Cross-Border Migrant Organizations - Rethinking National Integration Policy

All over Europe, migrants organise themselves in cultural, political, economic and social organisations. These migrant organisations (MOs) play an important role in incorporating migrants into their societies of arrival. The long-established argument in political sociology was that cultural, ethnic and religious differences between natives and migrants, exclusion from the civil society of the country of arrival and the quality of the migration process (the amount of chain migration) are significant for the formation of ethnically homogenous organisations, which were described as the “classic” cross-border actors. The absence of active integration policy and the lack of political opportunities were also seen as influential in the orientation of migrants and their organisations towards their countries of origin. Additionally, the cross-border connections of MOs were interpreted as depending on the relevant country of origin’s level of support for their citizens abroad. <br><br> Transnational analysis raises questions about the relation between national policy and the emergence of cross-border organisations. According to the transnational approach, the development of cross-border (transnational) MOs cannot be explained by analytical factors that focus exclusively on nation-states. In the last two decades, new social, cultural, economic and political migratory realities have emerged that span across countries of arrival and origin. What is evidently required is a transnational analysis that can grasp these current developments in international migration and which can identify the linkages of MOs to their countries of origin. The empirical and theoretical knowledge of the cross-border character of MOs’ and the embeddedness of these organisations in national and cross-border contexts, however, is fragmented and incomplete. <br><br> Accordingly, the workshop aims to bring clarity to the concept of transnationalism and discuss migrants’ incorporation into their countries of arrival in the light of transnational migrant activities and cross-border migrant organisations. The discussions will be fruitful for the participating scholars and their research projects, national and European political institutions and cross-border civil society organisations.