In Sweden, samba - the popular Brazilian dance (and music genre), that has been named the“national rhythm” - is very widely known and practiced. This case study envelops questions about national cultures, cultural embodiment in dance, as well as cross-border relations. It aims to observe in what distinct ways, regarding these multiple facets of the topic, Brazilian culture can be expressed through samba in a foreign country so culturally different and geographically distant from the country of origin. The study focuses on samba no pé, a samba style popularized and mostly danced in Rio de Janeiro. To reach the objective, the research data has been collected through semi-structured interviews from samba teachers and dancers in Sweden. In addition, an observation has been carried out by watching a samba class in person. The collected data showed that dancing samba gives way to different interconnected processes and elements through which the Brazilian culture is transported, translated, and experienced in Sweden. As people migrate around the world in transnational spaces, links are created between the migrants’ host countries and their homelands. These connections enable different cultures to be transported, get established in different places and spread in popularity. Corporeality is also key, as culture is embodied in the movements. Samba therefore permits an experience of Brazilian corporeality and plays a central role in the expression of Brazilianness in Sweden.

With the research aim to analyze how the Romanian migrants residing in Sweden use social media for transnational, mobility and integration purposes, this thesis builds on previous transnationalism and social media literature to reach its key findings. Its theoretical field uses Vertovec’s takes on transnationalism along with Wolpert’s place utility theory in order to analyze the observational results. These results were acquired by doing observations of four Facebook groups over a one-month period to which representative discussions from a few group posts were added. Thus, on one hand, the results show that the observed Romanian Facebook groups serve as avenues for socializing, networking and help-seeking between the Romanian migrants in Sweden. Strong potential for the formation of personal connections based on the discussions had by the migrants is also found. On the other hand, this thesis finds that the groups also function as major pathways for the reproduction of Romanian political and cultural aspects within the migrant community, a process which is not obvious and not directly intended for these groups.

The recent wave of Syrian refugees’ spontaneous return to conflict areas in Syria is not a new phenomenon, various cases of return to areas that do not meet safety and security standards has happened in cases like Somali refugees returning from Kenya or Angolan refugees returning from Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo. However, the Syrian case is important to study in order to examine any new patterns or elements in refugee returns that could arise or could be unpacked. This study examines Syrian refugees’ spontaneous returns, to what is considered by the international community as unsafe Syria and discusses the reasons for return that were provided by refugees returning currently and refugees who answer the question of return. The study finds that the notion of “home” and “homeland” are amongst the most influential when it comes to the decision to return coupled with push factors like livelihood issues and discrimination in host countries, in addition to pull factors from country of origin like amnesty regarding military conscription. The study finds that refugees not returning do so due to starting a new life, not having guarantees of safety and having lost everything in their home country. The study confirms King’s (2000) argument regarding home country pull factors having a bigger influence in impacting refugee returns. This study uses discourse analysis as a method using the proposed framework of Teun A. van Dijk’s (1985, 2011), the primary data source are interviews by Syrian refugees on YouTube in the Arabic Language. YouTube was chosen due to the role it played throughout the Syrian uprising in providing news to Syrians. The analysis of the data will use a four-dimensional framework which dissects push and pull factors, then examines them through the transnational and diaspora theories for refugee returns and has the place-identity theory as an overall starting point. The study concludes by recommending the international community pays more attention to the psychological factors from the home country so interventions and programmes of return make sure refugees are safe, protected and not falsely lured into return.

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This paper takes a fresh look at the global spread of the Chinese–Taiwanese new religious movement Yiguandao (一貫道; the emic transcription is “I-Kuan Tao”) by directing attention to the concrete places where transnational connections and interactions actually transpire, i.e., temples, shrines, and other sites of worship. Emically known as “Buddha halls” (fotang 佛堂), these places range from large-scale temple complexes, to small niches of worship in people’s private residences. Yet, they all share the potential of becoming venues of transregional interactions through processes of migration, the circulation of personnel, and local outreach. I argued that we need to take the distinct character of these localities more seriously, in order to fully understand the global networks of Yiguandao groups. Through their specific embeddedness in both local affairs and transnational projects, these temples are not simply local chapters of the (mostly) Taiwanese headquarters, but instead they are “translocalities” or even “portals of globalization”—two concepts developed in migration and global studies to help understand the significance of place in the recent phase of so-called globalization. By exploring Yiguandao temples across the globe, this paper critically evaluated these approaches, and their usefulness for the study of global religions. Empirically, it drew on both print and online material, as well as ethnographic fieldwork conducted by the author in Taiwan, Vienna (Austria), California, South Africa, and Japan from 2016 to 2018.

This dissertation based on a fieldwork conducted among Czech Jewish youth during a ten-days educational touristic program Taglit-Birthright explores production of transnational space of mutual belonging. The transnational belonging to Jewish collective is produced through particular physical space of Israel through practice of tourism in collective constructed by the programme as a collective of common origin based on "blood ties". I examine participants' tourist bodily experience, performances, emotions and attitudes as a site of production and reproduction of transnational space using a concept of embodiment as ways in which the individual grasps the world around him/her and makes sense of it in ways that engage both body and mind. Transnational space created throughout the programme becomes socially constructed emotional category of "ahavat Israel", "love for Israel" that might conceal its political implications. Keywords: Transnationalism, diaspora, tourism, embodiment, Jewish youth, Taglit-Birthright, Czech Republic, Israel

This work deals with transnational ties of reemigrated Volhynian Czechs and ethnic return migration of descendants of non-reemigrated Volhynian Czechs. Dissertation was founded on fieldwork in West Ukraine and in the Czech Republic. Researches of reemigrated Volhynian Czechs were studied in terms of integration or adaptation into the Czech (Czechoslovak) society, but this work, in first part, critically shows immigration narrative of Czech (Czechoslovak) social sciences; there were also transnational ties to Ukraine to which reemigrated Volhynian Czech refers as a meaningful. Next part of this work deals with ethnic return migration of descendants of non-reemigrated Volhynian Czechs. Descendants of compatriots have with Ukrainian ethnic consciousness, but Czech state allows them short-term and long-term stays in the Czech Republic thanks to ancestors, so that they are attracted with Czech surroundings, express wishes to migrate into the Czech Republic and they even could obtain permanent residency more easily due to Czech ancestors. Czech state facilitates migration flow from West Ukraine to the Czech Republic according to presume "closeness" of descendants of compatriots to Czech nation. Common reference of Czech social sciences and Czech state is nationalism which products social reality....

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