Ties to the Homeland

Ties to the Homeland examines the connections maintained across national borders by the children of migrants, the “second generation.” In the context of globalisation and increasing population mobility, migrants’ transnational ties have become an important topic of research, yet until recently we have heard little about the reproduction of such ties in the second generation. The transnational engagements of migrants’ children are crucial for understanding future trends in the global movement of people, money, goods and ideas, and they also can have a significant impact on issues of cultural identity and “belonging” for these children, who grow up outside their parents’ homelands but may have dual or even multiple notions of “home.” The detailed case studies in Tie to the Homeland explore the diverse transnational practices and attitudes of members of the second generation and reveal significant intergenerational differences that bring into question some of the key assumptions underlying existing work on transnationalism. The case studies focus on the children of migrants originating in regions such as Europe, the Middle East and the South Pacific, and they bring an Australian perspective to a field that has been dominated by a European and North American focus.