Migrating and Settling in a Mobile World: Albanian Migrants and Their Children in Europe

Front matter

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Migrating and Settling in a Mobile World

Preface

Comparative research on migration is a growing trend in academia. Yet very few studies that compare migrants and their descendants across different sites exist. Study of the integration of the children of migrants—the so-called ‘second-generation’—is itself a recent trend in social science research and migration literature. Their integration is thought to be an important indicator of the degree of integration of immigrants into a specific society. This book offers an in-depth, qualitative analysis of the integration of Albanian migrants and their descendants in Europe. It is also the first full-length comparative study of the Albanian ‘second-generation’. Using a variety of field methods, it compares the ethnic identities, transnational ties and integration pathways of Albanian migrants and Albanian-origin teenagers in three European cities—London, Thessaloniki and Florence—by focusing on intergenerational transmission between the first and the second generation. Greece, Italy and the UK are, in that order, the three main European countries where Albanian migrants have settled during their short but intense migration experience of the past two decades. This book shifts the focus partly to the situation and developments in Southern Europe, where awareness of and interest in issues of integration of the second-generation are still at an early phase. By studying a settling immigrant group and their descendants, this book takes a proactive approach towards the integration of ethnic minorities.

The research involved field work in each of the above-named cities, where quota samples of three categories of informants were drawn for interview: parents, their second-generation teenage children, and teachers and other key informants within the ‘host’ society. Findings show significant differences in integration patterns between the generations, affected by sharp differences between the three contexts and the history of immigration in each context. They also point to important within-group and inter-group differences, based on various socio-economic indicators. Intergenerational transmission appears to be a dynamic process affected not only by context and parents’ socio-economic background, but also by parents’ stage of integration. The two generations prioritize and harness different forms of capital. Nevertheless, capital utilized by parents impacts on the second-generation’s integration because it enables the latter to further harness social and cultural capital; the opposite—lack of such capital—obstructs teenagers’ integration strategies. Mobility and vii viii Preface cosmopolitanism are forms but also ‘outcomes’ of capital, existing and harnessed, which, in the case of the descendants of migrants, displays significant interrelations with power and agency. These interrelations and dynamics are contingent on time and space.

All research touches the lives of many people. Since this research was an international multi-sited project, the number of people and institutions involved was quite large. The author wishes to express her deep gratitude to all the participants. She would also like to thank Prof. Russell King and Dr. Anastasia Christou at the University of Sussex, and Prof. Janine Dahinden and the late Prof. Michael Bommes as part of the IMISCOE network, for their advice and support. This research would have been impossible without the sponsorship and assistance of many institutions. I extend my thanks to the sponsors of this research: Marie Curie Actions of the European Commission and the Sussex Centre for Migration Research. Other organizations, in no particular order, have been of great help: in London the Albanian organizations, especially ‘Ardhméria’ and Globalb; in Thessaloniki, the Albanian organizations, especially ‘Mother Tereza’ and the ‘Organization of Albanians of Thessaloniki’, the South-East European Research Centre (SEERC) and the Antiracist Initiative of Thessaloniki; in Florence, the Department of Educational Sciences at the University of Florence, Prof. Giovanna Campani and, moreover, the various teachers in Italian schools who were crucial to the realization of the field work.

Finally, but most importantly, the author acknowledges the great inspiration and support received from her family. This book is entirely and wholeheartedly dedicated to them.

Contents

2 Identities of the First and Second Generation: The Role of

5 Intergenerational Transmission of Ethnic Identity,

Integration and Transnational Ties 000.00... eee eect cee eeeeees

Chapter 1 Introduction

This book focuses on the migration and settlement of Albanians and their children in different European cities. It analyses these processes by taking into account intergenerational transmission and views mobility as an inherent characteristic of contemporary lives, even where low-skilled and de-skilled migrants and their descendants are concerned. Building on central concepts in the social sciences and migration studies, such as identity, integration, transnationalism and intergenerational transmission, the book links these notions with the newer, developing theoretical and conceptual frameworks of mobility, translocality and cosmopolitanism. Identification, integration, transnational ties and intergenerational transmission are analysed in relation to institutional aspects of social systems as major factors affecting social relations (Giddens 1991). They are also seen in relation to time and space, in an effort to address a certain spatial and temporal essentialism that has typically characterized migration studies.

Using a variety of field methods, the book compares the ethnic identities, integration pathways and transnational ties of Albanian migrants and Albanian-origin teenagers in three European cities: London, Thessaloniki and Florence.! Greece, Italy and the UK are the three main European countries where Albanian migrants have settled during their short but intense migration experience of the past two decades, since Albania opened itself to the outside world after more than four decades of isolation under a communist regime. The research on which this book is based involved a 3-4-month period of field work in each of the above-named cities,

' Research for this book builds on the above-mentioned observations and was furthermore tailored as part of an international comparative research initiative, The Integration of the European Second Generation (TIES), which shapes its overall approach (www.tiesproject.eu). The TIES programme tackled the broad issues of integration and focused specifically on the second generation, taking a European comparative approach. It specified a comparative dimension for all the projects under its framework, to be implemented either by including two or more countries and comparing one ethnic group across countries, or by investigating the differences between two or more migrant groups in one country. The TIES project was financed by the Marie Curie Programme of the European Commission. It was composed of a European survey—the TIES survey—that investigated the processes of integration of Moroccan, Turkish and (ex-) Yugoslavian second-generation adults in 15 cities in eight countries, and a research training network (TIES-RTN).

© The Author(s) 2015 1 Z. Vathi, Migrating and Settling in a Mobile World, (MISCOE Research Series, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-13024-8 1 where participant observation took place and interviews were conducted with quota samples of three categories of informants: parents, their second-generation teenage children, and teachers and other key informants within the ‘host’ society.” Using a strong qualitative and ‘grounded’ approach, the research aimed to construct a broad account of the Albanian first- and second-generation experience,’ taking a transnational optic and based on inter-country comparisons. Its perspective includes the transmission of identity across generations and the multiple interactions of immigrants and their descendants within different societies across Europe and in the ‘home’ country.

One aspect that distinguishes this research from other studies on the second generation in Europe is that, whereas other research has focused on the second generation at an adult age, this book involves a ‘new’ second generation, or a second generation ‘in-the-making’. This is inevitable in view of the history and chronology of the Albanian migration in Europe, which dates only from the 1990s.* There are two main implications of this for the project’s approach. Firstly, it gives us a ‘privileged’ position for investigating processes of integration among a newly settled immigrant group and their descendants and for comparing and contrasting different national, city and local contexts where these processes were taking place. Secondly, this study draws attention to a group potentially ‘at risk’ of downward assimilation, based on the positioning of the first generation of Albanian migrants, especially their concentration in disadvantaged employment and housing and their strong stigmatization and discrimination (Bonifazi and Sabatino 2003; Hatziprokopiou 2006b; Markova and Black 2007). In light of US-derived theories that emphasize role of the mode of incorporation of the first generation on the integration of the second generation (Portes and Rumbaut 2001; Portes and Zhou 1993), a disadvantaged starting point might result in entrenched downward mobility for the Albanian second generation.

The second generation in the USA and Europe came to the attention of researchers and policymakers only when it ‘came of age’ (Crul and Vermeulen 2006). The literature from North America and Europe points to clear examples of failure to address issues of discrimination and exclusion, which led to the marginalization of large second-generation groups. Therefore, another major objective of this project is to provide evidence and inform policymaking on the integration of second-generation teenagers, thus taking a proactive approach towards the integration of ethnic minorities. In this respect, the study follows the strong emphasis of the European research on bridging gaps between research and policymaking on issues of integration. It also responds to European scholars’ concerns that, despite the growing interest in the integration of the second generation, research and policymaking in Europe

2 This project required knowledge of four languages. The author is a native speaker of Albanian, has fluent English, good knowledge of Italian and reasonable knowledge of Greek.

3 The term ‘second-generation’, while not unproblematic (see Sect. 1.2 for some discussion), is used throughout the book for practical reasons.

4 The book refers to migration from the country of Albania. There is a longer history of labour migration dating back to the early 1960s of ethnic Albanians from the former Yugoslav republics and regions of Kosovo, Macedonia and Montenegro when they were part of the large-scale Yugoslav migration of the 1960s and 1970s.

have lagged behind in time and scope. For example, Crul and Vermeulen (2006) and Simon (2003) observe that in many European countries the lack of recognition of the second generation as a legacy of immigration led to a general apathy among scholars and policymakers.

In addition to responding to these policy concerns, this book shifts the focus to Southern Europe, where awareness of and interest in issues of second-generation integration are still at an early stage. Informed policymaking is particularly important in this context as the lack of coherent immigration and integration policies and the negative impact thereof on the second generation’s integration strategies have already been documented (Gogonas 2010; King and Mai 2009). It also needs to be pointed out that the first wave of comparative research on the second generation was carried out in the main immigration countries of continental North-Western Europe (especially in France, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium and Switzerland); Greece, Italy and the UK were not part of past cross-national comparative research on the second generation in Europe (Crul and Vermeulen 2003).

Comparative research is a growing trend in migration studies. Yet, very few studies take a cross-generational approach and simultaneously compare migrants and their descendants across different sites. A core argument for inclusion of the first and second generation in the current research is the characteristics of migration in this particular case: Albanian migrants and their descendants are settling at the same time. Inclusion of both generations seeks to elaborate on a general observation in the literature that ‘the mode of incorporation of the first generation endows the second generation with differing amounts of cultural and social capital in the form of job networks and values, and exposes them to differing opportunities, thus exerting differential pulls on their allegiances’ (Levitt and Waters 2002, p. 15). Additionally, this design enables research on intergenerational transmission, which is currently an understudied topic. The focus on first-generation migrants and their descendants in this book is also related to recent developments in theorizing on migration. Portes (2010, p. 1557) maintains that a medium timeframe encompassing two or three generations is the best approach to studying migration; short-term approaches miss the durable effects of migration upon migrants and their descendants, whereas a long-term historical lens misses those effects already absorbed into the culture of the respective societies.

Studying the first generation’s aspirations for their children, and the impact of the first generation’s migration experiences on the second generation’s identity formation, therefore constitutes an important strand of this book. Few studies have integrated parents in their investigation. When this has been done, the information on parents has been considered as subsidiary to the data drawn from the second generation (see, e.g., Waters 1994). Only a handful of studies in the field of migration and integration of the second generation have recognized the role of the family as a source of social and human capital (e.g., Aparicio 2007; Dwyer et al. 2006; Marques et al. 2007). Portes and Rumbaut (2001) and Rumbaut (1994) took a quantitative approach to investigate the second generation’s prospects of integration and the impact of parents’ status and child-parent relationships on the second generation’s adaptation. Crul (1999) investigated the role of parents’ socio-economic characteristics, their education in relation to their knowledge of the educational system of the host country, and their rural or urban background in relation to the process of acculturation—all this through interviews conducted with the second-generation youth. In contrast to these previous studies, the study presented in this book incorporates the experiences of the first and second generations and includes intergenerational transmission as an integral part of the research design, given that parents and their experiences have a direct and active role in shaping the second generation’s perceptions and integration expectations.

From a theoretical and conceptual perspective, the author has observed developments in various disciplines and linked these developments to the study of migration and the second generation. The inclusion of both the first and the second generation in the research design necessitated a linking of migration studies with key sociological and geographical concepts, such as space and place, mobility and cosmopolitanism, time and generation. In turn, interpretation of the findings required a shift between deduction and induction, and involvement of sociological constructs such as capital, agency and power. Such an approach elicited important conclusions on the integration of migrants and their descendants and on the meaning and role of context, which are discussed in the following sections. Further details on this research design follow later in this introductory chapter, the purpose of which is to introduce the reader to the theoretical areas referred to in this study, to introduce the ‘new’ Albanian second generation and the field sites, to set out the research questions and methods, and to provide a brief overview of each chapter.

1.1 Contextualizing and Theorizing Cross-Generational Migration Research

1.1.1 Identity, Integration and Transnational Ties

This book’s theoretical focus on identity, integration and transnational ties aims to provide a systematic comparative analysis of these concepts and their interactions, which is otherwise missing from the existing literature. Such an approach is highly relevant to the case of Albanian migrants and their descendants in Europe. Like many recent migrations, and perhaps because of its illegal nature (King 2003), Albanian migration has not been studied in-depth in terms of identity and social and cultural integration. The focus has mainly been on the migration process itself, and on issues of regularization and integration in the labour market. This reflects a much broader trend in European scholarship on migration and ethnic relations. Drawing on public and political concerns in relation to migration, developments in this field have tended towards binary perspectives, seeing migrants’ integration in terms of a prominent public concerns (e.g., the labour market) or in terms of issues high on the political agenda (e.g., security or health) (Martiniello and Rath 2010).

Indeed, the theoretical reasons for reviewing the three main concepts of ethnic identity, integration and transnational ties are manifold. Firstly, the three concepts

1.1 Contextualizing and Theorizing Cross-Generational Migration Research 5 are complex and used in various, sometimes essentialized ways in migration research. Furthermore, most empirical research on ethnic identity, integration and transnationalism points to their interactions; however, they have seldom been analysed jointly. Classic studies of integration concentrate on ethnicity and assimilation, whereas more recent ones, starting from the mid-1990s’ emergence of the transnationalism paradigm, take for granted the role of identity, or just focus on transnational identification, assuming its automatic existence in the transnational phenomena (Wimmer and Glick Schiller 2002). Over time, studies on identity in the context of migration have expanded, looking beyond ethnicity and bringing in other social markers, such as social class and gender (Anthias and Yuval-Davis 1992). Nevertheless, studies of the second generation have typically retained a ‘hard core’ focus on ethnicity. In turn, there is little of a coherent theoretical framework on transnationalism, while culture and its impact on transnational phenomena have been under-researched (Levitt 2005).

Interest in the so-called ‘second generation’ is itself a relatively recent trend in the academic literature on migration and integration. Originating in the USA in the past two decades, a whole body of research has grown out of observations that the integration strategies of the ‘new’ second generation (coming mainly from Latin America and Asia) represent more complex phenomena than those of the ‘old’ second generation—the children of migrants of European origin (Gans 1992). In Europe, research on the second generation has followed societal and political concerns about the failure of European societies to integrate ethnic minorities, as well as comprising a purely academic interest. It is a common view among scholars of immigration that the integration of the second generation is an indicator both of the degree of integration of immigrants into a specific society and of the more general legacy of contemporary immigration (Portes 1994). Moreover, study of the second generation has given new dimensions to the integration and assimilation debate and opened up great opportunities for comparative research on integration processes, across countries and generations, and within and between ethnic groups (Thomson and Crul 2007).

By the mid-2000s, research on the integration of the second generation seemed to have reached a stage of ‘maturity’, explaining different integration patterns as the outcome of an interplay of structure, culture and personal agency. There are, however, several ‘gaps’ and inconsistencies in the literature that highlight the need for further research. These have served as tenets for the design of the current study as a cross-cultural and cross-generational qualitative investigation of identity, integration and transnational ties. Firstly, scholars both in the USA and in Europe have argued that more attention should be paid to differences in identity formation processes and integration pathways between and within ethnic groups, in contrast to the tendency observed in previous research to see immigrant communities and ethnic groups as homogeneous entities. This essentializing tendency has been a particular worry for European scholars, as such an approach fails to capture the diversity of immigrants in Europe, in terms of national and ethnic origin, educational level, social class and religious background (Crul and Vermeulen 2003). Furthermore, most studies conducted on both continents have focused on the performance of the second generation in the spheres of education and the labour market, while issues such as citizenship, identity and transnationalism have remained understudied (Thomson and Crul 2007). In addition, a strong emphasis on quantitative methods and large surveys is identifiable, even while there was a growing awareness that such a methodology cannot fully capture the integration processes of the second generation. In particular, it fails to grasp the dynamics of identification processes and transnational practices (Jones-Correra 2002). European scholars have also alleged a failure of the major theoretical frameworks developed in the USA to explain different patterns of second-generation integration across Europe (Crul and Vermeulen 2003, 2006; Thomson and Crul 2007). Due to significant differences in institutional arrangements and policy frameworks between European countries, the opportunities that different national contexts offer to the second generation have been found to vary greatly (Joppke 1999).

Research on the Albanian ‘second generation’, on the other hand, constitutes an important, original aspect of this book. This is the first full-length comparative study of the Albanian second generation. Its focus on minor descendants of migrants—here, adolescents aged 12—19 years—expands research on children in the social sciences in general, and within the migration literature in particular. Children were long excluded from the prime focus of migration research, being seen, at best, as their parents’ ‘luggage’ (Orellana et al. 2001, p. 578). Only recently have children come to be seen as active agents and, therefore, as research subjects ‘equal’ to adults (Dobson 2009; Ni Laoire et al. 2010). In many cases, research has focused mainly on children in harmful and dangerous conditions, thus excluding children who have migrated with their families, or it has viewed children only within the broad-brushed concept of family migration (Gozdziak and Ensor 2010). This book expands the literature on children and migration by referring to both children and to the family and role of the parents, as the latter are important factors affecting children. It does so with both a migration studies lens and a childhood and youth studies lens (Bushin 2009).

Taking these theoretical considerations into account research for this book is articulated around five main sets of questions, presented below, reflecting the range and complexity of the project and of the issues under study:

e What are the patterns of identification of the Albanian first and second generation? What is the role of ethnicity in identity construction?

e Do Albanian migrants and their children establish transnational ties with the ‘homeland’ and the Albanian culture? If so, what is the nature of these ties?

e What factors condition identity formation, transnational ties and pathways of integration, for example, the role of the family, the institutional framework and regularization processes?

e What are the patterns of the intergenerational transmission of ethnic identity, integration and transnational ties?

e How do ethnic identity, integration and transnational ties interact? What factors affect these interactions, and how do they ultimately impact on integration?

A grounded theory approach to data analysis uncovered complex interactions between these variables, which challenged major assumptions often employed in the

1.1 Contextualizing and Theorizing Cross-Generational Migration Research T study of migration and settlement of migrants and their descendants. The interpretations of data raised further research questions and required employment of alternative conceptual frameworks, as outlined later in this chapter, following an analysis of theory and research on the second generation.

1.1.2 Theories on the Integration of the Second Generation

The term ‘second generation’ refers to a heterogeneous group. Several authors have argued for a cautious use of the term in order to avoid methodological and conceptual problems related to it. Portes (1994) notes that the use of pan-ethnic labels fails to distinguish between native-born and foreign-born and overlooks the empirical diversity of the group. As King et al. (2006a) observe, there is a loose agreement on who is referred to as the second generation, namely native-born children of immigrants plus foreign-born children who arrived before primary school. However, further attempts to specify the group have produced terms like the ‘1.75 generation’, the ‘1.5 generation’ and the ‘1.25 generation’ (Rumbaut 1997), referring, respectively, to foreign-born children arriving before the age of 6, between ages 6 and 12 and after age 12. A more recent trend is shown in the work of several authors (e.g., Fibbi et al. 2007; Marques et al. 2007) who use the term rather symbolically or refer to the ‘children of immigrants’. This book uses two parameters in defining generation. Apart from the classic one used by the second-generation literature, this book refers to the definition of Kertzer (1983, p. 128) who views generation as ‘a relational concept bound to the realm of kinship and descent’. Furthermore, it incorporates the meaning of generation put forward by Eckstein (2002), who maintains that generations are defined by the different social conditions they experience in their pre- and post-migration times.

Original theoretical models explaining the second generation’s identification and integration processes have taken a strong ethnic stance. The straight-line assimilation theory assumes that the more time spent in the host country, the more likely it is that the second generation will identify ethnically with the dominant group there (Waters 1990). Similarly, the ‘second generation decline’ framework developed by Gans in 1992 is based on the assumption that, facing discrimination, the second generation will turn to the ethnicity of origin and establish subcultures opposing the mainstream in reaction to low expectations of educational and job market performance. Ethnicity provides another central framework in some key concepts of the identification patterns of the descendants of migrants, such as ‘optional’ (Waters 1990), ‘symbolic’ (Gans 1994) and ‘situational’ (Le Espiritu 1992) ethnicity. It should be noted that these approaches take an assimilationist perspective, and the empirical evidence they refer to speaks about the third and fourth generations of immigrants in the USA or cases in which ‘quantitative transformations of ethnic consciousness’ have happened over decades (Le Espiritu 1992, p. 2). There is an increasing recognition in the literature of within-group differences in terms of ethnic identification and a move towards a more complex and nuanced approach (Kasinitz et al. 2004; Song 1997).

Therefore, scholars have expanded their focus when theorizing on the determinants and outcomes of the integration process of the second generation. ‘Classical assimilation’ theory, a model formulated in the US context of the ‘old immigration’ from Europe, seemed too simplistic for the new conditions many of the post-1965 immigrants and their descendants faced (Zhou 1997a). The theoretical argumentation of straight-line assimilation has been strongly opposed by some, based both on historical grounds and on cross-national comparisons (Waldinger and Perlmann 1998). Meanwhile, the observation of Gans (1992, p. 175) that ‘the line of the theory has not always been straight and bumpy-line theory might be a more apt term’, was empirically supported by Portes and Zhou (1993). They also referenced ethnicity, but noted three alternative pathways for the second generation: assimilation into the poor underclass, acculturation and integration into the native middle class, and rapid upward social advancement relying on a strong ethnic community. Utilizing evidence from the experience of different ethnic groups in California, they put forward the theory of ‘segmented assimilation’, which attempts to explain the factors that determine into which segment of American society an immigrant group is to assimilate (Zhou 1997a). The experience of the Punjabi Sikhs in Northern California revealed that the effects of a disadvantaged starting point, coupled with strong discrimination and racism, could be buffered with the help of social and material capital from the first generation. However, this strategy of selective acculturation—strong ethnic community cohesiveness as a source of pride to counteract discrimination—seemed not to work in the case of other ethnic groups. The case of Mexicans in Central California showed what Gans (1992) called ‘second generation decline’: a ‘lost race’ between first-generation achievements and second-generation expectations, leading to an orientation towards a reactive subculture as a means of protection against discrimination, which further inhibited the upward social mobility of the second generation (Portes and Zhou 1993, p. 89).

Does the theory of ‘segmented assimilation’ capture the whole picture of the second generation’s integration dynamics? Some of the most important ‘gaps’ in the theory are thought to be associated with its lack of recognition of differences within ethnic groups and of gendered patterns of integration (Waldinger and Perlmann 1998). Furthermore, European scholars point to the irrelevance of the theory in the European context, due to the marked differences between national contexts on the continent (Crul and Vermeulen 2003). However, as recognized by Zhou (1997a), “segmented assimilation’ is a middle-range theory that tries to explain why different immigrant groups face destinies of convergence and divergence and describes the patterns and factors associated with these differential outcomes. It predicts that the possible determinants of integration outcomes are manifold, including factors at an individual and contextual level.

In effect, the ‘emancipation’ of theorizing on the integration of the second generation has followed the same line of conceptualization. A more recent view holds that the paths to integration diverge in various ways relating to structure, culture and personal agency, and the outcome of the integration process is largely decided by their interplay in a particular context (Thomson and Crul 2007). Neither did the ‘national context’ theories—the citizenship and institutional approach—put forward

1.1 Contextualizing and Theorizing Cross-Generational Migration Research 9 by European scholars survive the diversity and dynamics of the actual integration patterns of the second generation. The citizenship view takes a macro approach and focuses on the effects of the various national models of integration and their resultant impact on immigrant integration (Joppke 1999). In contrast, the institutional approach observes that the probability of underclass formation is linked to the opportunities that national institutional arrangements for educational and labour market transition offer to the second generation, and that there is no direct relationship between the national models of integration and educational and labour market performance (Crul and Vermeulen 2003, 2006).

This theoretical emancipation is also associated with an evolution of the concept of integration and a focus on the local level to better understand integration processes. Thus, despite an ongoing heated debate on its definition, ‘integration’ is increasingly understood as both an organic process, shaped by factors operating at an individual and collective level, and a process which is conditioned by key events and legislative changes (Thomson and Crul 2007). As mentioned above, there is an important ‘gap’ in second-generation research regarding intergenerational transmission. This topic was the focus of some research in the 1980s (as reviewed by Zhou 1997b). However, the studies are very limited and there is still need for more research to identify its mechanisms and dynamics (Attias-Donfut et al. 2012; Nauck 2001; Portes 1998).

A more transgressive approach notes that, when investigating the factors affecting the integration process of the second generation, literature has primarily relied on a single frame of reference: the host society’s socio-economic traits and categories (Levitt 2009; Louie 2006). Only recently have scholars started to focus on ties that the second generation establishes with the ‘homeland’ or its cultural heritage (e.g., Rumbaut 2002), and the potential role that these variables can play in shaping the integration process of the second generation in the host society (Levitt and Waters 2002). However, while it is widely recognized that the formative years of second-generation children are characterized by a process of reconciliation of the values held by their parents from the country of ancestry with those of the country where they live, the positioning of transnational ties in the literature on the second generation remains ambiguous (Wessendorf 2007a).