Seminar: Başak Bilecen – Transnational Social Protection

A Personal Network Perspective on Transnational Social Protection

Research on the cross-border practices underpin the spatial dimension of personal relationships highlighting that many individuals and their personal networks are not situated within one single nation-state over their life course. Having personal ties scattered across a variety of locations has implications on the resources one can draw from those personal ties. Protective resources such as care, information exchange, and financial assistance need to be constantly (re)negotiated within personal relationships. However, studies that examine such transnational practices within migrants’ personal networks face methodological challenges at both the data collection level and the data analysis level. For a comprehensive analysis of migrants’ life worlds, new methodological approaches to transnational practices and resource flows within personal networks are essential. Therefore, in this talk I aim to illustrate empirical ways to study social protection within and across nation-state borders by utilizing ego network analysis, participant observation, and qualitative interviews. Drawing on a mixed-methods design, I will demonstrate three different groups of international migrants and their social protection patterns within their personal networks as well as the meanings they attach to such ties.