Suchergebnisse

Migration and diversity divide Western European societies. Even in context of superdiversity, multiculturalism remains contested. This article analyses the critiques on multiculturalism and the rise of 'new realism' and explores ways to a 'multiculturalism 2.0'. In contexts of increasing diversity and complexity, in which social workers increasingly operate, recognizing complexity is a necessary starting point for taking the debate on multiculturalism beyond the pro–contra polarization.

Social work in the 21st century will be social work in contexts and times of superdiversity. The concept of superdiversity serves as a lens to understand rising complexities, impacted by migration. In this article, I first analyse the concept and the reality of superdiversity. Then the challenges for social work are explored, with a focus on divers-sensitive and transnational social work and the need for an interculturalisation of social work organisations.

Superdiversity implies increasing diversity within diversity, including the rise of flexible migration strategies: complex migration trajectories implying serial cross-border mobility between two or more countries. The article explores transmigration in the two main superdiverse Belgian cities of Brussels and Antwerp, based upon in-depth interviews with Brazilian, Ghanaian and Moroccan transmigrants. The article analyses the social problems related to transmigration, how these problems transcend borders and challenge urban social work and social policies at different levels. It explores why transmigration requires forms of multilevel governance to deal with people living beyond borders in the EU.

Abstract
Based on research amongst Brazilian and Moroccan temporary residents of the cities of Brussels and Antwerp (Belgium), this article engages with the changes in and current methodological approaches to migration studies. By demonstrating how the trajectories of many contemporary migrants are marked by ongoing mobility, it further complicates previous linear and unidirectional models of migration to move beyond a classical and potentially deterministic model of studying migrant trajectories. The authors illustrate how many contemporary migrants come and go, not always being sure how long they will stay in the different stopovers on their trajectories, when they will stop migrating or where they will eventually settle. Because of the temporality of their residence, many of these so-called 'transmigrants' are not only faced with the same problems and challenges as other migrants, arriving newly in another country and rebuilding social networks, but are additionally confronted with a number of risks that are related to their mobile lifestyle. Although globalization and the porosity of nation state borders facilitate transmigration, they result in juridical and practical complexities, reflected in transmigrants' everyday struggles. The authors explore these struggles and the difficulties and opportunities transmigrants encounter when they turn to their (transnational) networks to ask for support. Transmigrants' social life is not only oriented towards their country of residence, but consists of complex networks beyond boundaries. Through visits, telephone calls and the use of social media, many transmigrants create, sustain and (re)discover transnational as well as local social networks. While many address their transnational networks to partly alleviate their needs, the development of local networks still appears as indispensable.