Summary
Since the beginning of times men and women have migrated and migration has always entailed multiple affiliations and identities. The fact of having diverse affiliations has, however, had different consequences and meanings at different times. Being "mixed" was, for example, a positive thing for Montaigne for whom a decent person was a multicultural one: "un honnête homme est un homme mêlé". At other times, being of mixed descent has had terrifying consequences, when the combination was not considered socially desirable. In our days, the immigration to Europe from non-European or from semi-peripheral countries has given the questions of cultural identities and cultural integration a new turn.
In the last ten years there has been a growing awareness that immigrants from non-European countries have established new types of transnational affiliations, which differ from the traditional immigrant/minority positions known previously. In contrast to the classical models of integration and assimilation, we are now seeing simultaneously local and pluralistic identities, simultaneously ethnic and transnational affiliations, and simultaneously collectivistic and individualistic attitudes. Such combinations are challenging the use of well-established concepts and theories in psychology and the behavioural sciences.
The widespread use of electronic communication, and the constantly changing borders of the public space of minority groups in Europe has led to affiliations that seem to develop independently of the old or the new country. Such transnational affiliations entail a certain degree of insight in the rules and regulations of both old and new societies, but no strong ties to either of them, and new conceptions of citizenship.
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