2026-01-21
Gunika Rishi
Kinship emerges as a constellation of relational ties for young adults who arrive in Norway as unaccompanied refugee minors, shaped by migration, separation, and the uneven terrain of family reunification. Drawing on long‑term ethnographic fieldwork and narrative interviews with 14 young adults, the article presents three scenes that show how kinship is reconfigured through chosen networks, diasporic connections, and enduring family ties. Chosen kinship appears in relationships with peers, caregivers, and trusted adults who become anchors of continuity in uncertain environments, while diasporic networks develop through shared histories, linguistic and regional ties, and community spaces. Familial relationships persist but are marked by separation, shifting responsibilities, and care that unfolds transnationally, showing that the young adults’ biological ties are also remade throughout their migration journey. Across these scenes, kinship appears as a dynamic terrain shaped by institutional constraints, affective longings, and the everyday labour of creating and sustaining ties in a new social landscape. The findings call attention to how rigid, legally defined models of family fail to recognise the lived realities and social worlds of the young adults and underscore the need for migration policies that recognize the relational constellations the young adults build for themselves.
2026-01-21
Daniel Herda
Reactive transnationalism involves immigrants responding to hostility in the receiving society by increasing their connection and interaction with their origin country. The current study builds upon previous examinations of this phenomenon by considering whether direct experience is the only form of discrimination that matters. It examines whether the mere perception of unfairness—no first‑hand experience required—is also associated with transnational behaviors. Data from the 2019 Recent Immigration Processes and Early Integration Trajectories in Germany survey are used to analyze remittance and political transnationalism patterns among Turkish, Syrian, Polish, and Italian immigrants. Results confirm the reactive transnationalism association in the German context and also introduce greater nuance into our understanding. For one, while direct exposure to hostility matters, it is not required. Transnationalism is also linked to the general perception that one’s group is treated unfairly. Further, the results indicate that a reactive political transnationalism association is strongest among Turkish respondents, demonstrating significant variation across groups. The implications of these results for future research are discussed.
2026-01-21
Rikard Engblom
This article explores the interplay between hope and hopelessness among refugees in Sweden who have been denied asylum and live under the threat of deportation. Based on ethnographic research conducted in a rural municipality in central Sweden (2017–2018), it examines how individuals oscillate between hope and hopelessness under conditions of social and legal precarity, shaping both their thoughts and actions. While hope is often associated with agency and resilience, this study highlights its ambivalent nature—it can sustain individuals in difficult situations but also trap them in cycles of waiting and vulnerability. Hope can be painful when repeatedly dashed, and even used as a means of manipulation. Conversely, hopelessness is not merely a state of passivity or resignation but can foster decisive action and drive change at both personal and societal levels. Recognizing the dual nature of both hope and hopelessness, as well as their interconnection, is essential for understanding the lived experiences of deportable refugees and for developing more humane approaches to migration governance and reception. Building on the findings, the article contributes to the affective turn within the social sciences by proposing a complement to Miyazaki’s method of hope (2004) by acknowledging the productive aspects of hopelessness .
2026-01-21
Eveliina Lyytinen
This article examines how a foreign partner’s deportability influences Finnish women. The concept of ‘experiential migrantisation’ offers particular utility for this analysis in that it elucidates the negative impacts of immigration regimes that these citizens had believed to be applicable only to migrants. Thus, the paper contributes to advancing deportee-focused studies of deportability by examining how deportability and deportations affect citizens – in this case, Finnish female partners, alongside their children. Enquiry proceeding from 12 in-depth interviews and informal observations with eight Finnish women, whose spouses had first sought asylum and then residence permits based on a family tie, lays bare how these citizen women experienced and lived out the threat of their foreign spouse’s deportation. In my analysis of experiential migrantisation, I group the experiences of my participants into three broader themes: adopting new roles and questioning one’s citizenship, experiencing discrimination and racism, and feeling a lack of temporal or spatial control. The work highlights that, though one must be critically minded when considering experiential migrantisation, it offers a valuable tool for investigating the deep effects of a partner’s deportability on spouses and their children.
2025-11-26
Denard Veshi, Ervin Pupe, Dora Mirtella, Mindaugas Kiškis, Enkelejda Koka
In recent years, the management of asylum-seeker flows has increasingly become a subject of political contention, prompting several states to explore the externalization of asylum procedures as a policy response. Within this context, in November 2023, the Italian Government concluded an agreement with the Republic of Albania to process up to 3,000 applications annually on Albanian territory. Building upon the longstanding legal and diplomatic ties between the two countries, this paper examines the responses of national institutions in Italy and Albania, as well as briefly mentioning the positions adopted by international and supranational actors, following constitutional approval by the Albanian Constitutional Court.
2025-11-26
Paolo Boccagni, Alberto Brodesco, Valentina Marconi
That migrant remittances are, or should be, ‘more than money’ is a statement on which different stakeholders, with different interests, would probably agree. While migrants often strive to articulate care and emotional involvement through them, and scholars emphasize the socio‑cultural meanings and implications of these money transfers, the remittance industry also builds on a more‑than‑money visual repertoire. This has been comparatively neglected, and yet is potentially revealing. Based on a content analysis of the YouTube archive of Western Union, we illustrate how ethnic advertising constructs the non‑monetary dimension of remittances by associating the idea of ‘more’ with celebrative and alluring representations of migrants, of their life circumstances, and of money itself. Besides making for an original and counter‑hegemonic aesthetic of migration, if only for commercial purposes, this representation illuminates the tension and ambiguities underlying the view of remittances as a special kind of money. It also reveals the shortcomings of an ‘additional logic’ in shaping the hopes, achievements, and cross‑border obligations of transnational migrants. More fundamentally, the more‑than‑money argument unveils remittances as a unique field of negotiation between contrasting analytical, affective, and instrumental stances about migration.
2025-09-03
Kolar Aparna
2025-04-29
Olga Tkach
The main aim of the recent Handbook on Home and Migration was to overcome the case study-based fragmentation of the discussion on homemaking among people on the move, and to elevate it to a substantive thematic, conceptual and theoretical level. This is a unique and ambitious project led by Boccagni and including 74 book chapter authors from all over the world, representing various disciplines and theoretical traditions. The volume consists of seven parts and 53 chapters and covers a wide range of topics under the conceptual umbrella of the home-mobility nexus.
2025-01-22
Madeline Paradise