Socialization, Transnational adult practices, and identification.

The literature on transnational practices and identification assumes a direct relationship between adult practices and experiences and identification (e.g. Fligstein assumes a direct relationship between how often people travel abroad and identification as European).  It is possible, however, that the relationship be spurious.  Identifications develop and change during people’s lifetimes, but most studies agree that late adolescence or even earlier experiences are key for such developments.  Another problem that has thus far been side-stepped by researchers of transnationalism is the problem of a bi-directional relationship between transnational practices and identification.  The assumption has been that transnational practices explain identification, while the opposite may also be the case.  Until now, these questions remain unanswered for lack of adequate data.  This paper uses empirical data from a survey to both national and binational couples to answer both of them.