralité et les traits comportementaux. Lorsque l’ensemble de ces critères sont réunis, les deux générations négocient alors la mise en correspondance des conjoints potentiels en vue de la décision finale du mariage. Les exigences d’une telle correspondance sont liées au respect des obligations familiales, à la valeur accordée aux enfants, au jeu entre autorité, résistance à celle-ci et parenté, à l’histoire maritale de la famille, à la préservation des racines et à la confiance transnationale au sein de la fratrie. Bien que les mariages transnationaux pakistanais suivent les modèles traditionnels pour célébrer le mariage, l’émigration a toutefois introduit des modifications significatives vis-à-vis des règles en vigueur au Pakistan. Selon un processus semblable, la structure familiale et des ménages est en cours de transition en raison de la présence simultanée des deux familles dans chaque pays. Si les mariages transnationaux maintiennent les liens familiaux entre les deux pays en réaffirmant les valeurs culturelles liées au mariage, les modalités des relations entre hommes et femmes et entre générations évoluent néanmoins suivant les influences culturelles de la société d'accueil. / ‘Marrying back home’ is one of the transnational practices demonstrated by Pakistani diaspora to maintain their links with their country of origin. This study is an attempt to understand what the mechanism of transnational marriages is and how transnational links are maintained, produced and reproduced by organizing marriages between families residing in France and Pakistan. Data were collected by employing qualitative research methods. As marriage is the collective affair of the family in Pakistan, it was considered essential to not only interview the spouses but their parents as well. Both corresponding families (the family of groom and the family of bride) in France and in Pakistan were interviewed to understand transnational marriage. The preferred pool of potential spouses is comprised of different layers of Punjabi kinship. Well maintained reciprocal relationships, cultural preferences to arrange marriages within kin, trust on acquaintances and to avoid the risk of anonymity were considered key determinants to define the primary spouse selection criteria. These determinants are supplemented by the complimentary criteria, including education, age, morality, and behavioral traits. Once primary and complimentary criteria are met, both generations (parents and their children) negotiate the adequacy of potential spouse to reach to the final decision of marriage. Family’s obligations, children’s capital, the interplay of authority, resistance and the kin, family’s marriage history, preserving the roots, and the transnational trust between the siblings determine the adequacy of a spouse as well as of the marriage. Though transnational Pakistani marriages follow the traditional patterns to celebrate marriage, nonetheless, migration has introduced some important alterations to different norms as practiced in Pakistan. In the similar vein, the family and household structure are undergoing transition due to their simultaneous presence between here and there. Transnational marriages maintain transnational links by inscribing the cultural values for family and marriage. However, the relationships across gender and generation are on the move by carrying the cultural influences from the host society.

This thesis presents a sub-national comparative analysis of the nexus between migration and development using the case of two disparate migrant communities (from the Upper East and Eastern regions of Ghana) in the UK. The aim is to examine how inherent socio-economic inequalities prior to emigration impact on emigrants’ migration patterns, experiences, transnational activities and, ultimately, development outcomes at the micro and meso levels in the sending country. I argue, in this thesis, that the focus by development economists and most migration researchers on national-level macro analysis, as well as ‘location specific’ or single-site sub-national analysis, of the centrality of remittances to the enhancement of development at ‘home’ masks important nuances that are revealed by a comparative sub-national analysis. This study uses a case study approach, whereby two migrant communities are investigated in detail within their pre-migration contexts. This allows for a deeper understanding of how transnational migration practices and/or processes are influenced by, and influence their context. It examines regional socio-economic inequalities and the interconnections between migration stage, spatial scales and local development. This is achieved through a fifteen-month fieldwork using multiple research methods (key-informant interviews, in-depth structured and semi-structured interviews, surveys, participant observation and library research) in order to corroborate and triangulate findings from different sources. The thesis takes a spatiotemporal perspective in the migration-development nexus debate. Respondents for this research include economic migrants and refugees/forced migrants. Among others, I conclude that globalisation and access to effective, yet relatively cheap, technological and communications facilities have bolstered individualistic migratory decision making thus reducing the centrality of the family or household as the unit of analysis in the causes and consequences of migration discourses. Overall, the thesis aims to contribute a new, broader, and more inclusive perspective to migration research by arguing that migration-development phenomena are better appreciated through a comprehensive approach that encompasses migrants and sending communities and underlines the relationship between the two within a sub-national context.

In today’s world, cultural, social, and economic relationships increasingly transcend national borders. This coincides with high levels of migration and physical mobility across the globe. Therefore, this study investigates the degree that migrants participate in such transnational phenomena and how this participation relates to their integration in the country of residence. To address these questions, the cross-border relationships and practices of Turkish and Romanian migrants in Denmark, Germany, and Italy are examined. The study analyses the degree to which migrants are transnational, by which factors migrants’ transnationalism is determined, and whether transnationalism impacts the social and identificational integration of migrants in their country of residence. With respect to identification, not only the national but also the local level is taken into focus. The use of a unique quantitative dataset allows the study to address the often-voiced need for further quantitative findings on migrants’ transnationalism in Europe and particularly the lack of cross-national studies in this field. Additionally, the analysis goes beyond migration research’s typical focus on transnational connections between migrants’ country of origin and country of residence. The results show that the level of migrants’ transnationalism strongly differs between the measured dimensions of this phenomenon. Moreover, transnational connections and practices of all samples go beyond the dichotomy of origin and residence country, stressing the need to incorporate a broader perspective in migration research. The analysis does not find many effects of transnationalism on social and identificational integration. The few observable effects are in part of a positive and a negative nature. Furthermore, these effects differ across the analysed dimensions of integration. Based on these results, the study highlights that transnationalism and integration are not mutually exclusive.

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The central objective of this thesis is to explore how sophisticated information and communication technologies (ICTs) impact Mexico-US migration. In particular, it attends to those ICTs that enable Mexican immigrants in the United States to stay “in touch” with their loved ones in Mexico. Rather than pursue the impacts of these technologies through a singular methodology or theoretical framework, this study employs an array of approaches in order to examine the geography transnational communication across multiple scales. At the level of the individual, I examine how Mexican immigrants living in Austin, TX, incorporate communication technologies into their daily lives. Informed by a series of semi-structured and in-depth interviews, I argue that cellular phone calls, text messaging, and social media platforms enable a passive, routinized transnationalism that allows migrants to maintain a degree of presence both “here” and “there.” I subsequently scale up my analysis in order to trace the emergence of digital social media—Facebook, in particular—as a communication tool for dispersed Mexican immigrant communities, and I interrogate the ways in which digital social media engender transnational social networks. Using place as a guiding conceptual theme, I demonstrate how senses of and attachments to place form the basis of communal social interactions online, and I identify the many different places, both in the US and Mexico, that are involved in particular transnational social networks and migration flows. This study concludes by drawing on recent critical GIS scholarship and volunteered geographic information (VGI) in order to visualize the digital, place-to-place connections between Mexican migrants living in United States and their friends and family members living in Mexico and elsewhere. / text