Towards Transnationality as Practice: A Bourdieusian Approach to Studying the Transnationality of Tunisians in Italy

This book engages in the stream of transnational migration studies by drawing on an empirical examination of the ties that Tunisian migrants and their descendants, living in both northern and southern Italy, maintain with their country of origin.

Through the unique application of Pierre Bourdieu’s theoretical framework to the study of transnationality, the book demonstrates how transnationality can be understood in terms of practice - or as the actualisation of a habitus generated in relation to the social position of the agents, through a constant dialectic between interiority and exteriority. Rather than engaging with selected concepts in isolation, the work employs Bourdieu’s entire framework to develop a holistic interpretation of the transnational experience, where objective and subjective dimensions are intimately intertwined, ultimately leading to a praxeological approach to the analysis of migratory transnationality.

Towards Transnationality as Practice addresses a crucial gap in transnational migration studies, bringing a deeper understanding of the modalities through which transnationality is practised. It will appeal to scholars, researchers and advanced students with interests in migration and diaspora, transnationalism, cross-Mediterranean migration, social space, and belonging.

Andrea Calabretta is a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Padua (Italy). In 2023, he defended his doctoral thesis on the transnational relationship between Tunisian migrants in Italy and Tunisia at the same institution. He has participated in several research projects concerning the labour trajectories of migrants and asylum seekers, as well as the life paths of migrants’ descendants. He has published numerous articles in leading academic journals (e.g., Migration Letters, Identities). His research interests include migratory transnationality, the biographical trajectories of migrants’ descendants, identity-building processes among migrants and their descendants, European Islam, and processes of civic and social inclusion and exclusion.