On movement, identity, and belonging. Exploring the seashores of the Atlantic

Abstract

This thematic dossier focuses on the complex and intense field of migration movements across the Atlantic. Its articles explore how migration structurally impacts the social and cultural identities of those who move and those who do not, while addressing key topics such as aspirations and motivations, integration and positioning strategies, transnational links, and family relations at distance. It draws on a problematization of human mobility and migration that equates both movement and stasis (Faist, 2013; Glick Schiller & Salazar, 2013) and analyzes the interconnectivity of these processes in light of identity production and reproduction. The articles discuss not only the purposes and consequences of movement per se, but also, and most significantly, the uprooting activities and identity negotiations of those who migrate and those who stay behind.