Living across borders: The everyday experiences of Moroccan and Brazilian transmigrants in Belgium

Based on research amongst Brazilian and Moroccan temporary residents of the cities
of Brussels and Antwerp (Belgium), this article engages with the changes in and
current methodological approaches to migration studies. By demonstrating how
the trajectories of many contemporary migrants are marked by ongoing mobility, it
further complicates previous linear and unidirectional models of migration to move
beyond a classical and potentially deterministic model of studying migrant trajectories. The authors illustrate how many contemporary migrants come and go, not
always being sure how long they will stay in the different stopovers on their trajectories, when they will stop migrating or where they will eventually settle. Because
of the temporality of their residence, many of these so-called ‘transmigrants’ are
not only faced with the same problems and challenges as other migrants, arriving
newly in another country and rebuilding social networks, but are additionally
confronted with a number of risks that are related to their mobile lifestyle. Although
globalization and the porosity of nation state borders facilitate transmigration, they
result in juridical and practical complexities, reflected in transmigrants’ everyday
struggles. The authors explore these struggles and the difficulties and opportunities
transmigrants encounter when they turn to their (transnational) networks to ask for support. Transmigrants’ social life is not only oriented towards their country
of residence, but consists of complex networks beyond boundaries. Through visits,
telephone calls and the use of social media, many transmigrants create, sustain and
(re)discover transnational as well as local social networks. While many address
their transnational networks to partly alleviate their needs, the development of local
networks still appears as indispensable.

Publication year:2015

Keywords:transmigration, transnationalism, social networks