ABSTRACT
Migration, as a process, is intimately linked to one’s capacity, and sometimes necessity, to imagine life in a different place and time. This sociocognitive aspect is not only a forward-looking engagement with future times and places; our minds are actively involved in retrospectively reconstructing the past as part of reimagining memories that align and reinforce beliefs and dreams of a ‘better’ future. Drawing from literature on transnational migration and cognitive decision-making, supported by empirical examples from across the globe, we explore how this imaginative dimension is an essential feature of migrant lives, including those who seemingly ‘remain in place’. Furthermore, we offer cultural and political logics for why the omission of the role of imaginative ‘mindsets’ of certain migrant groups can distort our perception of their mobility, especially compared with their highly mobile, privileged counterparts – the ‘creative class’ – who benefit from the opposite assumption: their physical mobility is a marker of their productive mindset and creative talent, rather than a threat to health and safety. Conceptualizing the ‘transnational mindset’ of migrants as an underestimated facet in transnational migration literature, we problematize different mobilities and their intersections by asking: Why are some people on the move elevated as creative or imaginative, while others are seen as problems or threats?
