Hindu Indian Bengalis as an ethno-linguistic and transnational group have negotiated their social locations historically, contemporaneously, and transnationally. In this dissertation, I examine and argue how transnational migration is the most recent in a long line of Bengali strategies to negotiate their social location vis-à-vis other populations in India. Since the early years of the nineteenth century, in Bengal specifically, a series of socio-political dynamics have reshaped and reconstituted Bengali social status. These dynamics can be observed across various geographic scales - national, regional, and local -- and have continued to inform their contemporary gender relations. En route to this examination, the dissertation exposes assumptions about who constitutes families, problematizes "family" centrally en route to examining spousal relations among Indian-Bengalis. I have examined the lived realities and experiences of migrant spouses in the U.S. and their family living in India amidst differing—and often conflicting-- imaginaries and practices of families. Through my work, I thus illustrate that family and marriage relations can be, and often are, strategic and fluid even as many people view them as structural and enduring. Over time, representations of the idealized Bengali family, of manhood and of womanhood have all shifted, reflecting sociopolitical and economic changes. A constant, however, has been the central role of gender in all these imaginaries and realized configurations. In this dissertation, I employ a "gendered optic," a heightened sensibility to what they communicate about gender. As I examine in my work, gendered boundaries amid the Bengali population can be found in a deeply rooted history, a colonial legacy, and one, although repackaged, that continues to be seen contemporaneously. Bengalis' transnational negotiations in family and marriage expand our understanding of transnational gender relations across broad social and historical scales, particularly the transnational. In this vein, the dissertation contributes significantly to the field of gender studies, specifically the field of feminist theorizing and intersectionality studies, postcolonial and South Asian studies, and to the scholarship on migration and transnational migration studies.

Die vorliegende Arbeit basiert auf Forschungen in den Jahren 2007-2009. Sie betrachtet die saisonale Arbeitsmigration aus der polnischen Region Konin, wo die Arbeitsmigration aus ökonomischen Gründen, wie auch in ähnlich strukturierten Gebieten Polens, eine lange Tradition hat, die bis ins 19. Jahrhundert zurückgeht. Sie wird die saisonale Migration ins Ausland mit den ökonomischen, sozialen und räumlichen Auswirkungen aus der Perspektive des Einzelnen und seiner unmittelbaren Umgebung, aber auch der Gesellschaft und Herkunftsgebiet der Migranten betrachtet. / Mobility for economic reasons is treated in science primarily from the perspective of permanent resettlement. However, other varieties of migration are more and more often studied. This paper deals with the seasonal migration for economic reasons, which is an important area of migration undertaken for economic reasons. Seasonal migration, which leads to crossing the country borders, in the literature is called the Transnational Migration. Unlike international migration, which is usually connected with a permanent settling in the target area, the concept of Transnational migration describes the situation, in which migrants return to their place of origin and do not give it up as their main residence, but every time they travel to another country to get employed. As a research area of this work, the Konin region was chosen, because - in comparison with other regions in Poland - the phenomenon of a very high level of seasonal migration was observed there. Seasonal labor migration is a long tradition that goes back to 19. century here and in other Polish regions with similar structure. From the results of conducted in 2007−2009 research, some general facts can be drawn. Due to the seasonal work abroad, a seasonal migrant can increase their and their family’s standard of living. If the cost of living in the place of seasonal work is higher than in the place of origin, the profit of such visits is obviously higher if the family of a seasonal worker remains in the place of origin. This leads to the geographic division bet389 ween the place of working and place of permanent residence. Higher wages can be determined at the level of benefits to both personal and societal level. On the other hand, both forprofit workers and society in dealing with this phenomenon, costs cannot be ignored. This paper considers the pros and cons of seasonal paid work, both from the perspective of individuals and their surroundings, and the consequences for society and region of origin of the employee. This paper is considering economic, social and spatial consequences, each time at the macro and micro levels. The study was based primarily on interviews with several respondents and experts in the subject of Polish and German migrations for profit.

The thesis provides a glimpse into lives of the Czechs working in the EU institutions. Accent is on the theory of transnationalism as contemporary approach to international migration. The paper focuses on group of migrants for which mobility and high qualification is characteristical as important elements within the current knowledge based society. It deals with migrants who are living their lives in two or more countries at once and who stay in close touch with the country of their origin. Focus of the work is aimed at the concept of temporarity as a key dimension that has influence on strategy, lifestyle and values of the Czech transnational migrants in Brussels. Conclusions are based on qualitative research composed of longterm participant observation, formal semi-structured and informal interviews. The aim of the work is to show the dimenson of temporarity by using material culture as a method on strategies of living and consumation and also how are the Czechs in Brussels biased by a specific environment of the EU institutions. Further to find out whether it is possible to consider Czech migrants as transnational migrants with regards to the definition of transnational migration and following the relationship to the Czech Republic and Belgium, contacts with home. KEY WORDS: transnational...

This thesis deals with the topic of work-life balance in narrations of Ukrainian female migrants in the Czech Republic. Female migrants are in a difficult situation while managing these two spheres of their lives, because they are situated in an unknown milieu and lack family environment and social ties. Based on fourteen in-depth interviews I analyze how these women deal with this situation and how they feel about it. The research shows that the women's work trajectories develop in accordance with their reasons to migrate and their family situation. The family situation especially their motherhood seems to be crucial in choosing the work-life balance strategies. Thus, in my analysis I show how these strategies differs among women who brought their children with them to the Czech republic, those who brought them later, those who left them at Ukraine and those who gave birth to their first children in the Czech Republic. The main attention is paid to female migrants whose children joint them later as they go through the most distinct changes in managing their work-life balance. In my analysis I identified some problems which Ukrainian migrants have to face considering reconciliation of their work and personal life. The most crucial one is the absence of the extended family and its help with...

If one takes a snapshot of Romanian migration, the first observation might be that the home villages or communities are very different. This is also the conclusion that Massey et al. (1994) first reach when comparing Mexican communities. However, if one compares migrant communities in a longitudinal manner, it can be seen rather that they are converging towards similar migration patterns rather than diverging. To explore this, I conducted fieldwork research in two villages from different socio-cultural regions of Romania, and for the second phase of the research followed the migrants to their destinations in Spain. In total I conducted more than 50 biographical narrative interviews with migrants and fifteen in-depth interviews with representatives from local authorities and other key informants on rural Romanian life. The biographical narrative interviews allowed me to take a longitudinal perspective on the migration from the two villages. The aim in comparing the two villages was to understand the internal logic of migration and examine to what extent two different villages showed any syncretism through cumulative structural effects. Analysing migrants’ projects, the family migration and the general migration from the two villages – each accounting for different levels of analysis – allowed me to specify the stages of migration. In the thesis, firstly I explain the socio-economic, cultural and geographical context in the origin community which shapes migration. Secondly, I compare the migration patterns of two families from the two villages, and thirdly I abstract three migration projects specific to the two communities. All these allow me to show that the two villages are at different stages in the migration process (Massey et al. 1994) and also to explain the mechanism of passing from one stage to the next. So far, the literature on migration policies has looked at the receiving countries. Few references are made to the origin countries, and these refer to Mexico, the Philippines and some of the Northern African countries, countries which have an active policy of promoting migration. Literature with regard to the European cases – for example Serbia, which has a Ministry of the Diaspora, or Poland, a country with a very long history emigration – is absent. Moreover, topics such as grounded migration policy making or the local dimension of policy making are still new in the reflexion of scholars. The thesis fills this gap with respect to migration policies of bonding migrants and involving them in development in the home community. The theory that holds together all these components is Luhmann’s systems theory (1995), in the way it was adapted to migration research by Bommes (2005) and Bommes and Tacke (2006a, 2006b). Using systems theory allows me to perform a critique of concepts like migration networks and transnationalism, which are very often used in the analysis of migration.

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全球化的移民浪潮湧現，各國紛紛透過放鬆移民限制吸引白領移民前往投資和長期居住，展開對擁有資金和技術的白領移民之跨國爭奪，而活躍於全球市場的台商即為其中之一。另外在台商研究之中，從經濟面向研究者眾多，但台商的跨國生活與社會形態目前仍較少有學者關注，而對於台商為經營跨國生活的身份選擇考量，相關研究仍屬有限。有鑒於此，作者乃以上海市台商為研究案例，從跨國主義的移民研究所提出的核心分析概念「跨國社會場域」出發，整理傳統移民研究中的人員遷移因素，歸納出四種流動能力的要素，並結合公民身份理論，說明台商的流動能力如何影響其在移居國的身份選擇考量。具體而言，根據作者初步調查發現，由個人能力、跨國網絡、全球觀所構成的流動能力，在穿越國家所設下的跨界障礙後，能夠持續形成跨國社會場域，而台商為了要能夠維持其所賴以為生的跨國社會場域，來加以考量是否要選擇中國大陸的成員身份或者是公民身份。如果台商的個人能力較弱、跨國網絡缺乏、經濟發展為主的全球觀，較傾向於會考慮選擇中國大陸的成員身份或者是公民身份來強化既有的跨國社會場域經營；反之則否。

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