Introduction

Transnational Identities 305
country (Levitt and Glick Schiller 194-95), which would accordingly influence the
way they act in these respective social locations. Such cases also indicate that
transnational behaviour is not only a phenomenon of elites as postcolonial theorists
claim, who can easily switch between countries since they certainly would not
experience differences in social location as drastic.
In addition, as one’s social location is also influenced by the identification and
categorization by others, transmigrants might experience rejection, for example in
the form of racism, by not being identified as part of one of the nations or cultures
which make up their social space (Glick Schiller, Basch and Blanc-Szanton,
“Transnationalism” 18) which would lead to feelings of displacement. Transnational
lives can nevertheless also be empowering, especially for those whose countries
occupy less privileged positions in the world. They can increase their influence
in the home country as their social location can change for the better
through migration because it can offer them possibilities to both improve the
standing of themselves and their home country economically (Levitt and Glick
Schiller 192). It furthermore enables them to advance changes for their benefit in
both sending and receiving states (Levitt and Glick Schiller 193).
Furthermore, non-migrants’ social location and self-understanding can also be
influenced if they are involved in transnational social space. As the examples from
the previous chapter have shown such involvement can be quite significant in its
influence on the sending country’s economy, for example because of money transfers.
Additionally, the contact between those who stayed behind and temporarily –
or permanently – returning migrants leads to the formers’ acquaintance with a
transnational lifestyle which can have “a powerful impact even on the transnational
orientations of those who have never left” (Vertovec, “Migrant Transnationalism”
155). Similarly to Appadurai, Levitt furthermore points out that
through the media Western culture has already so much influence on non-Western
countries that today’s migrants “arrive already partially socialized” to the new
country’s culture (25).
Transnational migration can even lead to changes in the political structure of
both sending and receiving countries. Levitt and Glick Schiller point out the example
of governmental structures:
Migrants bring ideas about governance with them that transform hostcountry
politics, they reformulate their ideas and practices in response to
their experiences with host states, and they communicate these social remittances
back to those in their homelands or members of their networks settled
in other states. (205)
Such behaviour inevitably influences the social and political structure of both
states, which would in turn force non-migrants in the receiving countries to adapt
to the changes. In addition, Levitt and Glick Schiller give examples of how transnational
migrants influence their host countries to interfere with the domestic