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This paper focuses on the ways in which children negotiate complex transnational identities and roles. Based on research amongst Bangladeshi children living in East London in families who maintain transnational linkages with Bangladesh, the paper draws attention to the ways in which British-born Bangladeshi children are mobile not only across places but also across time. The paper also draws upon Katz' notion of ‘emplacement’, with its focus on political and economic processes, and indicates the significance of children's mobility. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This introductory article sets out the main challenges that the study of children poses for the understanding of transnational migration. Children are not simply a neglected empirical group, whose perspectives are rarely considered; children can also provide researchers with important insights concerning the nature of transnationalism if the phenomenon is considered through their eyes. Research on transnational children brings to the fore issues concerning familial practices and discourses, the importance of the life-course and of generation, and the role of feelings in creating and changing transnational relationships and imaginaries. Focusing on children and children's places raises important questions concerning the relationship between the life-course and the global political economy. Finally, researching with children raises particular methodological challenges and approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this paperarticle, based on ongoing research carried out in Bangladesh since the mid-1980s and field-work in London in the late 1990s, I take a historical approach to the analysis of transnational Sylheti marriages. By showing how the form of these marriages has changed since the mid-twentieth century, I argue that transnational migration is itself highly fluid. The role of wives in maintaining transnational links is central to the account. I focus in particular on the wives of “first-generation” migrant men who came to Britain in the 1950s and 1960s, and whose families were generally reunited in Britain by the 1980s. By describing the household and caring work of these wives both in Sylhet and London, I demonstrate that rather than being “dependants” of their migrant husbands, women have been central to the success of migrant households. The rewards of transnational connectedness have, however, come at a cost – long-term separation from loved ones. Isolation and loneliness have been hallmarks of the experiences of these earlier generations of women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]