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There are important gaps in our knowledge about children who migrate. Even in societies which employ technologically sophisticated systems for monitoring and measuring migration, data on child migrants are incomplete and focused on specific groups of vulnerable children and young people. The lack of data and research on processes underpinning child migration and on the experiences of children who migrate are rooted in hegemonic Westernised assumptions about, and constructions of, childhood, family migration, and migration in general. Migrant children are represented as passive, needy and different; their accounts of themselves and their lives are silenced through adultist discourses about migration decision-making and experiences. The papers in this special edition of JEMS challenge these constructions of migrant children by focusing on the children's experiences in a multiplicity of migratory contexts. Presented first at the international conference 'Children and Migration: Identities, Mobilities, Belonging' organised by the Marie Curie Migrant Children Project at University College Cork, Ireland, in April 2008, the papers showcase emerging research which challenges the adult-centric nature of migration research and policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article initiates methodological discussions to understand how transnationalism manufactures cultural discourse of family practices and repairs intimacy within family-kin relationships from a distance. Prior studies in family ties overstate the shifts in family practices by highlighting the dichotomy of 'modern' and 'tradition' intimacy. However, family practices and intimacy are more compelling, and require empirical examination of how migrants interact and restore meaningful relationships in different cultural landscapes with their family-kin. Contributing to this literature, this article explores the repairing process of transnationalism in building meaningful familiar relationships from a distance, and the reconfiguration of the meanings and practices of familyhood in the migration process. Drawing on insight from interview data gathered from transnational Turkish migrants in the UK, this article argues that migration does not merely transform the family-kin practices, the understanding of intimacy and personal life of migrants; it brings emotional and ontological security. This paper raises questions on the role of migration in repairing intimacy and family practices, rather than shift and disjuncture the familiar connections. Therefore, it negotiates how migration provides space and courage to migrants to repair their intimacy and relationships with family-kin and reconfigure the meaning of familyhood while they enact their lives transnationally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bulgarian migrants and university students in particular have recently fallen into the spotlight of British media, firmly positioned within fervent immigration debates. Drawing on Brewer’s concept of nested identities, this paper explores how Bulgarian university students in the UK manage four different identifications: national, European, migrant and student. Thus, the process of establishing nested identities is investigated on three different contextual levels: the transnational, regional and the everyday (at university and at the workplace). Paying particular attention to the factors that influence the process, this article also scrutinises its implications for Bulgarian students’ values and perceptions. Utilising semi-structured interviews and participant observation with Bulgarian students, this paper will argue that the four identifications emerge as highly dynamic, context-specific and constantly negotiated relationships. Retrospectively, this article aims to contribute not only to current literature on Bulgarian migration but also to wider debates on transnational youth identities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Developing on Granovetter’s classic work on embeddedness in systems of social relations, this paper proposes the concept of ‘differentiated embedding’ to explore how migrants negotiate attachment and belonging as dynamic temporal, spatial and relational processes. When Poland joined the EU in May 2004, the large flow of migrants to the UK was perceived by many migration researchers as heralding a new form of transient mobility associated with short-term, temporary and circular migration, and high levels of transnationalism. Relatively little attention was paid to how these migrants were integrating in local contexts. Based on 20 in-depth interviews and network mapping with Polish migrants, resident in London for a decade, I examine why participants extended their stay and how their decisions were shaped by interpersonal relationships locally and transnationally. London as a ‘superdiverse’, global city offers place-specific opportunities for building networks and developing processes of embedding. Nonetheless, a focus on networks risks overlooking the wider structural context in which migrants live and work. Thus, I argue, there is a need for a differentiated concept to capture the nuanced interplay of structural, relational, spatial and temporal embedding. This concept not only captures multi-scalarity and multi-sectorality but also levels of belonging and attachment. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper assesses the role of Hindu nationalism in the development of Hindu identity in Britain. Some accounts argue that the authoritarian network of Hindu nationalist organisations apparent in India is reproduced in diaspora contexts, especially in the west. The paper argues that this degree of organisational intentionality is not always borne out by evidence in the UK. Although Hindu nationalist organisations have achieved some success in establishing their presence, in national arenas they frequently give way to umbrella organisations such as the Hindu Forum of Britain (HFB) and the Hindu Council UK (HCUK). The paper argues that Hindu nationalist organisations nevertheless operate vigorously in multilocal contexts, fuelling a 'Hindutva effect' which has a broader ideological influence. The paper examines some of the positions taken by the HFB and HCUK to demonstrate how this influence is played out in national arenas, before reflecting more broadly on the implications of these dynamics for the development of diaspora identities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the economic, political, social and cultural transnational exchanges of 500 Zimbabweans living in the UK. The paper examines the ways in which motivations for migration and immigration status impact on the type of transnational exchanges that take place between the UK and Zimbabwe, and also among diasporic networks elsewhere. After social contact with close family members, economic remittances form the most regular exchanges. The paper shows the ways in which remittance activities are affected by the structural exclusions, due to government policy, experienced by asylum-seekers and undocumented migrants who are prohibited from working in the regular labour market. However, it also clearly demonstrates that, with the exception of more political activity among those who left Zimbabwe for political reasons, motivations for migration have little impact on the nature of transnational exchanges among Zimbabweans in the UK. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the last 20 years, industrialised Western nations have witnessed a marked increase in right-wing social movements and political parties. While the origins and agendas of these groups differ in important ways, all arose in a climate of intensifying globalisation. All arose in the context of a widespread embrace of multiculturalism and cultural diversity. And all are keenly focused on the perceived threats posed by immigration. This paper examines immigration threat narratives constructed by four of these groups: the British National Party, the One Nation Party, the Tea Party Patriots, and the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps. Striking similarities in the narratives employed by these groups suggest the emergence of a transnational right-wing populist ‘playbook’. The paper further argues that even when the direct electoral impact of such groups is relatively small, they have the potential to substantially reshape broader political discourse and public policy. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper investigates the social ties forged by Romanians in London with migrants of different origins in work and non-work contexts to offer a more nuanced view of ‘bridging’ social ties and related discussions of ‘everyday’ cosmopolitanism. Contrary to the overemphasis on ethnic ties seen as a form of bonding in migration research, the paper shows how Romanians bridge informally with many other migrants based on shared ‘non-native’ status. Alongside non-ethnically marked commonalities, ethnicity emerges as an important ingredient of cosmopolitan socialization, yet without necessarily signalling coexisting ethnic identities, as commonly assumed. Romanians' experiences further show that despite providing significant social and cultural capital, bridging ties with migrants, rather than natives, rarely accrue effective resources for social mobility. The findings suggest the need to disaggregate and qualify current understandings of ‘bridging’ social ties usually depicted in positive terms and uniformly as cross-ethnic relationships, or only linked with the ‘mainstream’ population. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper breaks new ground in its comparative analysis of two international student migration (ISM) streams, one from the Global South to the Global North (India to developed Anglophone countries), and the other within the Global North (UK to North America, Europe and Australia). These two ISM movements reflect different positionalities within the global system of international student movements, and hence necessitate a critical perspective on the assumptions behind such a comparison, which questions the dominance of ‘knowledge’ about ISM that derives from ‘the West’ as a theoretical template. Two methods are employed to collect data: an online questionnaire survey of UK and Indian students who are, or have recently been, studying abroad; and in-depth interviews to UK and Indian international students. Motivations for studying abroad are remarkably similar in the questionnaire results; more subtle differences emerge from the interviews. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A growing body of scholarship has shown how, in order to reproduce themselves, households increasingly ‘stretch’ in space, accessing resources drawn from multiple local contexts. The paper explores how young Italian middle-class families in London undertake transnational mobility projects. The data show, on the one hand, that intra-EU migration is a viable solution to overcome a middle-class reproduction crisis, and on the other hand, how a middle-class position is pursued and achieved inter-generationally through social reproductive practices which imply the transnational negotiation and validation of different forms of capital. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper makes the case for a joint redefinition of the concepts of transnationalism and integration in a way that would allow a better combination. Transnationalism is here defined as a coping strategy for migrants who strive to manage their integration into two (or more) settings. Integration is commonly depicted as a multi-level process which combines a social embedding into a web of interpersonal or associational relations and a systemic embedding into wider economic or political systems. Next to these levels, this work highlights a third one, namely the identity integration of migrants who seek to maintain a balance between the poles of their identity. This conceptual framework is applied in order to analyse the emergence of collective practices of development among two North African groups in France (the Moroccan Chleuhs and the Algerian Kabyles) and one UK-based North Indian group (the Sikh Punjabis). It is shown that transnational development practices, in the form of collective remittances, constitute a matrix of identity integration for migrants who want to reinvent their identity of villager despite the transformations induced by their stay abroad. However, the success of their actual engagement into cross-border practices largely depends on the effectiveness of their systemic and social integration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the transnational aspects of childcare, highlighting the importance of migration history and the relevance of social networks in understanding how childcare needs are met in different minority ethnic communities. Fifteen households from the Chinese and Bangladeshi communities in the United Kingdom were surveyed, and interviews were conducted with grandparents, parents and children. The role of grandparents in these communities is used to illustrate the importance of intergenerational and transnational relationships, and commonalities and differences between the two communities are highlighted. The paper offers an alternative way of understanding minority ethnic communities' needs. The approach employed may also be applied to other minority ethnic groups in Europe and beyond. At a time when UK border controls are being tightened, the paper adds to the growing body of literature on diasporas, migration and transnationalism, but with a particular focus on childcare as a policy area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article critically examines transnational political practices of migrants and their local and international political ramifications. Recent literature on migrant transnationalism heralds the role that migrants or refugees can play in democratisation in their countries of origin or even as significant actors in global politics. Drawing on an in-depth study of Turkish Cypriots in Britain, this article highlights two crucial and interrelated aspects of migrants' transnational political participation as it unfolds in both their country of residence and their country of origin. First, the paper illustrates the ambiguity of those patterns of political representation that may characterise the interac tion between migrants' homeland political associations and political actors in their countries of origin and settlement. Second, Turkish Cypriot transnational lobbying in Britain highlights how lack of access to the host-country political establishment limits migrants' influence on processes of democratisation in their country of origin. The paper explores the dynamics through which certain organisations manage to negotiate their way into the host-country political system while others remain outside on the 'Hyde Park Corner' of diaspora politics where central policy-makers rarely pass by. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Vietnamese in Britain are a small and less visible community who remain largely unrecognised in wider society. For those born in Britain, constructing a Vietnamese identity and a sense of ethnic belonging is often rendered problematic due to a lack of inclusion in, and identification with, their local Vietnamese community. Instead, ‘return’ visits to Vietnam occupy a particularly important space in their narratives of ethnic authentification. Drawing upon the literature on migrant-homeland relations, this paper highlights the importance of divisions of gender, class and migration trajectories in understanding patterns of transnational participation and engagement among Vietnamese migrants. It is argued that British-born Vietnamese women are more likely to engage actively in their ‘return’ visits and make personal and emotional investments compared to their male counterparts whose visits remain largely symbolic. These differences are shaped by social class configurations and gender expectations both in Britain and Vietnam. However, while ‘return’ visits provide more effective ethnic authentification strategies for women than men who experience a more compromised masculine status and negative experiences in the ‘homeland’, paradoxically their class differences with the majority of the population weakens and questions this authenticity leading to an ‘arrested’ achievement of ethnic authenticity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent scholarship on transnational immigration restriction have tended to frame British policies in opposition to those of white settler colonies, emphasising the frustration of British officialdom at the explicitly racist exclusions in South Africa, Canada, New Zealand and Australia. While acknowledging these, this paper interrogates the British position, by locating synergies between the deployment of examinations as a form of racial gatekeeping at the height of the empire, with reference to discourses of equity and access emanating from Britain, Australia and India. It reads British attempts to ameliorate the harsh exclusions of the White Australia policy – administered through the apparently neutral device of the Dictation Test – alongside remarkably similar constraints embedded in the exams for the Indian Civil Service that were designed to limit the numbers of Indians in the ICS. Race-based immigration restriction was consistent with – not repugnant to – imperial sensibilities, contrary to so many protestations. The prevalence of racially discriminatory immigration legislation in settler societies had the effect of projecting the worst forms of racism to the peripheries of empire, exposing the contradictions of the colonial project in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper draws on research with Vietnamese businesses in London which seeks to challenge some of the traditional views of transnational entrepreneurship. These have focused primarily on entrepreneurs embedded in both home and host countries and the need for regular travel between the two to manage the business. In contrast, this study suggests that transnational entrepreneurship today is more fluid than previous studies have suggested and is often characterised by multi-polar (rather than bipolar) links. Travel is also less relevant in the current age of ‘super-connectivity’. The research explores how Vietnamese entrepreneurs in London draw on various forms of transnational capital to further the development of their business, and develops a framework to measure the degree and extent of the transnational embeddedness and dependency of the business. The results suggest that transnational entrepreneurship amongst ethnic minority entrepreneurs today is better viewed as a continuum rather than a set of discrete business types. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The civil war in Somalia forced many Somalis to migrate to other countries where they had to adapt to new cultures and learn new languages. At the same time, they retained the identity and culture that were important to them throughout the process of migration. These first-generation Somali immigrants may feel strong allegiance to their country of origin along with a “sense of belonging” to their clan/kinship. They may also hope that one day they will be able to return “home”. But do second-generation Somalis feel the same way? This paper is based on 23 interviews with Somali immigrants in Australia, the UK and the USA. Out of the 23 participants, two were first-generation and the rest were second-generation. I seek to understand the participants' identity and their sense of belonging to their ethnicity and host country in the wake of pertinent moments of local, national and international anxiety. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Constructions of femininity and attendant notions of feminism are being produced in different ways in different places around the world. This is a complicated global process that cannot be reduced to analyses that take place in nation states. This paper seeks to respond to and enhance Angela McRobbie's compelling argument about understandings of contemporary girlhood, primarily in the UK context, by drawing into the fold Aihwa Ong's powerful thinking around theories of transnationality. Rather than repeating arguments about constructions of femininity that are invariably articulated within national confines, the discussion demonstrates the transnational nature of these subjective constructions by referring to recent ethnographic research undertaken in two elite schools in England and India, and focusing particularly on in-depth interviews and focus groups conducted with some of the young women who attend these schools. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The transnational turn in the humanities and social sciences has had slender impact on the study of trade unionism in Britain. In industrial relations and labor history, the fields where most research into trade unions has been conducted, approaches have remained insular. This article reaffirms that national unions are building blocks in a global movement. Despite manifest failings, past and present, that movement remains potentially important in counteracting neoliberal globalisation. This paper examines the transnational paradigm adumbrated by labor historians and its relative lack of resonance among British academics. It demonstrates that there is an existing corpus of literature developed by specialists outside established fields. This work incompletely reflects recent theorizing about transnational historiography. Nonetheless, it provides a basis for developing studies of global trade unionism which use a plurality of approaches – rather than one-route recipes. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper considers the simultaneous processes of transnational activism and integration amongst Somalis living in the UK. It argues that, rather than challenging integration, diasporic Somalis' involvement in transnational activism may actually support integration, andvice versa. Transnational engagement fulfils a range of functions that relate not only to the country of origin, but also to community formation in the UK. Such practices may, in some cases, promote integration while, in others, they create a space in which those who experience difficulty integrating can still forge meaningful relations both in the country of settlement and with the dispersed transnational Somali community. In the context of the 2011 famine in Somalia, Somali community activism in the UK rose to new heights, helping to reinforce the integration–transnational activism relationship. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Answering the legitimate call for a more transnational approach to the history of sport in Europe, we seize upon the 2012 Olympic Games as an opportunity to look back on Belgo-British contacts in sport since the Middle Ages. Contextualising this history within the wider Belgo-British political, economic and cultural contacts is, indeed, much more revealing than recounting a superficial story about the three medals the Belgian Olympic delegation actually obtained in London. We illustrate that transnational flows and contacts – crucial to the shaping and diffusion of sport – are not always reflected at the level of the Olympic Games. The cases of cycle racing and soccer demonstrate the divergent adoption and adaptation processes of specific sporting disciplines in Belgium and Britain. At the end of the paper, we also reflect on David Cameron's competitive sport policy in primary education, and raise the question whether the dissipation of public funds for elite sport – to the detriment of ‘Sport for All’ – is still defendable in times of government budgetary scarcity. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In the South African War and its aftermath, wounded combatants and interned Boer civilians were the subjects of extensive transnational relief efforts. Focusing on the aid proffered by the British Red Cross Society, the pro-imperialist Victoria League and the rival Boer Home Industries scheme, this paper explores how gifts of time and material were invested with competing hopes and aspirations for Britain's role in South Africa. In this context food and hand-made textiles represented more than mere commodities. It also meant that, though expressing genuine sympathy and concern, benefactors did not share a ‘humanitarian’ ideal. These gifts brought undoubted comfort and saved life. They also provided new imaginative vistas on empire and war, and galvanised domestic political networks. But the implication of these numerous benevolent impositions was a lack of co-ordination and the privileging of relief workers’ ethical commitments with little thought as to how these gifts would be received. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Transnational marriage is a practice by which members of diasporas are united in matrimony with persons in the homeland. In this paper, I explore the history and development of transnational marriage in the Bangladeshi Muslim diaspora, specifically among British Bangladeshis and Bangladeshi Americans. A distinct history of migration and settlement has resulted in the particular prominence of transnational marriage in the British Bangladeshi community. In the British national context as well, unlike in the USA, the issue of transnational marriage has been politicised by concerns about forced marriage and the state regulations that have arisen in response to it. These differences of national context are reflected in the greater levels of general acceptance of the idea of transnational marriage among British Bangladeshis. At the same time, across both national settings, second- and third-generation Bangladeshi Muslims are actively engaged in constructing notions of the ‘new’ transnational marriage in which the partner selection process gives considerable autonomy to those involved. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this paper, I draw on interview data to explore parents' constructions of language and identity in two London Turkish complementary schools. I examine parents' evaluative talk about standard Turkish, Cypriot-Turkish and other regional varieties of Turkish, the cultural values they attach to them and images of personhood these invoke. I demonstrate how parents brought up in Turkey and Cyprus tend to privilege standard Turkish and acknowledge the crucial role Turkish complementary schools play as one of the key vehicles for its spread and promotion. Some parents, however, especially those politically active in promoting Cypriot-Turkish language, culture and history to the British-born generation, voice an alternative discourse where Cypriot-Turkish is intimately linked to their sense of self. Moreover, I investigate parents' perspectives of their children and of their own Turkish language competence in the case of parents brought up in the UK. I illustrate how their Turkish and their children's are compared against a ‘native’ speaker norm firmly located in the countries of origin. The parents' accounts show how different self- and other-ascriptions of proficiency in Turkish are linked to claims of or lack of ‘Turkishness’, largely shaped by their migration histories and narratives, personal and professional transnational experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper draws on the experiences of Indian-origin groups in the USA and UK to examine transnational forms of ethnicity. It focuses specifically on ethnic organisations that are engaged in constructing transnational ethnic identities, using religion as a means for constructing new, virtually linked communities. Based on web-based data of Hindu student groups in the USA and UK, this study examines transnational ethnic identities these groups deploy on their websites, and to what extent these are similar across the USA and UK. As Hinduism is a religion with no uniform sets of practices (chosen religious texts, practices and beliefs are culturally, regionally and family dependent), it provides a good basis for examining whether the identities constructed by these groups are transnational, that is, the same elements are emphasised by groups in the two countries to construct ethnic identities that transcend the specificities of the national and local contexts. It also examines the structure of links between websites to show whether websites that appear to be nation-specific are actually linked to each other to create a transnational network. The findings of this study suggest that the study of transnationalism needs to be extended beyond the current focus on ‘home’ and ‘host’ countries to consider what happens in multiple ‘host’ countries. It also shows that organised groups promote homogenised versions of virtual ethnicity as they build transnational networks across countries. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Based on interviews with 25 Irish nurses living and working in Britain, the primary aim of this paper is to explore migration as an ongoing emotional journey. Drawing on the work of Hochschild, the paper explores how migrants discuss, describe and manage their emotions. In particular, the paper will explore the role of “emotion culture” in shaping the appropriate management and display of feelings. I discuss the women's early experiences of migration and how they managed their emotions of loneliness and homesickness. I examine how the women navigate the emotional terrain of transnational families and expectations of support and obligation. The paper focuses on how the stresses and strains of marriage and motherhood were negotiated and what happens when “emotion culture” and “display rules” are broken. Emotions are not just a topic of research; they also impact on the research process. One way of trying to uncover the emotions underpinning these interviews is by adopting a reflexive approach to the research process. Hence, as a second aim, the paper employs a reflexive approach to chart my own personal navigation of this emotional terrain both as an interviewer but also as a migrant and mother. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examined the experiences of the post 1995 Montserratian migrants in the UK - as transnationals and as a diaspora. It relates that the out-migration phenomenon is not new in the Montserrat context, but this group is spotlighted not only because it represents the largest out-migration in the recorded history of the island, but also because it has literally changed the face of the socio-economic, socio-cultural and socio-political landscape of the Montserrat community at home and abroad. Conceptually, transnationalism and diaspora are as complex and varied as the many scholarly explanations proffered. Yet, the relocated Montserratians' case is not grounded in any specific conceptualisation, but rather spans a cross-section of theories and definitions. It is within this framework that the paper discusses issues relating to location and settlement structure, group structure, the role of the churches in resettlement and views on repatriation. The paper concludes by suggesting that an interactive collaboration between forced migrants and host country is a vital ingredient for 'survival' for a people who are striving to sustain its cultural values in a foreign land. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the creation of alternative diasporic public spheres in Britain by South Asian settlers: one produced through the entertainment industry--commercial film and other media--that satirises the parochialism and conservatism of the South Asian immigrant generation and highlights cultural hybridity and cosmopolitanism, intergenerational conflict, family politics, inter-ethnic or -racial marriages, and excesses of consumption. The other is a conflictual diasporic Muslim public sphere dominated by Muslim male community leaders, which has had to respond to international political crises such as the Rushdie affair, the Gulf War or, more recently, September 11, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the confrontation between India and Pakistan over Kashmir. Seen from an indigenous British perspective, the messages emanating from these two diasporic discourses, publicised in both Western and South Asian media (cable TV and foreign newspapers in Urdu or local ones in English) are opposed, and create ambivalent stereotyped images of 'Muslims' and 'Asians'. While a Pakistani transnational identity is mostly submerged beneath these other identities, it is in fact critical to understanding the conflicting pressures to which young Pakistanis, and women in particular, are subjected in Britain, and the clash between alienation and popular cultural 'fun' marking Muslim Pakistani internal politics. These have led to the pluralisation of the diasporic public sphere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"Colonial Citizenship and Everyday Transnationalism: an Immigrant's Story" by Alexandria J. Innes is a valuable book that explores the colonial immigrant story of the author's grandfather, Nicholas Charalambou Kanaris, who left Cyprus and settled in the UK in 1954. Innes takes an International Relations approach to examine the politics of colonial migration, settlement, and identities. The book provides interesting insights into Cypriot emigrants and immigrant stories in the UK, offering analysis of her grandfather's narrative. While the book is well-structured and sophisticated in its analysis, there are some areas where the author could have been more critical and nuanced in her examination of historical records and interviews. Overall, this book is important for researchers interested in colonial migration and the experiences of Cypriot migrants in the UK. [Extracted from the article]

Drawing on a mix-methods study comprised of an online questionnaire and semi-structured interviews, this article presents findings about the complexity and development in time of health service use by Polish migrants living in the United Kingdom. The article contributes to the analysis of transnational healthcare practices by operationalising a framework that considers service access within and beyond national borders, and between private and public sectors. By categorising engagements with healthcare providers based on their occurrence in time it argues for an understanding of transnational healthcare as a process. It finds that Polish migrants manage their health by accessing a variety of different providers. This complexity is also reflected in the multiple ways in which access to services with regards to specific health issues unfolds in time. By focusing the analysis on specific health issues rather than individuals the article finds that multiple ways to access healthcare services coexist for the same participant, who does not necessarily move towards particular healthcare providers unitarily, but adopts ad hoc solutions on the basis of their experiences within specific medical areas. Understanding migrants' patterns of accessing healthcare can contribute to more effective policy solutions supporting migrants in the UK today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and associated responses such as border closure, lockdown measures and flight curtailment have severely disrupted transnational infrastructures that sustain, channel, organize and condition international migration. This infrastructural disruption has led to the double exclusion of temporary migrants from both sending and host societies. In this context, we explore how Chinese international students in the United Kingdom and their parents in China navigate transnational (im)mobilities during the pandemic. In doing so, we develop the conceptualization of "family-mediated migration infrastructure" to elucidate the role played by transnational family relationships in brokering information, mobilizing resources, and coordinating disjointed acts of institutional players in order to sustain transnational (im)mobility. We also reveal a distinctive emotional double-bind in the process of family-mediated infrastructuring, which requires members of transnational families to strategically perform emotional engagement and detachment in complex ways. Our findings highlight the functional resilience and emotional vulnerability of family-mediated transnational migration infrastructure, and render visible the intimate fabrics that contribute to sustaining transnationalism during the pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines collective action and the alliances between social movement organizations engaged in the work of solidarity with disabled people within and across borders during austerity. Building upon social movement theory, specifically political opportunities and resource mobilisation, we focus our analysis on data from in-depth interviews with thirty-five organizations at the UK and European levels, where we examine both how solidarity is operationalized by such organizations and the everyday cooperation and alliances they build with others in a UK policy context that has been hostile to disabled people and a European context which disabled people's solidarity organizations have sought to seize as political opportunities. Our study therefore adopts a multi-level approach by analysing the building of alliances between organizations at the local, national and transnational levels and it reveals the impact of the political context and organisational pressures which can diminish resources and generate competition, thus placing strains on solidarity between disabled people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides a historical perspective on communication among Filipino transnational families. Before the explosion of communication channels and opportunities accompanying the arrival of mobile telephony, cheap international calls and the Internet in the late 1990s, communication between migrant parents and left-behind children was dominated by letters and cassette tapes. For mothers who arrived in the UK in the 1970s, these were the main means of communication for almost two decades. The authors' research is based on a one-year-long ethno- graphic study of Filipino migrants in the London and Cambridge areas of the UK, who typically came to the UK after periods in the Middle East or Hong Kong and were employed as domestic workers or nurses. These were mainly mothers separated from their families for almost the whole of their children's development. Apart from fieldwork with mothers, many of whom recall this early period of their migration as being dominated by letters and cassettes, fieldwork was also conducted in the Philippines, where the mothers' now grown-up children were interviewed. The authors compare the accounts of the mothers and children, and the different qualities associated with letters and cassettes, such as temporality, materiality and the public-private distinction. They examine how the different types of media structure relationships between parents and children and how these media are appropriated in the context of different relationships as part of our understanding of the dialectical nature of media as a process of mediation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present article intends to trace the images of Great Britain promoted by the Syro-Egyptian Muslim reformist Muhammad Rashid Rida as reflected in his well-known magazine Al-Manar (The Lighthouse). It goes beyond his political attitudes towards Britain as a colonizing power in the Muslim world by analysing his impressions of the British people, ethics, religion, education and culture. Despite his limited encounters with Englishmen and only a very short visit to Europe in 1921, Rida was able to formulate specific ideas on English life. Rida coupled his enthusiasm about England's high level of ethics, progress and society with his understanding of the reformation of certain Islamic ideals. The article argues that Rida's idealization of the British way of life and progress was also intertwined with a certain degree of fear about foreign domination. The heirs of Islamic reformism are currently showing a similarly mixed attitude in their critique of global jihad and embrace of democracy, while attacking American and British policies in the Middle East. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the transition from voluntaristic to state-led cultural provision after 1945 with the emergence in Britain of the Arts Council and its regional representatives. The chief ambition is to examine the concern over the cultural deficit of the industrial working class expressed by leading figures in the new arena of cultural policy such as Mary Glasgow and Lord Keynes. Drawing upon research from the North East Association for the Arts (established in 1961), which maintained links with the North East's political and economic establishment, this paper explores the experience of such metropolitan cultural imperatives in the Labour stronghold of the North East. It also seeks to examine how far the civic concern to improve popular sensibilities after 1945 was peculiar to British cultural policy. It asks whether there were similar movements to realize the improvement of working-class culture in comparable European regions, and considers the possibilities for a comparative or transnational approach to the history of European cultural policy during the twentieth century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the human and commercial entrepôt linking the old world and the new, nineteenth-century Liverpool is an important laboratory for historical investigation of transnational mobility, networks, and developments. The paper pays particular attention to the increasing number of Irish arrivals who chose to remain in this port of entry, stigmatized at the time (and since) as a kind of under-class, unable, unwilling, or unsuited to take advantage of opportunities elsewhere. The Liverpool-Irish are reassessed here in a number of ways: through transnational and comparative analysis with Irish and other 'moving Europeans' who continued onwards across the Atlantic; and by attention to the specific interweaving of ethnic, confessional, and class interests within the Liverpool-Irish community and the distinctive patterns of labour politics and trade union organization which emerged. The article concludes that while labour history must become transnational in focus, it must never lose the crucial sense of context and cultural specificity. Liverpool was at the hub of the Irish Diaspora, but in its labour history (as in so much else) it was a place apart. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article attempts to show that there were three key elements to the changing policy mix as regards state economic intervention and ownership in post-war Britain. These have been relatively neglected by economic historians in favour of questions concerning 'objective' performance. They were: the uncertainty, confusion and competition of the two main political parties as to what the nationalised sector was for; attempts to escape an unpopular and bureaucratic policy model; and recommendations and techniques copied from other countries. It is posited that these three analytical categories provide an explanation for the shifting boundaries of the state in post-war Britain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article introduces and sets out the theoretical and methodological framework of a collaborative research project into news-viewing in multilingual families and households in the UK on and after 11 September 2001 upon which the articles in this special issue are based. Viewing the attacks of 11 September 2001 and their aftermath on television triggered deep emotional responses in viewers. Many people experienced a sense of trauma; these events forced viewers to think about the unthinkable—violent and painful death at the hands of terrorists—and the consequences of enduring political conflict over issues of security and terrorism. In thinking through the causes, meanings and consequences of these events, viewers offered accounts of other ‘ground zeros’. They compared and contrasted coverage on a range of channels such as BBC, Al-Jazeera and CNN, and actively sought alternative news sources because of perceived bias in Western reporting. The research examines the extent to which different patterns of news consumption reinforce or relativise understandings of terrorism and political violence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the issue of ongoing transnational tensions and disputes around land and property ownership that the members of the British-Bangladeshi diaspora are encountering in rural Sylhet, their origin region in their home country. While the existing literature on transnational communities documents migrants' land-purchasing and house-building practices in their country of origin, too often in a celebratory way, the material disputes and tensions that arise from these investments, and their effect on transnational personal, familial and social relationships, have yet to be exposed. For British Bangladeshis, these disputes are rife and in some cases are being articulated through intimidation and even violence. My research suggests that these evolving phenomena of land and property disputes threaten to disrupt the transnational relationships that were established and maintained by one generation after another. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines Gambians' experiences of educational migration to the UK, social reproduction and care, as they organize and map out educational futures transnationally. They do so in order to be in a position to invest in their children's education, with the aim of consolidating and enhancing the family's accumulated wealth and resources across the generations. Access to social, economic and cultural resources can facilitate migration and affect the nature of educational decision-making. Similarly, grandparents may, through transnational care arrangements, look after children who are separated from their parents. Building on the literature, I highlight the way in which parents' educational and migratory trajectories are entangled with those of their children. It is argued that this entanglement reveals the persistence of the domestic moral economy, informed by intergenerational reciprocity and obligation towards kin. In addition, children's educational futures may be contingent on their parents' educational strategies and migratory trajectories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the relationship between women munitions workers, the 'munitionettes,' in WWI-era Glasgow and Paris and the radical anti-government labor unions. These two cities were the centers of industrial production in Britain and France during the war, and each contained radical, male-dominated labor unions that frequently challenged state authority. In hindsight, the munitionettes were ideal candidates for these radical unions, as they were underpaid and increasingly militant. Despite this, these unions undermined the munitionettes' work and opposed their movements for better wages and working conditions. This article explores how male-dominated WWI-era labor radicalism failed to incorporate women in the workplace due to gendered notions of work, patriotism and identity. It demonstrates how women developed their own working-class identity, militancy and unions, as they became the most effective strikers during WWI, despite their rejection by the radical labor unions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the 1980s, the Borough of Brent, in north-west London, has been a major global hub of transnational Twelver Shiism. With the influx of Iraqi refugees, many clerical leaders of Twelver Shia Islam established their European headquarters in Brent, and, in addition to Damascus and Tehran, London became a major centre of Iraqi diaspora politics during Saddam Hussein's regime. The transnational networks and organizations based in Brent engage in an Islamic 'transnational public space', which Bowen defines as a globally operating discursive 'field of Islamic reference and debate'. Based on ethnographic research in London, the article provides novel insights into the Twelver Shia Muslim organizational field in Britain and its engagement in 'an alternative diasporic public sphere' that articulates issues and contestations specific to Shia Muslims living in Britain: what does displacement and migration mean for Shia Muslims who have often escaped oppression, war and civil conflict; how do Shia Muslims in Britain define their relationship to Sunnis in the context of rising sectarianism in the post-Arab Spring Middle East; how do Shia Muslims position themselves towards Iran and its aspiration to be the political leader of global Shiism? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After the 2008 global crisis, Italy has experienced a relevant resumption of emigration. Tens of thousands of young Italians have chosen London as their favourite destination, giving rise to a new Italian community in the city. This article focuses on the transformation of migrants' national identity and on a distinctive device of identity expression: language. Sample cases, extracted from a dataset collected for an original doctoral project, are used to explain how the insertion of English elements in speakers' native language become the expression of the loss of pure national identity and of the renegotiation of transnational and migratory identities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focusing on British graduates from Gipsy Hill Training College (GHTC) in London, this article illustrates transnational history’s concerns with the reciprocal flows of people and ideas within and beyond the British Empire. GHTC’s progressive curriculum and culture positioned women teachers as agents of change, and the article highlights the lives and work of married and single graduates overseas after the Second World War. Some migrated to the dominions of Australia, Canada and New Zealand, while South Africa and Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) were popular destinations for short-term teaching contracts. A few graduates went to the colonies as missionaries and colonial servants, and a handful taught in extra-imperial sites. Wherever they were located, these British women promulgated the college’s progressive ideals and shared their experiences with people at home in Britain, thereby shaping understandings of the Empire and constructing a world that was differentiated by class, gender, race and nation. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The prominent corridor of bilateral policy transfer between Australia and the UK is underpinned by a long-standing cultural and political proximity. While ad hoc cases of transfer have in recent years been the subject to concerted attention from transfer theorists, much less attention has been given to the rise of multilateral, ortransgovernmental, policy networks based on similar cultural and political amity amongst the ‘Anglosphere’ group of states including Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the UK and the US. Populated by policy elites and regularly interacting, these networks represent potentially important modes of policy transfer yet little is known about how they operate, with what purposes or what outcomes. This article therefore sets out research findings that offer an insight into 23 identified networks, suggesting that understanding the emergence of these networks are crucial to explaining any bilateral transfer between Anglosphere states in general, and specifically Australia and the UK. The article contends that a consideration of these networks provides insight into (i) the substantive landscape of Anglosphere policy learning and collaboration, (ii) the attendant dynamics of collaborative policy networks as elite, elusive and exclusive and (iii) iterative policy transfers. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

An editorial is presented on the journal's mission, and its contribution to developing education as a field of study and the dissemination of education research. It argues that the journal has helped in the development of a transnational dialogue with new and experienced scholars, and has published special issues in various fields including education and development, education and global justice. It discusses the journal's vision, and the newly established Institute of Education.

The case of Singapore explores the history of mental illness in a British colony, port city, and Chinese coolie town. As a colony, Singapore not only received Western psychiatric expertise from the metropole but also suffered from the inner contradictions and failings of colonial rule. The mental asylum thus had a both modernizing and marginal role. As an international port city, Singapore was a major center for internationally crisscrossing flows, yet the transnationalismin mental health policy remained connected to colonial power in two ways: the British simplified the culturally diverse patients into distinct, subordinate races and transferred them between Singapore and other countries. Singapore was also an unruly "coolie town" where, utilizing the weapons of the weak, Chinese sufferers contested the psychiatric regime in the asylum and continued to seek treatment and care beyond it. Their ability to do so depended, however, on the specific circumstances that prevailed in the individual, asylum, and coolie town, and their agency was expressed in relation to the colonial system rather than independent of it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, I explore how attitudes towards difference in terms of ethnicity, religion, sexuality and gender travel between Polish migrants to the UK and their significant others in Poland. In doing so, I bring together and critically engage with two disparate literatures—on social remittances and family and peer transmission of attitudes. I demonstrate that what occurs between Polish migrants and their non-migrant significant others is a complex process in which favourable and prejudiced attitudes are passed on, challenged, rejected or negotiated. While I stress that both migrants and non-migrants influence each other’s perceptions of difference, I show that non-migrants are more likely to assume the ‘correctness’ of migrant’s attitudes due to the construction of migrants as trusted experts. Acknowledging the multidimensionality and simultaneity of such mutual influences, in the article, I call for the use of the term ‘circulation’ to describe the mobility of ideas, values and attitudes between people and places. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article focuses on ageing in transnationalism. Drawing on the experiences of Italians in the UK as a paradigmatic example of settled European migrants, it explores the lived experiences of this group of older migrants. Using Levitt and Glick Schiller's framework, it concentrates first on migrants' ways of being and then on their ways of belonging. The article argues that a transnational lens is necessary to understand the experiences of older migrants and that a focus on older people needs to be incorporated into studies of transnationalism. Through a discussion of their narratives and experiences, the article offers a long view on the migration process and brings attention to the significance of gender, time and the life course to understand both migrants' transnationalism and their integration. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]