ABSTRACT
Introduction: Territory and Transnationalism in Migrants’ Lives The concept of a nationally defined territory – a homeland – is something that underpins experiences of both migration and national identity, forming an important overlap between the two. For national identity, the recognition of a national homeland is a central component of national consciousness.1 Likewise, the relationship with territory, place and ‘home’ is pivotal to migration.2 After migration, the national territory exerts an even more powerful influence on the national psyche. Not only does it represent the past, the place where lives would have been lived if migration had not happened, but it also has an important part to play in the present; images of and connections with the homeland are entrenched in the everyday lives of migrants. While permanent return migration may remain an imaginary goal for many migrants, the idea that the homeland is not revisited at all after migration is equally mythical. Focusing on three themes, this chapter will investigate the post-migration relationships that the different interviewees have sustained with their national territories while living in Leicester. Firstly, it will explore how the different national homelands have been imagined, remembered and narrated, both individually and on a national, collective scale. Secondly it will consider the transnational networks that have been maintained with the homeland, and the varying levels of participation within them. Finally, it will address the related idea of diaspora and diasporic consciousness. National Territory The existence of a clearly defined homeland territory is, in most cases, a necessity for the construction and maintenance of national identity. As Herb and Kaplan argue, ‘territory is so inextricably linked to national identity that it cannot be
1 See particularly Anthony D. Smith, National Identity (London, 1991); Michael Billig, Banal Nationalism (London, 1995).
