People without Frontiers: The New Global Communities

Transnational Communities Programme funded by the ESRC
Church House, Westminster - 25th October 2002

The Programme

Booking

The Venue

Many different groups and organisations have grasped the opportunities offered by advances in transport and communications technology. Such advances enable them to operate more efficiently and effectively in different locations across the world. How do such groups and organisations develop their long-distance activities, and what does enhanced global connectivity mean for politics, economy and society? To provide data and analyses of these trends, the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) set up the national research programme on 'Transnational Communities' in 1997. By developing informative research and recommendations for strategic thinking and policy, the programme and its nineteen constituent projects have engaged a range of institutions, including the DTI, DfID, FCO, Home Office, World Bank, UN Development Programme, European Commission, TUC, International Labour Organisation, Lloyds of London, Deutsche Bank, Merrill Lynch and BP. At the public event on 25 October 2002, key findings will be presented and discussed with panellists from organisations such as PriceWaterhouseCoopers, IPPR, Oxfam, TGWU, The Independent and the Foreign Policy Centre. Representatives of Government, industry, NGOs and community groups will comprise the audience.

Research and analysis within the ESRC Programme have focused on four themes:

ENTERPRISING EXPATRIATES
Transnational communities are the products of, and catalysts for, contemporary economic globalisation. How do transnational corporations manage their activities in Britain? How are world markets approached by entrepreneurs within ethnic diasporas? How do shifts in the global labour market affect important sectors like international shipping? Why do City of London firms still rely upon expatriate staff in global financial centres?

CULTURAL CHANGE AND CONTINUITY
Global flows of cultural goods, practices and values impact greatly on questions of identity. How are commodities developed and marketed across cultures? How does the consumption of foreign satellite television effect the social integration of immigrants and ethnic minorities? To what extent do diasporic authors mediate the experience of home-and-abroad? How are transnational Muslim networks organised and maintained?

MAPPING MODERN MIGRATION
Issues surrounding international migration currently top British and European policy agendas. What are the motivations, decisions and methods used by immigrants to come to Britain? How does 'illegal' status impact on transnational families? How do the migration experiences of men and women differ? What role can refugees play in the development of their countries of origin?

THE POLITICS OF GLOBAL COMMUNITIES
Planet-spanning networks pose many challenges for policy and governance. Can citizenship accommodate multiple allegiances? Should nation-states try to constrain the cross-border activities of social groups and non-state organisations? What new diasporas is the West facing following the collapse of Communism? In developing countries, can indigenous peoples, international agencies and national governments work for mutual benefit?

The Programme

9.30 Registration, coffee and book launch

10.30 Welcome - Steve Vertovec, Introduction from Chair - Jon Snow

10.45 Opening remarks - Lord Dahrendorf

11.00 - 12.45 Session A - Economy and Culture

Panellists include - Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, The Independent, Brigitte Granville, Royal Institute for International Affairs, Mark Ambler, PriceWaterhouseCoopers

11.00 Enterprising Expatriates
- Professor Jeffrey Henderson, Manchester Business School

Transnational communities are the products of, and catalysts for, contemporary economic global-isation. How do transnational corporations manage their activities in Britain? How are world markets approached by entrepreneurs within ethnic diasporas? How do shifts in the global labour market affect important sectors like international shipping? Why do City of London firms still rely upon expatriate staff in global financial centres?

§ (Beaverstock) Embeddedness, knowledge and networks: British expatriates in global financial centres
§ (Benton) Ethnic enterprise, class and the state: the Chinese in Britain, Southeast Asia and Australia
§ (Crang) Commodity culture and South Asian transnationality
§ (Melvin) The Russian diaspora and post-communist political and economic transformation
§ (Whitley) Transnational communities: Japanese and Korean expatriate managers in the UK

11.30 Cultural Change and Continuity
- Professor Mary Chamberlain, Oxford Brookes University

Global flows of cultural goods, practices and values have enormous impact on questions of identity. How are commodities developed and marketed across cultures? How does the consumption of foreign satellite television effect the social integration of immigrants and ethnic minorities? What roles do diasporic authors play in mediating the experience of home-and-abroad? How are transnational Muslim networks organised and maintained?

§ (Lane) The formation and maintenance of transnational seafarer communities
§ (Cheesman) Axial writing: transnational literatures, cultural politics and state policies
§ (Dresch) Connection and imagery: transnational culture-flows and the Arab Gulf
§ (Robins) Negotiating spaces: media and cultural practices in the Turkish diaspora in Britain, France and Germany
§ (Nielsen) Ethnicity, politics and transnational Islam: a study of an international Sufi order

12.00 Panel and floor discussion

12.45 Lunch and discussion of projects at stations

14.00-15.45 Session B - Community and Citizenship

Panellists for Session B Include - Martin Woollacott, The Guardian, Claude Moraes, MEP, Adam Leach, Oxfam, Anthony Barnett, Open Democracy

14.00 Mapping Modern Migration
- Sarah Spencer, Institute for Public Policy Research

Issues surrounding international migration are currently at the top of British and European policy agendas. What are the motivations, decisions and methods used by immigrants to come to Britain? What is the impact of 'illegal' status on transnational families? How are the migration experiences of men and women different? What roles can refugees play in the development of their countries of origin?

§ (Pieke) At the margins of the Chinese world system: the Fuzhou diaspora in Europe
§ (Black) Mobilisation of transnational exile communities in post-conflict reconstruction
§ (Willis) Gender, households and identity in British and Singaporean migration to China
§ (Ballard) Kinship, entrepreneurship and the transnational circulation of assets
§ (Phizacklea) Impact of legal status and children on transnational household strategies of migrant domestics

14.30 The Politics of Global Communities
- Professor Lord Bhikhu Parekh, London School of Economics

Planet-spanning networks pose a number of challenges for policy and governance. Can citizenship accommodate multiple allegiances? Should nation-states try to constrain the cross-border activities of social groups and non-state organizations? What new diasporas does the West face following the collapse of Communism? In developing countries, can indigenous peoples, international agencies and national governments work for mutual benefit?

§ (Layton-Henry) Transnational communities and the transformation of citizenship
§ (Stewart) Citizenship and belonging: local expression of political and economic restructuring
§ (Østergaard-Nielsen) Diaspora-politics of immigrants and refugees from Turkey residing in Germany, The Netherlands, UK and Denmark
§ (Radcliffe) 'We are all Indians'? Ecuadorian and Bolivian transnational indigenous communities

15.00 Panel and floor discussion

15.45 Closing Remarks - Geoff Mulgan, Cabinet Office

16.00 Tea and departure