Transnationality as a fluid social identity

How does the concept of transnationalism fit within the framework of social identity? What is the relationship between ‘diaspora’ and ‘transnationalism’? Do transnational migrants define themselves as such, or are they labelled by others (researchers of simply ‘others’)? These are some of the questions we will try to answer in this paper by discussing the concept of ‘transnationalism’ through the lenses of several perspectives drawn from sociology, anthropology, psychology and political science. We want to highlight what is characteristic of ‘transnationalism’ as a concept by integrating it within the larger perspective of social identity and by comparing and contrasting it with nation/nationalism and diaspora. While belonging to one group implies exclusions from other comparable groups, we see transnationalism as fitting well within the postmodern idea of fluid identity, where defining one's self depends on the audiences without affecting the ‘true’ meaning of self.