Transnational agency and migration : actors, movements, and social support

Migrants, both spatially and mentally, no longer settle in only one national territory but interact or move across borders regularly, profoundly challenging the nation-state and the image of society as a container. This volume explores the ways in which migrants, activists and professionals connect social worlds across national boundaries through a variety of social practices. The contributions from various disciplines - anthropology, economics, political and social sciences, educational studies and social work - illuminate the meaning of agency in situations where the capabilities of transnational actors are constrained by nation-states, their borders and social institutions. Based on a relational understanding of transnational agency which builds upon new insights and developments within transnational studies and network theory, this compilation of chapters presents transnational processes and developments in and across various regions of the globe - in East Asia, the Americas, the EU, Southeast Asia, Africa and Australia, in the borderlands of Mexico and the US, in the transatlantic space of the 19th-century fin de siecle world - in order to demonstrate the importance of gaining, assisting and expanding agency in transnational contexts.

1. Transnational Agency: Migrants, Movements and Social Support Crossing Borders Stefan Koengeter and Wendy Smith Part I: Transnational Migration 2. Between Empowerment and Exploitation: Migrant Women's Transnational Practices on the Northern Mexican Border Elisabeth Tuider 3. Integration and Agency: African Refugee Women and a Playgroup in Melbourne, Australia Kari Gibson, Katie Vasey and Lenore Manderson 4. Return Migration as an Engine of Social Change?: Reverse Diasporas' Capital Investments at Home Heidi Dahles Part II: Transnational Movements 5. The Translation of Knowledge Across the Atlantic: Constructions of the "Immigration Problem" in the Settlement Movement Stefan Koengeter 6. Reconstructing the Narrative of Transnational Feminist Agency: The Women's Caucus for Gender Justice in the International Criminal Court Ma. Lourdes Veneracion-Rallonza 7. People Living with HIV and AIDS in Thailand as Transnational Social Actors Wolfram Schaffar 8. Asian New Religious Movements as Transnational Cultural Systems: Implications for Agency Wendy Smith Part III: Transnational Education and Social Support 9. Transnational Transformations of Schooling in Toronto, Canada Naomi Lightman 10. Relaunching Citizenship Within an Agency-Oriented Perspective: Transnational Lessons for Social Work and Educational Studies Eberhard Raithelhuber 11. Transnational Social Work Communities: NGOs Organizing Social Support in International Development Cooperation Nadin Tettschlag 12. Social Security in Transnational Legal Space: Limitations and Opportunities Keebet von Benda-Beckmann