Ambivalent Transnationalism. Understanding the Long Distance Engagements of Hometown Organisations

Collective remittances undertaken by hometown organisations for the benefit of their origin area is a well-known illustration of migrant transnationalism. This paper unravels the rationale for these hometowners to engage (or dis-engage) into long distance development practices. The latest evolutions of transnational theory focuses on the spatial extensions of transnationalism embedded into neo-liberal globalization but fails to address the micro level drivers of transnational engagement. It is contended that a revised conception of structure and agency approach to transnational phenomena is likely to shed a new light on actors’ transnational engagements and on the role of transnational social institutions such as hometown organisations. This S/A approach presented in this paper draws on ambivalence theory as well as Habermas communicative action theory. The paper also argues that such an approach would open the possibility to open a cross fertilizing dialogue between transnational theory, migration theory and general social theory.

The different steps of the demonstration will be illustrated by personal research on hometown organisations in France and the UK. Arguably, integration adds layers migrants’ identity. Their identification with the place of settlement and their new associated obligations undermine their “raison d’être” as a villager. The life experience and socialisation of migrants in alternative social fields enriches their lifeworld with new references and fosters ambivalent perceptions of the world. But, in term, this multi-polarisation questions people sense of belonging. In this context, the latter needs to be constantly re-asserted, re-invented. The surge of engagement into long distance development initiatives observed among hometown organisations is the result of this necessity to reassert “villageness”.