Shame, territory, and social identity: An approach to voluntary transnational migration from the perspective of social psychology

Abstract

The article proposes a framework of understanding based on social psychology for an empirical research project aimed at analyzing the life experience entailed by transnational migration for a group of Colombians. It focuses on presenting the theoretical framework of understanding of the ongoing project, by integrating three aspects that have been little explored in studies on the causes of contemporary human migrations: shame as factor motivating transnational migrations, the social identity adopted by subjects with respect to their society of origin, and territories. Thus, the text contributes to the growing literature on the intersections between migration and emotion, with a theory of shame in the context of migration, as an analytical category that helps understand migrants' motivations to leave their countries of origin. The article draws on various developments in social psychology that show how spaces help define a subject's belonging to a social group. Therefore, migration behaviors could be marked by the subjective emotional appreciation of both the space and the collective linked to that space. This framework of understanding for voluntary transnational migration, which places at the center of migration issues the effort of subjects to dignify themselves before others, makes it possible to state that the concept of social identity related to spaces can help explain the preferences of many transnational migrants for certain territories. Finally, although no studies were found in the bibliographic review that validated our position entirely, said review does evince the weaknesses of the explanatory model of the push-pull theory to account for the migration phenomenon in its diverse forms. Thus, it is necessary to develop new perspectives to understand the psychosocial mechanisms (ideals, cultural values, belonging to a group, etc.) underlying that phenomenon.