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Nigerian video films circulate transnationally across various African diaspora communities, including London, England. This article explores conversations concerning the experience of both real and faux nostalgia regarding Blackness and the African diaspora as expressed through Nollywood cinema in London. Within these diaspora communities, Nigerian venders sell Nollywood DVDs as physical commodities from their homeland, triggering sensations of nostalgia and transporting audiences to experience pleasurable and painful emotions. By consuming these cultural products, Nollywood audiences may yearn for an actual African home or experience longing for a village life they have never truly experienced (Krings and Okome 2013, pp. 5–6). Nollywood DVDs serve as modern cultural artefacts containing a 'record', both literally and figuratively, transmitting a "communication' of black nostalgia' (Edwards 2009, p. 145) to consumers by providing imaginative sensory spatial representations of Nigeria and Africa. This article explores research from the liminal temporal space of 2013 London, where Nigerian consumption patterns shifted from a thriving market of Nollywood video-film consumers renting or purchasing DVDs – in 'brick and mortar' shops – to streaming these cultural commodities online. Viewer responses reveal the importance of physical and online movie distribution platforms as pan-African content providers, connecting virtual homeland spaces of nostalgia to the African diaspora. Thus, from the comfort of their homes, audiences conveniently accessed Black African representations of Nigeria. This investigation captures transnational socio-cultural exchanges in survey research, through questionnaires, and online social media research. Black venders and consumers reveal their experiences with Nollywood as a means to sustain nostalgic homeland bonds, cultural norms, customs, language, religion, and tradition (Krings and Okome, pp. 5–6). The findings elucidate the psychological importance of maintaining homeland connections through buying, selling, and consuming Nollywood experientially. Therefore, a social mechanism of nostalgia allows consumers and venders to retain and sustain Black African cultural identity abroad. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Why and how do some migrant groups demonstrate greater engagement with homeland politics than others at particular historical moments? Research has examined both individual-level factors such as migrants' resources and institutional factors such as contexts of incorporation. Less theorised, however, are the ways in which factors are mediated by temporal contexts such as timing and sequence. Drawing on the notion of path dependence, this study analyses how the temporal orders of four institutional factors – 1) the socioeconomic context of reception, 2) incorporative policies of the receiving state, 3) diaspora policies of the sending state, and 4) migrant networks – resulted in divergent levels of diasporic engagement between Italian and Japanese migrants in early twentieth century Brazil. My findings show that the socioeconomic context of reception provides the initial condition on which migrants develop their networks. Second, the timing of when diasporic policies – relative to incorporative policies – reach out to migrant networks affects the breadths of social class involvement in diasporic engagement. This study contends that timing plays a critical role in producing divergent levels of diasporic engagement at the group-level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The Griffins' Route is a new transboundary tourist project, the idea and theme of which are based on common history and cultural heritage of the Duchy of Pomerania. The studies presented show differences in the perception of the route and particular facilities. These differences depend on the visitors' country of origin, their emotional engagement, identification with the theme, and motives behind their trip. Different priorities in the interpretation of destinations have been observed as well. Moreover, the assessment of particular facilities and their representative role regarding the regional heritage have changed depending on the knowledge about the history of a place as well as its location and distance from the border. Reasons for these differences can be found in the complex history of the region, changes in borders and migration of people, especially after the Second World War. Changes of administrative, social and cultural factors have had their impact on the sense of identity and relations with neighboring countries. This paper concentrates on the perception and interpretation of the shared heritage, as well as shaping the tourist space around transboundary cultural routes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper offers an overview of the career and writings of A.S. Mopeli-Paulus, with key concerns being his Lesotho--South African transborder experience, his self-identification as a Mosotho, his sometimes rarefied attempts to account for "Sesotho being," and his regression from resisting apartheid legislation to participation in the Bantustan administration. The paper examines his Englishlanguage novels, autobiography and unpublished fiction, but also covers some of his work in Sesotho, including two little-known final publications, which, together with interview material from his son Chiefta, throw light on the more controversial aspects of his career. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Centering the literacy practice of a newly arrived, transnational, emergent multilingual student, the author provides insights into how these students, particularly when positioned as lacking literacy and content knowledge when labeled as students with interrupted formal education, might benefit socioemotionally and educationally from the opportunity to story their own lives and write their way into a new classroom and culture. The author shows how Marlón, a newly arrived immigrant from Guatemala, leveraged existing bodies of linguistic, content, and experiential knowledge to maximize his participation in the classroom‐based literacy practice of dialogue journaling. As such, the author demonstrates how the relatively low‐stakes, low‐tech, dialogic nature of journaling afforded Marlón the opportunity to create a transborder writing space in which he enacted agency in his decisions to translanguage, engage in multimodal writing, invoke familial knowledge, and share personal experiences. In the process, Marlón created an agentive border space that spanned cultures, nations, and languages in ways that authentically represented his multifaceted and complex identity and lived history. Students like Marlón are a growing demographic; thus, the author calls for teachers to consider the benefits of creating instructional spaces for low‐risk, low‐tech writing to ease transnational, emergent multilingual students into classroom and school‐based writing. The author also suggests the need for further research exploring the implementation and benefits of literacy practices that take into account newly arrived students' identities holistically. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

'Twice-minority' immigrants, immigrants who are ethnic minorities in both their home country and country of destination, may face ambiguity and multiple options in their ethnic self-identification in the host society. This paper investigates the dynamics in the identity construction among such groups. My data comes from in-depth interviews with 40 recent immigrants in the United States from two minority ethnic groups in China: Korean-Chinese and Uyghur. I find that these two groups' perceived phenotypical and cultural difference from (or similarity to) the majority Han ethnic group in China, experiences of prejudice in China, and pre-existing transnational ethnic ties influence the identity dynamics in their interactions with different groups in the U.S. Both Korean-Chinese and Uyghur immigrants experience a mix of pulling and pushing forces towards identities associated with different proximal host groups in these interactions, but Uyghur immigrants' identity options are constrained by their phenotypical distinctness from the Han Chinese. Both groups maintain their distinct ethnic identity in the host society, but they find different new bases for their twice-minority identity. The article shows how everyday interactions with multiple ethnic audiences shape possibilities of identity and ethnicisation and helps us better understand ethnic identity and transnational movement of ethnic schemas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholars have long debated whether international migration impinges on states' control over transborder populations. In this article, I lay bare how states consolidate control through the calculated manipulation of emigrant citizenship. Based on a genealogical interrogation of China's emigrant citizenship policies from the 1950s to present and three months of fieldwork in an emigrant community in China, I illustrate that the state first revokes emigrants' citizenship and then imposes selective conditions on its restoration upon their return. China's otherwise domestically oriented citizenship regime, namely, the household registration (hukou) system, works similarly as an international immigration regime by selecting and documenting potential citizens. My study sheds new light on the understudied external control of the hukou system by examining how it limits emigrants' right of resettlement and proscribes overseas dual residency. I argue that citizenship is anything but an enduring, unproblematic demographic fact. It is, in essence, a revocable, precarious politico-legal accomplishment. These malleable processes enable the state to redefine the citizenship of absent and returned members, reinsert the congruence between nationality and residency, and reinforce control over transborder populations. These findings may have implications for similar mechanisms of governing international migrants through documentation and legal codification beyond China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The pandemic has had implications at different levels. This article shows the impact on transborder women whose working lives have been affected, as has their struggle for their rights and their labor as care-workers. We underline the intrinsic articulation between economic and social relations of inhabitants on both sides of the international border, gender dimensions that affect trans-frontier women and the social differentiation that is generated between those that hold one type of document or another after the partial closure of the borderline. We base our analysis on ethnographic cases chosen from a broader sampler (2019-2020) to account for a range of women who have made strides in their processes of autonomy and empowerment, but find themselves made vulnerable by the closure of the borderline. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses the example of the Karta Polaka to develop a more general argument about the place of diaspora engagement policies in the global political order. Specifically, I address the paradoxical nature of these policies, which are concomitantly undermining and reaffirming the nation-state form as a model for organising political communities. By combining insights from the literature on state-diaspora relations and world polity theory with empirical perspectives yielded from the example of the Karta Polaka, it is argued that diaspora engagement policies challenge an ideal model of the nation-state by reconfiguring citizenship, territory and national belonging as the basic tenets of this model. In this way, diaspora engagement policies such as the Karta Polaka can be understood as a reconfiguration of the nation-state model, which is not indicative of an erosion of state sovereignty but rather, on the contrary, of the resilience and adaptability of the nation-state form to challenges posed by globalisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the connection between the Ktunaxa Nation and the enforcement of the U.S.-Canadian border in 1887. Topics covered include the tensions between bands of the Ktunaxa Nation and settlers of the Kootenay River valley and Flathead Lake region, how Ktunaxa transborder migration, communication and alliance on the eastern Columbia Plateau confounded nation-state understandings of territoriality and the persistence of Ktunaxa Nation's sense of homeland and community.

Background/Context: Immigrants are described as somewhat fixed in their geographical locations and activities in the world, having made a permanent move from their nation of origin to a new homeland. In contrast, transnational people are defined as those who live their lives across two or more nations and hold strong, multiple attachments to their nation-states. Frameworks of race are often centered in studies of the language and literacy practices of immigrant youth while transnational theories are typically prioritized in studies of transnational youths' language and literacy practices. Research Questions/Participants: This article explores extant research on the language and literacy practices and experiences of Black immigrant and Black transnational youth of Caribbean origin for whom the U.S. is a home. The purpose is to uncover similarities, differences, and nuances that may exist between the language and literacy practices and experiences of these populations. Research Design: The extant research was analyzed through theoretical concepts such as micro-cultures, ethnoracial assignment and ethnoracial identity, raciolinguistics, and language and literacy as social practices. Findings: Literacies prominent for both Black immigrant and Black transnational youth include reading, writing, the performing arts, and digital literacies. Analysis found that Black immigrant and Black transnational youth, through their language and literacy practices, undertake significant work in deconstructing Blackness as a monolithic racial category. The youths' motivations for language and literacy use and transformation are conceptualized as efforts to make visible multiple ethnoracial identities and microcultural practices within an overarching racial category of Blackness. Analysis further found that Black immigrant and Black transnational youths' experiences with racial, cultural, and linguistic discrimination lead many to subsume their original linguistic and literacy practices beneath the language and literacy practices of dominant ethnoracial groups in their new nations. In the case of Black transnationals, analysis found that they hold thick bonds to their countries of origin and new nations. Further, some transnationals have opportunities to spend extended time and employ their culturally influenced languages and literacies to a fuller degree in nations that hold appreciative perspectives on these repertoires. Such circumstances appear to promote Black transnationals' abilities to continue developing and valuing their unique ethnoracial identities and ethnoculturally diverse language and literacy practices. Analysis further found that the multiple language and literacy practices of many Black immigrant youth are motivated by their longings to belong to diverse communities and connect to multicultural groups. However, these desires of youths' were not oriented solely toward their new nation-states. Rather many Black immigrant youth actively seek out connection and consolidation of their homelands of origin and their new nations through language, literacy, and cultural practices. Analysis confirmed that this is a primary motivation for language and literacy development and use in transnational youth. Conclusion: This article challenges the binary categories of immigrant and transnational using the cases of Black youth of Caribbean origin and their language and literacy practices. Its findings call for a more dynamic reconceptualization of the relationships among racial, immigrant, and transnational youth identities, literacies, and languages. Given the similarity of goals in the identity, language, and literacy practices of Black immigrant and Black transnational youth, this analysis argues that literacy research knowledge about Black immigrant youth can be enhanced by applying transnational as well as racial frameworks. Likewise, the article proposes that given the similarities of language and literacy goals, practices, and experiences, including racial and ethnic discrimination, shared by Black immigrant and Black transnational youth, future literacy research can undertake more explicit investigations of transnational youth's experiences through racial frameworks. The article suggests that knowledge of this kind can support scholars and educators in theorizing and designing educational spaces and curricula that enable all youth, notwithstanding their self- or other-assigned racial or sociopolitical categorization as native-born, immigrant, or transnational, to actualize while critically analyzing, the full range and diversity of their identities, languages, and literacies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transborder labor trafficking and forced servitude in the global commercial agriculture sector are serious problems that adversely impact farming communities and labor migration patterns. They also constitute violations of basic human rights with regards to personal liberty, freedom of movement, and the right to work for fair wages. Yet, the farm labor cost savings are a powerful incentive for growers and agribusinesses to engage directly or indirectly through corrupt labor recruiters and brokers in the domestic and transborder trafficking of farm workers. This article addresses farm labor trafficking in the United States and abroad, including a discussion of labor trafficking and forced servitude in the rapidly growing marijuana cultivation industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article argues that the spread of ethnic conflict across international borders is a result of purposive repressive state action combined with political opportunity which allows the ethnic group to mobilize in response. We test our argument using a bivariate probit model to simultaneously estimate the risk of repression escalation and the spread of ethnic conflict (1976–2009), and find that the likelihood of both increases in the presence of relatively large, territorially concentrated transnational ethnic groups, and that nationalist governments are more likely to escalate repression amidst nearby ethnic violence. Political crises also exacerbate the risk of ethnic conflict spread. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • Latina educators often held belief systems that suggested a collectivist orientation to teaching and learning. • The beliefs of Latina educators tended to reflect the cultural value of raising children to be bien educado. • Latina educators were less likely to espouse beliefs prioritized by early childhood faculty exemplars. • There were no differences based on ethnicity regarding beliefs about teaching practices. Abstract Using a cultural communities approach as our guide, the purpose of this exploratory study was to examine the beliefs of early childhood educators in a transborder community located along the U.S./Mexico border and known for its large Latino population. Participants were 77 Head Start associate teachers, teachers, site supervisors, and other education staff. The majority were Latina (83%) and bilingual in both Spanish and English (70%). The Teacher Beliefs Q-Sort was used to examine participants' beliefs regarding discipline and behavior management, teaching practices, and children. Factor analyses suggested patterns of teacher beliefs that reflected both collectivist and individualistic orientations to teaching and learning. Latina educators scored significantly higher on factors that appeared consistent with a collectivist orientation and seemed to reflect the cultural value of raising children to be bien educado. Participants' beliefs were also compared with those of faculty exemplars, and participants who prioritized items in way similar to the experts tended to be more educated and were more likely to be non-Latina. Findings point to the need to examine the intersection of education level, ethnicity, and recommended practice and how teachers negotiate these beliefs in transborder settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay discusses how maritime migrations contribute to movements of ideas across transnational ethnic communities. It focuses on actors from the African Grove, a New York City-based African American theatre company. Actors in this company worked as stewards on transatlantic packet ships where the architecture of the ship supported intercultural exchanges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What effects do transnational ethnic diaspora communities have on the terrorist organizations with which they are linked? Are diaspora-linked terrorist movements more resilient and longer lived? What types of diaspora support affect terrorist survival? Finally, do diasporas affect peaceful resolutions of terrorist campaigns? Using data on 586 terrorist movements during the period 1970-2007, this study finds that movements linked to transnational ethnic diasporas are more resilient. They are significantly less likely to end, particularly through counterterrorism force, and this seems to be a product of diaspora provision of material support rather than diaspora political and propaganda efforts. Finally, diasporas seem to have a negative impact on political resolution of terrorist campaigns, as diaspora-linked terrorist movements are also significantly less likely to end by entering into a political process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using the case of Burmese refugees in South Korea, this study reveals how the convergence of democratization in the homeland and the attainment of legal refugee status prompted former political exiles to establish socially responsible businesses for furthering their activism. By shining new light on the emergence of such social entrepreneurship amongst former political exiles, this study seeks to overcome two tendencies in refugee studies, namely to relegate the establishment of a business to a livelihood pursuit, dealing with business largely from an economic standpoint; and to approach activism only from the perspective of direct political engagement. This study integrates these two separate threads and brings the discussion of social entrepreneurship into refugee studies, demonstrating that some businesses established by refugees should be understood as a form of activism. Furthermore, the study demonstrates that the transnational aspects of social entrepreneurship has accelerated inter-Asian connections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The experiences of Rohingya living in Malaysia reveal the symbolic and affective significance of remittance practices for maintaining family ties across borders. Among these families, some of whom have resided in Malaysia for up to three generations, remittance practices involve both sending and receiving. As senders, families provide financial resources to relatives at risk of persecution in the home country. As receivers, families benefit from assistance sent by relatives, who have been formally resettled in Western countries. In this article, based on 18 months of ethnographic fieldwork carried out in an urban Rohingya community in Kuala Lumpur, I illustrate how transnational remittance practices act as an important strategy for maintaining collective wellbeing, both emotionally and financially. However, although remittance practices are imbued with feelings of love and gratitude, they are also infused with feelings of resentment, obligation and guilt. Thus, while remittance practices are important for maintaining family ties and providing a buffer to the precariousness of life locally and transnationally, they also put additional financial and emotional pressure on family members, who remain stuck in protracted transit countries like Malaysia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to analyze the functionality of conflict talk (Grimshaw, 1990; Bou-Franch and Garcés-Conejos Blitvich, 2014) as an ideologically loaded, indirect index of identity construction (Kiesling, 2013). It focuses on the construction of the Latino identity: a transnational (de Fina & Perrino, 2013), top-down identity, that was created in the 1970s by the Nixon administration. The data for this study comprise the comments posted on a CNN discussion forum in response to Soledad O'Brian's question “What did you think about Latino in America?” A cursory look at the corpus indicated that many Latino participants felt insulted arguing CNN – with its focus on illegal Latinos – had presented the community in a bad light. Thus, transnational identities and the internet, crucially related to globalization, come together in this study. Results show that conflict talk plays a major role in the construction of intragroup dissociation both thematically and at the microlevel. Furthermore, the fact that complex selective dissociation (Garcia-Bedolla, 2003), rather than simpler dis/affiliation processes routinely associated with the construction of social identities (van Dijk 1998) is more at play in the corpus seems to confirm the need for complexity in the study of culture and identity (Blommaert, 2013a). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines, how agency is constructed by members of two transnational families living in Norway in biographically oriented interviews. We understand agency as realised on the intertwined levels of grammar and meta-agentive discourse. Reports of speakers’ lived language experience and their experiences with family language policies are analysed to demonstrate how speakers use different approaches to realise agency in their narratives. Drawing on data collected through Language Portraits and semi-structured interviews, we focus on how family members perceive and construct their agency when it comes to language learning, maintenance and management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

I consider how asymmetric information between the party selectorate and members of Parliament affects the renomination of incumbent candidates. By applying an adverse selection model, I argue that the selectorate looks to past performance to select candidates it expects will gain influence. However, the impact of performance varies according to the need for and availability of information. The European Parliament (EP) provides a most-likely case for information asymmetry. Studying three elections in I I member states, I find that the allocation of influential positions in office improves chances of reselection. The effect increases when the allocation is more selective, and when the prior uncertainty around candidacies is high. The study thus proposes a new approach to the relationship between national parties and transnational groups in the EP. It also suggests venues for research on parliamentary politics and candidate selection in general. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a small number of transborder students who reside in Mexico but go to school in the United States. Less than 2.5 percent of students residing in border cities such as Tijuana, Ciudad Juarez or Nogales, are transborder students. Pupils born in Mexico that go to school in the United states represent less than 1 percent of the student population in all educational levels. Country of birth, having parents that are international commuters, and household income are elements that enable or limit transborder membership. High earnings are the central factor for Mexicans that want to go to school del otro lado. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Far Eastern Republic is discussed as a post-imperial structure intended to accommodate the multiple loyalties of the population. The establishment of national autonomies (Buryat, Korean, Ukrainian, Jewish and Tatar) was one way of managing the diversity of its population. Though never fully implemented, the project contributed to a new form of governance in a multi-ethnic polity. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The centre orientation and closed character of the Soviet space turned border areas into half-empty places remaining in absolute readiness for confrontation. Frontier forms of socialism were special, not only because of the extremely intense implementation of Soviet methods of modernization, but also because they achieved a particularly high level of political and social sterility of frontier populations. The contradiction between political sterility of border inhabitants and the latter’s emotional inclusion as Cossacks in border defence was dealt with through re-creation of confrontational myths whose performative power was able to combine temporal regimes and cast doubt on the loyalty of the local inhabitants. The paper analyses late Soviet discursive practices concerning the disloyalty of fictional Cossack communities in Inner Asia (Mongolia, China, and Transbaikalia) with their old-fashioned life style and strong anti-Soviet attitudes. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Following the personal history of one individual, this chapter aims to highlight the fears, hopes and considerations of trans-border Buryat–Mongols ‘caught between States’ during the ideological, political and territorial splits of the 1920–1940s in North Asia. Through discussion of the life of General Urjin Garmaev and his changing loyalties I show how investigating loyalty introduces a new framework for understanding the relationship between emigrant groups and the political interactions of the Soviet Union, Mongolian People’s Republic and Manchukuo. Rival states manipulated frontier populations and used their intense cross-border kinship ties for military tactics and spying. This culminated dramatically in 1939 when Buryat soldiers (all from one small area) found themselves fighting against each other in three different armies at the battle of Khalkhin Gol / Nomonhan. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses articles in the issue on topics including ethnography of peoples living on Sino-Russian border, the notions of loyalty and disloyalty, and confrontation between ethnic Russians and Han Chinese and ideological regimes.

The Azerbaijani Government’s struggle against external influence from Iran has played a significant role in consolidating its secular self-identification since independence in 1991. Though strong, direct Iranian influence on Azerbaijani Shia groups belongs to the past, its effects are sustained. This article examines the religious transborder flows from Iran to Azerbaijan and their impact on Azerbaijani domestic religious policy. The analysis includes religion as a factor in the debate about transnationalism and about how transnational actors challenge nation states’ exclusive authority over their territory. The analysis uses data from government documents, newspaper articles, social media, and interviews with politicians and religious actors. As a result, the article shows that the Iranian intervention in Azerbaijan has effectively initiated the building of a more specific Shia identity among a small but growing number of Shia groups. This has led to the reconfiguration both of the religious field and of Azerbaijani political secularism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Re-visiting the “territorial trap,” the introduction reviews approaches that have substantially addressed Agnew’s critique, such as in transnational scholarship, governance research, border studies, and critical study of statehood. With its past and present complexities, the Caucasus provides ample empirical opportunity to study processes of de- and re-territorialization. Yet, beyond state-centrist and classical grand geopolitical frames little attention has been paid to political space in the Caucasus. The introduction provides a literature review on prevalent approaches to political space in the Caucasus on space-, power-, and process-sensitive empirical research and suggests new research avenues. The article places the contributions to this special issue within theoretical context and assesses their contributions to the debate on political space in the Caucasus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article provides a comparative exploration of the role of Ottoman legacies and contemporary Turkish influences in shaping political space in the Black Sea regions of Adjara and Abkhazia. Conceptualizing both as borderlands, the article focuses on borderland practices related to three kinds of transboundary flows between Turkey and Adjara and Abkhazia, respectively: flows of goods and capital, flows of people, and flows of ideas. The article draws on a wide range of secondary sources as well as on data from field research in Abkhazia, Adjara, and Turkey. It discloses how borderland practices have contributed to fragmented and convergent configurations of authority in both regions and underlines a threefold character of borderland practices which reflect and reproduce understandings of illegitimacy and illicitness, cosmopolitan sociability, and struggles over belonging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Los Estados de las Américas se enfrentan a desafíos complejos frente a la movilidad humana causada tanto por desastres de evolución lenta como por desastres repentinos. Una nueva guía regional presenta prácticas y medidas para ayudar a abordar las necesidades de protección de las personas desplazadas por desastres transfronterizos. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified more than 90 susceptibility loci for breast cancer, but the underlying biology of those associations needs to be further elucidated. More genetic factors for breast cancer are yet to be identified but sample size constraints preclude the identification of individual genetic variants with weak effects using traditional GWAS methods. To address this challenge, we utilized a gene-level expression-based method, implemented in the MetaXcan software, to predict gene expression levels for 11,536 genes using expression quantitative trait loci and examine the genetically-predicted expression of specific genes for association with overall breast cancer risk and estrogen receptor (ER)-negative breast cancer risk. Using GWAS datasets from a Challenge launched by National Cancer Institute, we identified TP53INP2 (tumor protein p53-inducible nuclear protein 2) at 20q11.22 to be significantly associated with ER-negative breast cancer (Z = -5.013, p = 5.35×10−7, Bonferroni threshold = 4.33×10−6). The association was consistent across four GWAS datasets, representing European, African and Asian ancestry populations. There are 6 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) included in the prediction of TP53INP2 expression and five of them were associated with estrogen-receptor negative breast cancer, although none of the SNP-level associations reached genome-wide significance. We conducted a replication study using a dataset outside of the Challenge, and found the association between TP53INP2 and ER-negative breast cancer was significant (p = 5.07x10-3). Expression of HP (16q22.2) showed a suggestive association with ER-negative breast cancer in the discovery phase (Z = 4.30, p = 1.70x10-5) although the association was not significant after Bonferroni adjustment. Of the 249 genes that are 250 kb within known breast cancer susceptibility loci identified from previous GWAS, 20 genes (8.0%) were statistically significant associated with ER-negative breast cancer (p<0.05), compared to 582 (5.2%) of 11,287 genes that are not close to previous GWAS loci. This study demonstrated that expression-based gene mapping is a promising approach for identifying cancer susceptibility genes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this manuscript is to contribute to the discussion of transborder and border issues based on border studies in order to develop an explanatory framework that allows one to understand what makes a border region or space a transborder region or space. The consideration of scale and perspective from the territory under analysis is important for understanding this shift. We theorize that a region or space becomes transborder mainly through the interaction produced by the constant crossing and mobility of people as well as the deployment of a series of social practices in which the border is both a reference and a resource. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The politics of migration has become increasingly prominent as a site of struggle. However, the active subjecthood of people on the move in precarious situations is often overlooked. Irregular migration struggles raise questions about how to understand the agency of people who are marginalised. What does it mean to engage people produced as 'irregular' as active subjects of trans-border politics? And what new research strategies can we employ to this end? The articles presented in this Special Issue of Politics each differently explore how actions by or on behalf of irregular/ised migrants involve processes of subjectivity formation that imply a form of agency. Collectively we explore how irregular migration struggles feature as a site marked by active subjects of trans-border politics. We propose a research agenda based on tracing those processes - both regulatory, activist, and everyday - that negotiate and contest how an individual is positioned as an 'irregular migrant'. The ethos behind such research is to explore how the most marginalised individuals reclaim or reconfigure subjecthood in ambiguous terms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transnational Ethnic Alliance Theory at its core posits that the majority ethnic group in one state will come to the defense of its ethnic brethren that are a minority in a neighboring state, if that group is facing discrimination or repression. The actions of political leaders in Moscow, who claimed that they were concerned about the Russian minority in Ukraine, suggest that modifications to this theory are necessary. Intervention will only occur when it is in the self-interest of the neighboring state or in the self-interest of the governing elite of that state. Russian perceptions of threats to Russian national interests originating in the West made the interference in the Ukrainian political system more likely. Similar perceptions of threats from abroad to foreign policy interests for other states, or their leaders, could lead to support for ethnic minorities. The resulting modified Transnational Ethnic Alliance Theory can be used as a tool to predict better and explain foreign interference anywhere that ethnic groups overlap between states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the broader context of regional studies, the South Atlantic comes across as a singular, yet still understudied case study for the formation, evolution, and regression of security regionalism dynamics. More so when South Atlantic countries have come to engage in increased regionally focused interactions through wider defence co-operation ties. However, they have also steadfastly eschewed any kind of permanent structures and shared sovereignty over sensitive security issues. This article strives to ascertain the limits and prospects of these regional security dynamics in the South Atlantic. With the focal points set on both South American and African shores, I pinpoint key overtures in this area and question their contribution to advancing an overall regionalisation process. Despite shared threat perceptions and an absence of major intra-regional conflicts, I arguethat South Atlantic security regionalism lacks a stable and permanent structure inasmuch as it lacksreal autonomy from the dictums of external regional powers, thus leaving the transatlantic space still in flux. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Undocumented families' rates of repatriation to Mexico from the United States have risen throughout the Obama administration, and this trend will likely increase under Donald Trump. This study describes the experiences of Mexican-born youth who grew up in the United States and are back in Mexico. While these children are participants in their families' migration, their input is rarely sought in decisions to leave or return to a country. This article shares transborder students' voices on their struggles to find their identities as Mexican, American, or some combination of the two. They reflect on their schooling experiences across countries, and how these challenges are compounded when they are new to learning in Spanish or indigenous languages in Mexico. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper examines the stories of long-term migrants from Poland that have settled in The Hague. Using in-depth interviews to learn about their migration histories, their characteristics, and their choices, much is learned about these Poles that live, work, and have started their families in The Hague. The patterns that emerged are characterized by doubt and hard work. There was little thought of long-tenn planning and choices were made rather haphazardly. A second finding is that ties with the receiving country are strong and ties with Poland are felt as being just as strong. These Polish migrants in The Hague participate in Dutch society to a high extent, even though contacts with non-migrated Dutch are low. Their integration is not weakened by the strong attachment to Poland or by the lack of contact with non-migrated Dutch. The results suggest that the difference between transnational and settlement migration might be smaller than described by Engbersen et al. (Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 39(6):959-981, 2013). This study sheds light on integration and participation processes within the context of the European Union. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines 'next' generation institutional transnationalism, a concept that refers to individuals born and/or brought up in a country of settlement who are involved in transnational organisations oriented towards their country of origin - in this case Mexican and Salvadoran groups active within the United States. Building on previous research which views parental transmission as a major cause of next-generation transnationalism, this paper explores an additional and previously overlooked influence - parental involvement in cross-border organisations or causes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study analyzes the changes in two cross-border processes: employment and giving birth in the United States among the northern border populations of Mexico between 2000 and 2010. Various statistical methods are used to analyze the trends and the changes in the socioeconomic profiles of those who perform these practices. While the numbers of cross-border workers dropped, cross-border births increased; people with higher levels of education became increasingly represented in both categories. These results suggest that this border has become a more selective "blockade" for transborder interactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The form of transborder interactions depends inter alia on trust and the convergence of values among neighbouring societies. In addition, cooperation is fostered by the similarity of language and a long history of cross-border contacts and collaboration. The Polish-German borderland emerged as a consequence of border treaties after World War II, and so is an example of a new neighbourhood, because both sides of the border are inhabited by people who settled there after 1945. There is a significant cultural distance between Poles and Germans. In this article we deal with the question of the perception of Germans by Poles - the attributes that are ascribed to them by the inhabitants of Zgorzelec, Gubin and Słubice. Are the (spatially) closest neighbours still divided by mental barriers? Are Germans judged by stereotypes? Or maybe, as a consequence of the widely undertaken transborder practices, these barriers have been done away with or their importance is diminishing, and with them the distance between Poles and Germans in twin towns? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Between 2001 and 2013, Hong Kong regulations permitted pregnant women from mainland China to travel to Hong Kong to deliver their babies. In this article, based on 30 in-depth interviews, I explore the transborder lives and identities of these mainland Chinese families who, motivated by cost considerations, citizenship and anticipated benefits for their children, chose to give birth to their babies in Hong Kong. In some cases, family networks providing flexible residential practices and family care, supported these transborder activities. However, the complexities of transborder life reveal the diverse 'identifications' within Hong Kong society and mainland families. Because neither administration totally accepts them, they are not full members of either society and so the identities they form are both plural and fragmented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article provides information on aspects related to development of transnational intimacies in Chinese-Western families residing in Beijing. Topics discussed include cultural situations involved in extension of research work, transitions in close relationships, intimate space in China, and geographical distances.

This article reveals how economic resources and legal status (vis-à-vis the U.S.) shape national attachments and citizenship practices in the context of the U.S.–Mexico border. Through the comparison of middle- and working-class Mexicans, this article highlights how middle-class Mexicans with tourist visas to travel to the U.S. develop what I calltransborder citizenship,while deported working-class migrants – legally banned from returning to the U.S. – engage in what I calltransnational citizenship. For middle-class Mexicans,transborder citizenshipis exhibited through their frequent cross-border experiences and cross-border citizenship practices; however, they remain rooted locally in Mexico. In contrast, for working-class return migrants,transnational citizenshipis defined by their restricted mobility even while they retain personal, social, and economic ties with the U.S. Ultimately, return migrants feel dislocated and uprooted in Mexico. The article uses data from observations and in-depth interviews with Mexican nationals living in the border town of Mexicali, Mexico, conducted from June 2009 to August 2010. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study of the unusually high incidence of young male suicides in the transnational Alevi-Kurdish community in London demonstrates the benefits of combining a Durkheimian structural approach with a qualitatively driven ethnographic methodology. Examination of the life experiences of those who committed suicide is located within the underlying social organization of the transnational community in which the suicides occurred, enabling us to explore unanticipated events that render certain groups more at risk of committing suicide. Interviews with significant others facilitated a deeper understanding of the personal life paths of those who committed suicide. The suicide cases followed a particular assimilation trajectory that gradually positioned them in a ‘rainbow underclass’, an anomic social position leading to suicide. Despite the sensitivity of the subject, participants appreciated the opportunity to discuss their experience frankly and contribute towards a better understanding of the underlying causes in a desperate attempt to prevent further suicides. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholars consider Latin American migration toward Europe to be a case study in the feminization of international migration. However, these studies have not focused on second-generation girls. Beginning from a gender and intergenerational approach, this paper stresses the agency role played by the reunified teenage daughters of Ecuadorian migrants both in Ecuador as well as in Southern Europe. The discussion is based on two transnational ethnographic studies conducted with Ecuadorian children aged 13–18 and their families in two medium-sized Southern European cities, Genoa and Seville, and in Ecuador between 2008 and 2011. First, the paper shows that girls carry out an essential task as caretakers in the transnational household, both in the point of origin and destination. Despite these responsibilities, they show a higher commitment to school, both in terms of time spent in school and their results. Secondly, it analyses how girls negotiate their role both inside and outside of the family, challenging the parents’ moral and sexual control strategies. The results disclose an identity struggle in the everyday lives of these girls: they participate in the migration project of the transnational family, but simultaneously they implement practices of resistance and renegotiation addressing the traditional division of gender roles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the paper is to identify the cross-national differences and similarities in policy-making trends on science in society (SiS) based on the comparative analysis of national reports from FP7 project “Monitoring Policy and Research Activities Related to Science in Society in Europe”. Science in society in EU is characterized by two parallel processes: Europeanization and diversity of science and innovation policies. The focus of the analysis is to explore the possible indications of Europeanization as well as diversities and find elements of certain elements of core–periphery model. The focus of the analysis is to explore the existence of common issues of SiS and on the other side different policy actions and national priorities. Although the analysis reveals the presence of Europeanization process diversities and divides are still present which draws attention to a core–periphery model. While common trends can be recognized on the theoretical and contextual level mainly coming from the various processes of Europeanization, the core–periphery model is simultaneously present on the practical level of governance and policy-making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the paper is to present the cooperation nets generated as a result of the operation of an organization of a cross-border scope and impact, and such is the Spree-Neisse-Bober Euroregion, and to evaluate and assess their role in creating the bonds among the inhabitants. The main research area is the role that the SNBE plays in creating social connections. The authoresses will pay close attention to: the characteristics of Polish-German relations in the borderland; existing social networks within the frames of created partnerships, and the role of the Euroregion as an institution fostering the development of transborder community. The analysis presented here is the result of the research project “Trust beyond Borders. Sprewa-Nysa-Bóbr Euroregion in Perspective of Integrating Processes in Polish-German Borderland”. Conducted in 2013, it used content analysis, survey (800 respondents) and unstructured interviews (70 experts from Poland and Germany) methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]