Nationalism, exclusion, prejudices, discrimination and racism are phenomena that occur alongside current developments in globalization, migration and transnationalization. Racism has always been present in our daily life and has been exposed and examined through an enduring debate in academia, politics and social work. The current political climate emphatically illuminates this issue. Racism naturalizes social differentiations, creating an inferior and superior by referring to and ranking diverse biological characteristics (skin color, height or language) of individuals and whole groups. This social production of racism is a world-wide phenomenon. The nation state and its borders are crucial in this world-wide social production, in which gender, class and social inequality are inherently incorporated. An increasing field of research looks at racism from a transnational perspective; however, this is still a rather emerging focus. Therefore, we are pleased to be able to contribute to this debate with the focus topic of this issue on Racism and Transnationality. It aims at problematizing the structures and processes by which racism emerges and is transformed in transnational settings and its inherent discriminatory practices.
Rita Sanders’ paper Between “Western” racism and (Soviet) national binarism: Migrants’ and non-migrants’ ways of ordering Russia’s exclave of Kaliningrad deals with the interlinkages of racism and nationalism. In particular, Sanders looks at the ongoing conflicts between Russia and the “West” as well as the globally perceived threat of Islam that plays a central role in transnational settings.
Sara Bonfanti, in her paper A taste of “Brownies”: Shifting color lines among Indian Diasporas in southern Europe describes racialization as a process of translation, which is rampant in transnational migrations. In using the everyday racial experiences of Punjabis in northern Italy, she demonstrates that racial dynamics not only cross geopolitical borders but also other social boundaries like gender, ethnicity, class and religion.
The third paper of Erol Yildiz and Marc Hill, In-between as resistance: The post-migrant generation between discrimination and transnationalization, focuses on the second generation of the guest worker generation and their emigration (perceived from outside as return) from Germany/Austria to their parent’s country of origin, Turkey. The authors describe a “double distance” and racist ascriptions in both locations as part of their daily transnational lives.
The last paper, Afropolitanism: The other side of the coin by Hicham Gourgem, explores the constructions of African identities in African fiction. The author explores Afropolitanism as a form of articulating identities in 21st century African novels by examining how Afropolitan novels maintain an imperialist discourse and consolidate Western cultural hegemony at the same time.
We would also like to draw your attention to the general article by Katrine Mellingen Bjerke, Bodily attachment to place: The case of elderly migrants in Norway, in which she emphasizes the body as a crucial factor of mobile aging.
As always, the reports in the section “Mapping Transnationalism” and book reviews complete the issue.
We are pleased to announce that the forthcoming issue of Transnational Social Review will focus on the topic “Transnational Knowledge.”
We would like to thank the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft) for financially supporting this publication and the readers of Transnational Social Review for facing the challenges of racism in transnational contexts in this focus topic.
Institute of Education, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Germany
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