Rethinking Transnationalism in the Global World: Contested State, Society, Border, and the People in between

This special section presents three cutting-edge pieces of research on transnationalism from three interrelated perspectives: multifaceted identities, political participation, and micro-entrepreneurship. As elaborated by the five participating authors, these three perspectives converge on the critical role played by the state, which does not pale into socio-political insignificance because of the global movement of ideas, commodities, capital or people. Rather, standing steady against migration flows, with immigration legislation at hand as policy tools, the state is an ‘agent of identity’ that seeks to shape migrants’ identity so as to preserve or advance its interests in domestic politics and foreign relations. In response, migrants are not passively susceptible to the state’s manipulation. Instead, with the socio-cultural capital accumulated throughout their migration, they critique, circumscribe or take advantage of the state legislation, whilst negotiating the ever-changing popular discourses that often reinforce their stigmatisation. As shown in this special section, migrants’ performance of identity, political participation and micro-entrepreneurship give rise to a vista of everyday transnationalism where the host state and society interact with migrants, sandwiched in between in consequence of their bordercrossing.