Embodied transnationalism : bodies in transnational spaces

Transnationalism has become a popular concept within migration studies and human geography. A series of concerns have been raised about the early use of the term, mostly prompted by an exaggerated characterisation of mobility. Adopting an embodied approach to the study of transnationalism is a powerful corrective to the dangers of exaggerating mobility and footloosedness. When the scale of analysis is upon migrants rather than migration flows, and upon transnationals rather than upon transnationalism, a much more complicated and realistic picture emerges. Transnationals are simultaneously mobile and emplaced. And the extent of choice and compulsion (of both mobility and sedentariness) is uneven across racialised axes, birthplace, gender, and disability. At the embodied scale the affective and emotional geographies of transnationalism are more palpable. Importantly, an embodied analysis of transnationalism reveals the ever-present valency of place.