Review article
REFUGEE STUDIES AND MIGRANT TRANSNATIONALISM: FROM IGNORING TO NEW OPPORTUNITIES
Simona Kuti
orcid.org/0000-0003-0061-0856
; Institut za migracije i narodnosti u Zagrebu
Abstract
Although fields of refugee studies and migrant transnationalism are in the expansion phase and of significant interest to researchers, in a variety of papers on migrant transnationalism or on different aspects of exile there is almost no research on transnationalties and activities of refugees. The few existing studies indicate both prevalence and relevance of various transnational activities among refugees and refute the implicit assumption that refugees can not be transnational actors. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to review the existing research, which, although rare, indicates the potential analytical and conceptual advantages of combining two research fields. The first part of the paper is a brief overview of refugee studies, including examples of categorizations and typologies of refugees or forced migrants, and criticism of this research field. The second part discusses the transnational perspective in migration studies, i.e. the development, different meanings and approaches to migrant transnationalism. The third section is an overview of the existing research of transnational activities of refugees with a focus on two contextually diverse examples of research. The final part identifies the potential benefits and dangers of combining two research fields, including contributions of researching refugee groups to the studies of migrant transnationalism, and potential contributions of researching refugees from a transnational perspective to refugee studies.
Keywords
refugee studies; transnationalism; refugees; migration studies; transnational activities
Hrčak ID:
135740
URI
Publication date:
15.12.2014.
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