MIGRANT TRANSNATIONAL POLITICAL ENGAGEMENT

Abstract

Migrant transnational political engagement is a longstanding phenomenon linking polities and policies in different locations. This chapter focuses on three ongoing epistemological and methodological challenges related to how we frame and seek to understand migrant transnational political engagement. First, what is transnational about migrant political engagement, and what forms of engagement are prevalent? This section includes how to map a field of migrant transnational engagement, which covers both transnational collective engagements and electoral mobilisation in homeland elections. Second, what are the main drivers of migrant transnational engagement? One of the recent developments is the sending country emigrant engagement strategies at the party-level and analysis drawing on political opportunity structures, encompassing both the local/urban and global context for transnational migrant politics. Third, what is the relationship between migrant transnational political engagement and political change in the country of origin? This last section covers the more recent focus on the role of social and political remittances in processes of democratic diffusion and democratisation in countries of origin.