Transnationalism. Theory and experience

Résumé En

The flourishing literature in social sciences with regard to the settlement and organization of the postcolonial immigrants emphasize their involvement in structuring transnational networks based on economic interests, cultural exchanges and political mobilizations beyond national borders. Various networks linking the country of origin to the country of residence and promoting participation in both spaces challenge the single allegiance required by membership to a political community. It generates multiple memberships and loyalties leading to confusion between rights and identity, culture and politics, states and nations, in short questioning the very concept of citizenship in a single political community territorially bounded. Such an evolution places territory at the core of the analysis of citizenship and nationhood, for communities as well as states. Cultural, ethnic and religious communities recognized as such by states of settlement and that increasingly draw support from transnational solidarities are guided mainly by a de-territorialized and ‘imagined geography’. What becomes the relationship between territory and the nation-state; citizenship and identity; states and nations? An important question pertains to whether transnationalism will engender a distinct sense of nationhood – that is not territorial.