Migrant Women's Networks and Intercultural Ireland

Theories of transnationalism (e.g., Portes et al, 1999; Vertovec, 1999) and more specifically "immigrant transnationalism" (e.g., Portes, 2001) assume a category of migrants who not only "live dual lives" in the sense of living in more than one country (Portes et al, 1999), but who also engage in long-distance, cross-border activities including migrant labour, "back and forth movements," and trans-border entrepreneurship. In this paper, based on initial field research with members of networks of women migrants in Ireland by Carla De Tona and me, I explore another approach to researching transnational networks of women migrants. Saskia Sassen (2000) argues that key dynamics of the globalized circuits of capital interlink with survival strategies of migrant women, which transgress international law and treaties, yet are connected to conditions created by the global economy. Sassen argues that migrant women are key actors in "counter circuits of globalisation," in that their earnings are a vital contribution to the survival of their families, their communities, and sending states