Cetin Celik

A Critical Analysis of Transnationalism: the Case of Turkish Migrants Living in Berlin Cetin Celik

The term of transnationalism has become increasinglywidespread notion in many academic disciplines since1980s. Although it has been articulated in asystematic way for the first time by anthropologistsin order to indicate the symptoms of the probablerupture of identity from geography in internationalmigration studies, it seems that political scientistshave currently appropriated the term more thananthropologists and sociologists. I intend to showhere, based on an empirical study, that the conceptof transnationalism still has a utility for examiningmigration phenomena from a sociological perspective. It is simply a practical concept to examineinstitutional macro and non-institutional micro levelpower relations in migrants' everyday life. This book aims at making a critical evaluation oftransnational theories used in internationalmigration studies by focusing on the transnationalsocial fields established by Turkish migrants inBerlin in terms of socio-economic status, gender andgeneration. It should be especially useful toresearchers and scholars who study on internationalmigration, migrant integration and transnationalism.