Transnational migrations in latin american contexts: Experiences, practices and (dis)continuities in the creation of possible futures

Abstract

This article is intended to understand the experiences and creative, individual and collective strategies of transnational migrants during their displacement and settlement into places of residence. It analyzes the practices that re-create and configure in the twenty-first century forms of inserting and rooting themselves in the receiving countries, through transformations and continuities that lead to the configuration of possible futures. We focus on how migrants re-constitute themselves as subjects based on a series of ways of being and belonging in more than one nation-state, and how they navi-gate towards horizons of security, well-being, and recognition by exploring strategies that link nodes, flows, structures, and processes over long distances that imply immediacy, simultaneity, and participation in different interacting circuits. Four dimensions of analysis are considered: a) dynamics of organization and collective action, b) visibility of cultural practices in the formation of communities, c) construction of creative resources, and d) individual strategies for possible futures. Accordingly, a series of ethnographic findings are presented in which subjectivities are made visible as daily experiences projected by migrants in transnational scenarios. Finally, it is important to highlight the multi-sited approach as a methodological strategy in analyzing and interpreting migratory phenomena over long geographic distances.