The experiences and decisions of migrants frequently confound scholarly expectations. In particular, the transnational linkages maintained by migrants transcend the social scales at which they are often assumed to live, and the spaces in which their integration or assimilation is usually studied—the neighbourhood, the urban labour market, the national society. Studies of transnationalism have shown that immigrants maintain multistranded connections to their places of origin and that these continue to influence the lifeworlds both of migrants and of those they leave behind significantly. In this paper we suggest that these multistranded connections—incorporating social, cultural, and economic ties—can be usefully considered using Pierre Bourdieu's notion of the habitus as a heuristic framework for integrating the various dimensions of transmigrants' lives. Drawing on interviews in Canada and the Philippines, we demonstrate the ways in which economic, social, and cultural capital are accumulated, exchanged, converted, valued, and devalued in a transnational habitus.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
BaschLSchillerGlick NBlancSzanton C, 1994Nations Unbound: Transnational Projects, Postcolonial Predicaments, and Deterritorialized Nation-states (Gordon and Breach, Amsterdam)
2.
BauderH, 2003, “‘Brain abuse’, or the devaluation of immigrant labour in Canada”Antipode35699–717
3.
BauderH, 2004a, “Habitus, rules of the labour market and employment strategies of immigrants in Vancouver, Canada”Social and Cultural Geography681–97
4.
BauderH, 2004b, “Pierre Bourdieu and the regulation of immigrant labour”, presented at the Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers, Philadelphia; copy available from the author, Department of Geography, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario
5.
BourdieuP, 1977Outline of a Theory of Practice (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge)
6.
BourdieuP, 1984Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste (Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA)
7.
BourdieuP, 1986, “The forms of capital”, in Handbook of Theory and Research in the Sociology of Education Ed. RichardsonJ (Greenwood Press, Westport, CT) pp 241–258
8.
BourdieuP, 1990The Logic of Practice (Stanford University Press, Stanford, CA)
9.
BourdieuP, 2002, “Habitus”, in Habitus: A Sense of Place Eds HillierJRooksbyE (Ashgate, Aldershot, Hants) pp 27–36
10.
CresswellT, 2002, “Guest editorial: Bourdieu's geographies: In memoriam”Environment and Planning D: Society and Space20379–382
11.
EspirituYL, 2003Home Bound: Filipino American Lives Across Cultures, Communities, and Countries (University of California Press, Berkeley, CA)
12.
FriedmannJ, 2002, “Placemaking as project? Habitus and migration in transnational cities”, in Habitus: A Sense of Place Eds HillierJRooksbyE (Ashgate, Aldershot, Hants) pp 299–316
13.
HiebertD, 1999, “Local geographies of labor market segmentation: Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver, 1991”Economic Geography75339–369
KellyPD'AddarioS, 2004, “Understanding labour market segmentation: Filipina healthcare workers in transnational Toronto”, presented at the Atlantic Metropolis Centre Conference, Halifax, Novo Scotia; copy available from the authors
17.
LandoltP, 2001, “Salvadoran economic transnationalism: Embedded strategies for household maintenance, immigrant incorporation, and entrepreneurial expansion”Global Networks1217–242
18.
LevittP, 2001a, “Transnational migration: Taking stock and future directions”Global Networks1195–216
19.
LevittP, 2001bThe Transnational Villagers (University of California Press, Berkeley, CA)
20.
McHughK, 2000, “Inside, outside, upside down, backward, forward, round and round: A case for ethnographic studies in migration”Progress in Human Geography2471–89
21.
McKayD, 2001, “Migration and masquerade: Gender and habitus in the Philippines”Geography Research Forum2144–56
22.
MahlerS, 1998, “Theoretical and empirical contributions toward a research agenda for transnationalism, in Transnationalism from Below Eds SmithMPGuarnizoL (Transaction Books, New Brunswick, NJ) pp 64–100
23.
MarshallJFosterN, 2002, “Between belonging: Habitus and the migration experience”Canadian Geographer4663–83
24.
MitchellD, 19997 “Transnational discourse: Bringing geography back in”Antipode29101–114
25.
MountzAWrightR, 1996, “Daily life in the transnational migrant community of San Agustin, Oaxaca and Poughkeepsie, New York”Diaspora5403–428
26.
NeeVSandersJ, 2001, “Understanding the diversity of immigrant incorporation: A forms-of-capital model”Ethnic and Racial Studies24386–411
27.
PainterJ, 2000, “Pierre Bourdieu”, in Thinking Space Eds CrangM, ThriftN (Routledge, London) pp 239–259
28.
PortesA, 2001, “Introduction: The debates and significance of immigrant transnationalism”Global Networks1(3) 181–193
29.
PortesAGuarnizoLLandoltP, 1999, “The study of transnationalism: Pitfalls and promise of an emergent research field”Ethnic and Racial Studies22218–237
30.
PrattG, 1999, “From registered nurse to registered nanny: Discursive geographies of Filipina domestic workers in Vancouver, BC”Economic Geography75215–236
31.
ReayD, 2004, “‘It's all becoming a habitus’: Beyond the habitual use of habitus in educational research”British Journal of Sociology of Education25431–444
