MIGRATION, (IM)MOBILITY, TRANSNATIONALISM: SOCIAL CAPITAL AND IDENTITIES IN THE CONNECTIONS BETWEEN THE GLOBAL SOUTH AND NORTH
In a global context marked by systemic crises and identity transformations, the diasporas of the Global South constitute fertile ground for reflecting on multiple belongings, individual and collective memories, and narratives of origin. This panel proposes to analyze how diasporic communities, both historical and contemporary, rework their ties between past and present, origin and destination, tradition and cultural and symbolic reinvention, with special attention to the connections between the Global South and the Global North.
From a theoretical standpoint, the panel is grounded in diaspora studies, which conceive of diaspora not as loss but as a productive space for new cultural identities. We link this perspective to the concept of “social capital,” examining how networks of trust and reciprocity are mobilized to sustain transnational communities. In addition, the panel engages with theories of transnationalism, which highlight how migrants and their descendants build social fields that cross national borders.
Taking an interdisciplinary approach, we aim to bring together studies exploring:
Digital communities and transnational identities: the role of communication technologies in recreating belongings, collective narratives, and senses of belonging.
Social capital and community organization in the diaspora: support networks, social ties, and collective strategies that influence migratory trajectories, adaptation, and transnational circulation.
Return migration and the reconfiguration of belonging: understood as a social category capable of reconfiguring belongings, family projects, and life horizons, not merely as a statistical counter-flow.
In this way, the panel seeks to foster multidisciplinary dialogue among different fields of knowledge, contributing to debates on human mobility, diasporas, and plural identities, as well as on colonial legacies, structural inequalities, and transnational trajectories. By bringing into dialogue the experiences of diaspora, transnationalism, and (im)mobilities, the panel emphasizes the relevance of historical and current interactions for understanding sociocultural plurality.
