Transnational Social Relations: A Comparison between First and Second Generation Migrants and the Autochthonous Population

Contemporary societies exhibit an increasing level of transnational transactions in different areas of social life, i.e. migration, social relations, economic and cultural exchanges. Especially in migration research it has been argued that classic forms of migration have been replaced by transnational forms of migration, where migration is not a one-way process of relocation, but characterized by forms of commuting and return migration as well as by dense transnational networks. Until now though, empirical research on the prevalence of transnational activities in different areas and for different groups of migrants is still scarce – especially in respect to the second generation. Moreover, the phenomenon might be less “migration”-specific as the autochthonous population is more likely to start and maintain transnational relations as well.
In our contribution, we focus on the prevalence and extent of transnational social relations for different groups of migrants – for members of the first and second generation – as well as for autochthonous persons and aim at the identification of determinants. Our empirical study is based on a recent sample of migrants from six different countries in Switzerland and on an added sample of Swiss. Since this survey contains a differentiated set of measurements of political, economic, social and cultural forms of transnational relations as well as a broad range of further variables we are in an excellent position to demonstrate and compare the extent of transnational social relations for the different groups as well as to analyze determinants that foster transnational social relations.