This document discusses the concept of immigrant transnationalism. It begins with a brief background on traditional immigration studies, which viewed migration as a one-way movement between sending and receiving countries. It then introduces the concept of transnationalism - where immigrants regularly engage socially, culturally and economically in both their country of origin and destination. Key drivers of transnationalism include advances in transportation and communication. The document also discusses measuring and implications of transnationalism, as well as opportunities for transnational entrepreneurship and platforms.

1. Transnational
Communities
- not your grandfather’s diaspora -
Alvaro Lima
Outubro , 2014

2. AGENDA:
I. Immigration Studies – A Brief Background
II. What is Immigrant Transnationalism?
III. Drivers of Transnationalism
IV. Traditional versus Transnational Lenses
V.Some Implications of Transnationalism
VI. Measuring Transnationalism
VII. Transnational Entrepreneurship – A New Research Front
VIII. Transnational Innovation Portfolio

3. Immigration Studies – A Brief Background
 Traditionally migration studies have been concerned with understanding the
origins and the impact of cross-borer flows;
 These flows have been understood mostly as a one way movement from sending
countries to receiving countries;
 Immigration policies have been almost entirely focused on procedures and
prohibitions governing admissions (who? how many? and what kind of
immigrants should be admitted?).
ADMISSION:
Who? How
many? What
kind?

4.  There is a widespread belief that migration is caused by poverty, economic
stagnation, and overpopulation in the countries of origin unrelated to receiving
countries’ foreign policies, economic needs and broader international economic
conditions;
 While overpopulation, poverty, and economic stagnation all create pressures for
migration, there are systematic, structural relations between receiving countries’
policies and migration flows with worldwide evidence of a considerable patterning
in the geography of migrations.
poverty
stagnation
overpopulation
etc… WHY?

5. Foreign-Born Population of Rich OECD Countries from Developing Countries
Country
Total
Population
(millions)
Population
from
Developing
Countries
(millions)
Percent of
Total
Population
Top Five
Source
Countries
(percent of
total)
Top Five Source
Countries
United States
Spain
France
UK
Netherlands
Portugal
Japan
281.4
40.8
58.5
58.8
16.0
10.4
127
28.4
1.5
3.7
3.0
1.2
0.5
1.2
10.1
3.7
6.4
5.1
7.6
4.5
1.0
45.2
44.2
20.4
30.1
48.6
62.8
69.6
Mexico, Philippines, Puerto
Rico, India, China
Morocco, Ecuador,
Colombia, Argentina,
Venezuela
Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia,
Turkey, Vietnam
India, Pakistan,
Bangladesh, Jamaica,
South Africa
Suriname, Turkey,
Indonesia, Morocco,
Netherlands Antilles
Angola, Mozambique,
Brazil, Cape Verde,
Venezuela
North Korea, South Korea,
China, Brazil, Philippines
Source: Let Their People Come, Lant Pritchett, 2006

6.  Immigrant integration policies (education, training, placement,
ESOL, health care, entrepreneurship, citizenship, etc..) are
skeletal, ad hoc, under-funded and dominated by the ideology of
assimilation – the great melting pot of nations;
 As Nathan Glazer puts it, “the settlement, adaptation, and
progress, or lack of it, of immigrants is largely, in the U.S.
context, up to them.”
labor market
language acquisition
housing
education
etc…

7.  Re-integration policies for those returning are generally inexistent
making the re-settlement process prone to failure feeding back
emigration:
labor market
housing
education
etc…

8. What is “Immigrant Transnationalism” ?
Regular, frequent engagement in economic, political and socio-cultural
activities in both countries:

9. Drivers of Transnationalism
 Developments in the means of transportation and
communications have changed the relations between people
and places (costs);
 International migrations have become crucial to the
demographic future of many developed countries;
 Global political transformations and new international legal
regimes weakened the state as the only legitimate source of
rights;
 Fostered by global consumption, production, and immigration,
cultural hybridization are substituting folkloric romanticism and
political nationalism enshrined as essences of national
cultures;

10. 10
Traditional versus Transnational Lenses
Traditional Lenses:
immigration conceptualized as a bipolar relation
between sending and receiving countries (moving
from there to here)
emigration is the result of individual search for
economic opportunity, political freedom, etc.
migrants are assumed to be the poorest of the
poor
immigrants occupy low-skilled jobs in
agriculture, construction, and manufacturing
Immigrants steadily shift their contextual focus,
economic and social activities to receiving
country
immigration should not bring about significant
change in the receiving society
Transnational Lenses:
immigration conceptualized as flows of cross-border
economic, political and social-cultural
activities (being here and there)
emigration is the result of geopolitical interests,
global linkages, and economic globalization
migrants are not the poorest of the poor nor do
they come from the poorest nations
growth in the service and technology-based jobs
create opportunities for low as well as high skilled
migrants
After the initial movement, migrants continue to
maintain ties with their country of origin
immigration creates hybrid societies with a richer
cultural milieu

11. Some Implications of Transnationalism
 Portability becomes crucial for transnational
migrants – education and certification processes;
investment and retirement schemes, health
insurance, etc.;
 The concept of “community,” “society,” as well
as “the local,” must be redefined as space of flows
(relationships), pluri-local and nation-state-boarder
spanning, instead of bounded geographic places –
geographic and social container spaces;
 Transnational immigrant entrepreneurs’ contributions to the economy have
to be recognized as such and not as just “ethnic;”
 Nation-state ideals of identity in both sending and receiving countries are
challenged by transnational practices – double citizenship;
 States must re-conceive immigration and adapt their policies and
practices to accommodate transnational realities;

12. Measuring Transnationalism
The Six Ts of Transnationalism
Source: Transnational Engagement, Remittances and their Relationship to Development in Latin America and the Caribbean, Institute for the Study of
International Migration, Georgetown University, Manuel Orozco, Principal Investigator, 2003.

13. $875
$398
$331
$218
$900
$800
$700
$600
$500
$400
$300
$200
$100
$-
México
Guatemala
Brazil
Ecuador
Guyana
Dominican R.
El Salvador
Colombia
Nicaragua
Honduras
Cuba
Monthly Remittance by Nationality
$278 $274
$192 $188 $185 $177
$113
ABOVE AVERAGE
BELOW AVERAGE
AVERAGE = $294
Purchasing of Nostalgic Products Among Brazilians
45.4%
20.5%
17.8%
5.1% 4.9% 3.7% 1.6% 0.8% 0.2%
50.0%
45.0%
40.0%
35.0%
30.0%
25.0%
20.0%
15.0%
10.0%
5.0%
0.0%
spices
CDs
DVDs, Foods and Videos, Clothing
Newspapers/magazines
Alcohol
Cigarettes
Books
Craft Items
Others
37.6%
28.9%
26.0%
5.5%
1.6% 0.3%
40.0%
35.0%
30.0%
25.0%
20.0%
15.0%
10.0%
5.0%
0.0%
Does not
have / NR
Checking
account
Savings
account
Credit card Investment
account
Foreign
currency
savings
Financial Accounts in Country of Origin - Brazil
MEASURING
TRANSNATIONALIS
M

14. 46.6%
36.80%
27.0%
22.7%
20.0%
15.3% 14.0%
10.3% 9.1%
5.7%
3.7%
50.0%
45.0%
40.0%
35.0%
30.0%
25.0%
20.0%
15.0%
10.0%
5.0%
0.0%
Guyana
Brazil
Ecuador
Honduras
Colombia
Nicaragua
Dominican R.
México
Cuba
El Salvador
Guatemala
Help Beyond Remittances
AVERAGE = 19.2%
ABOVE AVERAGE
BELOW AVERAGE
14
26.3%
12.4%
10.0%
6.7%
5.0%
4.0% 3.5% 3.3% 2.8% 2.4%
0.0%
30.0%
25.0%
20.0%
15.0%
10.0%
5.0%
0.0%
Guyana
Honduras
Brazil
Ecuador
Colombia
Nicaragua
Mexico
Dominican R.
El Salvador
Guatemala
Cuba
Support of Hometown Associations
AVERAGE = 6.7%
ABOVE AVERAGE
BELOW AVERAGE
MEASURING
TRANSNATIONALIS
M

15. MEASURING
TRANSNATIONALIS
M

16. Transnational entrepreneurship
“Keeping Feet in Both Worlds”
“…the many social connections and organizations that tie migrants
and non-migrants to one another create a border-spanning arena
that enables migrants, if they choose, to remain active in both
worlds…”
 Transnational entrepreneurs have played an important role in facilitating
international trade, investment, and “diaspora tourism;”
 There is a remarkable
disparity between the
dynamism of transnational
enterprises and
governmental
misunderstanding or
ignorance of the
phenomenon;

17.  Transnational entrepreneurs are a heterogeneous group coming from many
countries, crossing ethnic, immigrant, and minority boundaries, and possessing
different motivations and experiences:
 The current market capitalization of publicly traded immigrant-founded venture-backed
companies in the United States exceeds $500 billion, adding significant
value to the American economy.
 About 50% of Indian and Chinese entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley “have set up
subsidiaries, joint ventures, subcontracting, or other operations in their native
countries” (Saxenian, Mtoyama, & Quan, 2002:37);
 For instance, 39% of the 289 companies located at the Hsinchu science-based
industrial park near Taipei were started by U.S.-educated Taiwanese engineers with
professional experience in Silicon Valley. Seventy of the firms maintain offices in
Silicon Valley to obtain workers, technology, capital, and business opportunities;
 Likewise, India’s technology-oriented diaspora stand behind much of the FDI in the
country’s emerging technology hubs of Bangalore and Hyderabad;
 About 60% of Hispanic immigrant entrepreneurs in the U.S. are transnational
(Portes, Haller, & Guarnizo, 2002);
 Migrant-founded venture-backed public companies today employ an estimated
220,000 people in the United States and over 400,000 people globally.

18.  Preliminary research suggests 4 distinct types of immigrant transnational
enterprises (Landolt et. al. 1999):
 Circuit firms - involved in the transfer of goods and remittances across
countries ranging from an array of informal international couriers to large
formal firms;
 Cultural enterprises - rely on their daily contacts with the home country and
depend on the desire of immigrants to acquire and consume cultural goods
from their country such as shows, CDs, newspapers, videos, etc.;
 Ethnic Enterprises - are small retail firms catering to the immigrant
community which depend on a steady supply of imported goods, such as
foodstuffs and clothing from the home country;
 Return migrant enterprises - are firms established by returnees that rely on
their contacts in the United States. They include restaurants, video stores,
auto sales and repairs, office supplies, etc.;

19. Transnational entrepreneurs do better economically than their waged co-ethnics
and pure local immigrant entrepreneurs (Portes and Zhou 1999; Logan, Alba, and
McNulty 1994; Wilson and Martin 1982):
Activities Linking Immigrants to Their Home Countries by Type of Economic Adaptation
Activity
Employee/
Wage Worker
%
Ethnic
Entrepreneur
%
Transnational
Entrepreneur
%
Imports Goods from Abroad 8.2 9.9 31.9
Exports Goods 6.5 8.9 18.1
Invests in Business in Home Country 5.9 11.7 26.4
Invests in Real Estate in Home Country 20.7 28.2 41.9
Has Been an International Courier 10.1 8.3 23.6
Hires at Least One Employee in Home Country 0 30.8 42.2
Frequency of Business Travel Abroad:
At least twice per year 7.1 17.3 28.4
Six times or more per year 0.9 6.1 14.6
Source: CIEP, 1998
Ethnic
Entrepreneur (% )
Transnational
Entrepreneur (% )
Source: The Comparative Immigrant Entrepreneurship Project (CIEP); Center for Migration and Development (CMD); Princeton University.

20. Some Implications of
Transnational
Entrepreneurship:
 Transnational entrepreneurship is a promising form of integration;
Transnational integration and transnational entrepreneurship are highly
relevant to modern workings of global and gateway cities;
Transnational integration and transnational entrepreneurship provide
opportunities for business, social entrepreneurs, and governments;
Finally, the model presented can be generalized to include ethnic and
non-ethnic forms of social settlement and connections spanning multiple
borders.

21. New Possibilities – Transnational Platform(s)
Transnational
platform
Transnational
platform

22. First Generation Innovation Portfolio
 Digaai.com
 Transnational Index
 Diaspora Capital Services
 Educational Delivery & Partnership Models
 Health Care Management & Insurance Provision
 Social Security
 Political Representation

23. it
Brazil
United States
Japan
Portugal
Angola
Spain
Paraguay
Brazilian Transnational
Community
Digaai Transnational
Platform
SEARCH AGGREGATE ARCHIVE CURATE
capture social
practices
capture economic
activity
(PHASE I)
capture everyday life practices
PHASE II
DATAVERSE
…
SLIDESHARE
…

24. Transnational Platform Model
SEARCH AGGREGATE ARCHIVE CURATE
capture social
practices
it
Brazilian Transnational Community
(PHASE I)
capture economic
activity
capture everyday life practices
(PHASE II)
MASHUPS JOURNALING TAGGCLOUDS …
General Model
WIKI
…
DATAHUB
…
DATAVERSE
…
SLIDESHARE
…

25. Conectando brasileiros mundo
afora
www.digaai.com

27. http://exaptive.com/
Data
visualization of
Brazilian
Immigrant
newspapers