From Caring Transnational Families to Caring Communities and Nations: Developing the Concept of Transnational Civic Inclusion

The paper examines how the well-established field of transnational family studies can serve as a model (Greschke and Ott 2020) for exploring broader societal care networks that extend beyond the family and encompass communities at various scales (e.g., town, province, region, nation, continent). It asks what caregiving roles communities or nations play at the grassroots level and how transnational (digital) social inclusion can help ease the tensions caused by 'immobilizing regimes of migration' (Merla, Kilkey & Baldassar 2020).

This study draws on six months of ethnographic fieldwork and 45 in-depth interviews with Estonian migrants from two migration waves and three generations, exploring their identity and purpose-finding journeys toward Estonia, which increasingly take place in digital realms. Estonia, known for its strong online presence, ranks among the top three most advanced digital societies globally (United Nations 2020). As an e-state with a notable diaspora policy, Estonia provides its mobile citizens with extensive e-services, offering numerous opportunities to maintain connections with their homeland (European Commission Internal Market 2013; Kumer-Haukanõmm, Telve 2017). The war in Ukraine, in particular, has galvanized Estonian communities worldwide, inspiring them to find creative ways to stay engaged from afar. Estonia has also emerged as a leading international advocate for Ukraine, and the empirical data reveals how international political discussions resonate at the grassroots level, uncovering a layer of everyday activism."

The key findings from the field contribute to the emerging field of transnational civic studies and help develop the concept of transnational (digital) civic engagement. This term can describe acts of societal care and explore how individuals participate in activities that transcend national borders to support or engage with their country of origin and previous local communities or maintain deeper connections with their homeland.