Transnational migration theory in population geography: gendered practices in networks linking Canada and India

Geographers have recently suggested that transnational migration theory can contribute to the development of a critical population geography. What might such a critical population geography look like? In this paper I explore this in three ways. Firstly I offer some comments on why geographers have been slow to adopt a transnational focus on migration, and secondly I examine how gender has been underplayed in transnational literature. Thirdly I draw upon some examples from research on transnational immigrant networks between Canada and India. I focus on the specifics of Punjabi marriage migration networks to demonstrate how the practice of spousal selection has become globalised for certain diasporic communities. These examples offer a preliminary illustration of what a critical population geography, attuned to issues of gendered transnational processes, might contribute to current debates. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.