Emotions in Motion How feelings are considered in the scope of migration sociological studies

The subject of this article deals with the manner in which emotions have so far been considered in sociological migration studies. Existing works focus primarily on emotions in a pathological or therapeutic way, so it has to be stated, that the often postulated emotional turn in social sciences has not yet fully reached the area of migration. So the valuable analytical potential of a perspective based on the sociology of emotions is not completely exploited because that would imply focusing on the general functions of emotions in contexts of migration. This article introduces interesting works which already deal with the carrying concepts of emotion work and emotional transnationality and suggests guidelines on how to broaden these analytical views in a non-pathological direction.


Introduction
In social sciences an "emotional turn" is often postulated at the moment (eg Schützeichel, 2006;Kleres, 2009). In studies focusing on the sociology of migration this turn has prevalently been disregarded until now, but the explicit consideration of emotions in this area is also revealing a growing interest (Wettergren, 2015;Albrecht, 2015). However, if emotions are considered in studies of migration, the perspective is often mostly pathological or follows a medicalbehavioristic argumentation (Lindqvist, 2013, p. 229). This means that if emotions are considered in studies of migration, the focus is especially on how migrants become ill because of negative feelings (eg Schulze, 2006). Existing studies mention primary mental health problems such as depressive, neurotic and psychosomatic indications in the context of migration (for example Assion, 2005). If the analytical view is furthermore therapeutic, the purposes of these works are how these problems can be solved. Yet, a non-pathologizing sociological approach to emotions can broaden the analytical view on the subject of migration. By focusing on the reciprocity of occurrences and on emotions experienced during the process of migration, the general functions of emotions and the way in which they are applied to interactions with others can be addressed (Svašek, 2010).
The purpose of this article is to explore in what way emotions have so far explicitly been considered in sociological migration studies. To this purpose, publications that are regarded as relevant in this respect will be described in a more detailed manner and the sense in which they deal with emotions will be elaborated on. Therefore, it is necessary to critically examine to what extent the consideration of emotions in a non-pathological way has been comprehended in the sociology of migration up until now. This article aims to highlight the advantages in which the sociology of emotions can contribute with its specific perspective. In this respect, it will be shown that especially the theoretical concepts of emotion work and emotional transnationality can be fruitful and perpetuating for emotionorientated migration studies. But these have been systematized within an insufficient scope until now. Furthermore, the conceptualizing of a basically non-pathological perspective has not yet been fully observed, so the valuable analytical potential of a perspective based on the sociology of emotion has not been completely exploited.

Is emotion work a carrying concept of a non-pathological perspective on the sociology of migration?
The landscape of social science dealing with the subject of migration is currently hardly reviewable: Hardly has any other area undergone such a boom within the last few years. Especially the obvious and constantly growing social relevance of the topic has led to a drastic increase of studies in the related research area, which can now hardly be grasped. (Kalter 2008, p. 12) Despite this multitude of sociological migration studies it has to be mentioned that the explicit consideration of emotions has largely been ignored. Only a few number of projects that examine the reciprocity of the processes of migration and the emotional experience of individuals from a sociological point of view exist (Albrecht, 2015;Wettergren, 2015). Apart from this, emotions of migrants have almost exclusively been discussed from a medical, behavioral and primarily pathological perspective. That means that the negative effects of being emotional are the primary focus of these discussions. To illustrate these approaches with an example: Schulze formulates her research question as focusing on the meaning of illness and health in the life story of migrants. Her project was conceptualized in a psychiatric context (Schulze, 2006) and emotions like anger and anxiety are only considered because they were problematic for the migrants. These feelings were seen as possible reasons for becoming ill. This perspective now has to be systematically broadened.
This implies that especially prior knowledge has to be examined, which refers to the process of migration: Migrants do not solely have to be considered as victims of the circumstances, who are damned to passiveness and illness. They develop, on the contrary, by interacting with a possibly unknown environment with varying creative possibilities to perpetuate their capacity to act even under uncertain circumstances.
From an emotion-sociological point of view, emotions are relevant in any social context, and social interactions and relationships are only understandable adequately if emotions are analytically involved. As motives of actions they are as important as, for example, instrumental rationality (Flam, 2002;1990). By taking on an emotion-focused, non-pathological perspective, it is possible to shed light on the general functions of emotions and their use in interactions during the process of migration, because: Based on our feelings we develop our own view of the world. (Hochschild, 1983, p. 41) In this respect, Svašek mentions two main directions of entangling the research fields of migration and emotions: One direction focuses on how migrants are emotionally influenced in their society of origin, whereas the other direction analyzes how emotions are influenced in the society of arrival 1 -where particularly the emotional interactions between migrants and local people are sociologically interesting. Especially from a transnational perspective, both approaches have to be considered as being linked to each other. Existing research projects address, for instance, the interactions between migrants and local people or emotions which are linked to specific spaces of the society of origin or the countries of arrival (Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 2010). Svašek calls it a superordinated task to elaborate, how emotional processes form human mobility and, on the other hand, in what way mobility influences emotional processes.
According to that, people develop different kinds of emotions in the process of migration. This refers to people who leave their context of origin as well as to those who are left behind: anger, anxiety, guilt, joy, hope. In the work of Svašek (2010, p. 866f), hints already exist that migrants practice emotion work thus the cognitive modification of emotions in the sense of Hochschild's concept, in order to maintain their sense of family ties over distance, which is caused by time and space (see eg Baldassar, 2007;Ryan, 2008;Maehara, 2010;Lau, 2010).
Especially in the context of the debate of care, Ehrenreich and Hochschild state the necessity of emotion work by women who had to migrate for economic reasons and had to leave their children behind in their society of origin, while their children developed a so-called "care drain" -which means a deficit of emotional care (Hochschild, 2002).
Knowing that their families have few options, they are left with no choice but to put their emotional needs aside. (Parreñas, 2002, p. 42) These works give the first hints on how people deal emotionally with specific challenges caused by migration.
In their context, terms like 'relationship work' and 'emotion work' were formed to describe the invisible practices of women in their specific mixture of work and love and became popular, first only for work in the private sector then also for the jobrelated work of women. (Brückner, 2010, p. 46) In particular, the necessity for migrant women to push their own emotional needs aside -because of existential questions-is considered in the context of Hochschild's concept of emotion work. These emotion-sociological components were however not fully analyzed in the care discussions and were only analyzed referring to special life and work circumstances. It therefore seems to be relevant to broaden this narrow frame.
A study, which uses the concept of emotion work in the context of migration in an innovative way and which combines it creatively with other theoretical elements, was conducted by the Swedish sociologist Mona Lindqvist (2013). The explorative analysis is based on six narrative-biographical interviews, done with female migrants in Sweden, and illustrates to what extent emotion work becomes a necessary practice during the process of integration for women who migrated to Sweden from different countries of origin (eg, the former Soviet Union, the Balkan States, the Middle East).
Lindqvist assumes that emotion work is an intrinsic element of the cognitive process of integration, which is often primarily regarded as a rational process of learning the language, norms and rules of the society of arrival (2013, p. 231). In this context the author refers to Bourdieu, stating that migrant women create a 'foreign habitus', which enables them to develop and perform as a so-called "migrant self" (Lindqvist, 2013, p. 229). This allows them to feel part of the society of arrival without losing the sense for their own 'inner' self. For Lindqvist, the main marker for the foreign habitus is the feeling of being a stranger. That emotion is caused by the impression that one's own emotional behavior must be controlled in the public sphere of the new society -by managing it and trying to comply with assumed normative expectations. The foreign habitus enables women to show the right behavior by choosing the emotional style which is defined as appropriate for a certain situation (Lindqvist, 2013, pp. 233-242).
Restrictively, it has to be mentioned that Lindqvist's foreign habitus term, which refers to Bourdieu, remains on the level of a theoretical conception and that there are some shortcomings in its illustration on the basis of the empirical material. Therefore, it is indeed possible to point out that a feeling of strangeness can be stated, but how female migrants develop their foreign habitus in a concrete sense remains undetermined with regard to the empirical material that is presented. Furthermore, she only states according to Reddy (2001) that different emotional regimes exist. She postulates that in Western Europe emotion cultures are characterized by the "emphasis placed upon one's ability to restrain from overly intense and spontaneous expressions of feelings" (Lindqvist, 2013, p. 231). So she again uses a theoretical conception in a rather too simplified way. It would have been interesting if her analysis inductively pointed out how feeling rules (Hochschild, 1983), which offer social frames of how to feel in specific situations, and in which the emotional regimes are manifested on a micro-sociological level, and which were described by the migrants themselves.
Nevertheless, Lindqvist's analysis highlights that in the context of migration, it is necessary to practice emotion work -her analysis, however, solely focuses on six female migrants from different contexts of origin with different educational, job-related, ethical, political, and religious backgrounds. All of the persons interviewed were confronted with traumatic experiences in their home countries; they all shared a refugee background (Lindqvist, 2013, p. 233). Therefore it can be questioned if this sample is also implicitly created from a pathological point of view. It has to be pointed out that situations and interactions of traumatized people and refugees should certainly be studied and analyzed, but an exclusive focus on this point of view seems to be too short-sighted and needs to be expanded. The process of migration is not only an involuntary, traumatizing and negative event, but also implies many different kinds of ways of embodiment which has to be considered analytically as well.
Migration could be understood in this respect as an experience of biographical discontinuity, which according to Schütz (1972) can involve individual crises -but does not necessarily have to (Breckner, 2005, p. 16). Migration can trigger processes of transformation which result in specific challenges to be dealt with by the individual (Breckner, 2005, p. 56). Migrants, thus, have to be increasingly brought into focus as subjects of their own narratives: This way, it is possible to recognize the actors and narrators as individuals who shape transitions themselves instead of constructing them as executors of cultural logic or victims of their presumed conflicts. (Breckner, 2005, p. 56) Hence, it is questionable if a conceptualization of migrants as active agents instead of only seeing them as victims of the circumstances has been successfully and consequently accomplished in the study carried out by Lindqvist. Ultimately, this was probably not the purpose of her study, but then one needs to criticize that the main analytical advantages of a nonpathological emotion-sociological approach are not entirely employed. Anyway, the author manages to quote in reference to Bourdieu's concept of habitus that migrants have a certain scope of acting in which they fill in a creative way. The "migrant self", which unfortunately remains undetermined, is able to balance external requirements and the internal sense for the self. A more systematic conceptualization of individuals as active creators, whose actions and interpretations could have been elaborated in detail on the basis of the empirical material, would have made better use of the potential of a sociological approach to emotions. Wettergren (2015), another author dealing with emotions and emotion work in the process of migration, focuses on the socalled 'emotional careers' of migrants who came involuntarily from Somalia, Eritrea, and Ethiopia and examines different phases of the process of migration (the entrance phase; the transitory phase; the ex-migratory phase and/or the extended migratory phase) (Wettergren, 2015). She collected her empirical material from 2006 until 2009: During the research period of her ethnographic study, she watched interactions between people seeking asylum and the so-called 'Frontline Workers' (social workers in the field of migration) in Italy and Sweden, and interviewed 11 people in that context.
Regarding this, the author assumes that the experience of having to leave one's society of origin and of not being welcomed in the society of arrival, as well as suffering from shame and humiliation, can possibly cause fundamental traumata. For this reason, her article expresses a rather pathologizing sociological perspective on emotions, which conceptualizes migrants as being passive individuals rather than active and creative ones.
The topic of Hochschild's emotion work also shines through Wettergren's article, but as in the work of Lindqvist, the consideration of feeling rules described by the migrants is mainly disregarded. Wettergren assumes that the aim of the accomplished emotion work of migrants concentrates on two important dimensions: On the one hand, on the dimension of hoping that their status and power will increase in the future, and on the other hand, on the dimension of preserving their dignity and self-respect against external processes of humiliation and abasement, while waiting for a decision on their application for asylum (see also Scheff, 2009). The effects of these processes on the migrants' self-esteem are thus the main subject of interest.
Referring to Hochschild, the author distinguishes deep-acting from surface-acting, while only stating forms of emotion work in Sweden for the so-called "ex-migratory phase", during which the migrants identify themselves with the system of their society of arrival. In Italy, Wettergren also analyzes forms of emotion work during the entrance phase and the extended migratory phase. Wettergren states that migrants practice emotional deep acting by framing interactions which make them feel ashamed in a way that they are able to feel sympathy for the frontliners. Finally, it has to be mentioned that according to the empirical material, this sort of emotion work could have been illustrated in a more detailed way.
With reference to Goffman, the strategy of surface-acting describes a possibility for migrants to perform as 'compliant' and 'good' in the society of arrival. Wettergren (2015) demonstrates on the basis of a quotation how migrant Ben shows gratefulness, loyalty and obeisance, because he is of the opinion that this is exactly what the Swedish interviewer expects. She assumes that Ben controls emotions of shame in this situation and interprets his concluding laughter as an expression of the tension of the requirement for showing certain emotions while having to control others. Restrictively, it has to be said that this single passage could only be caused by a situation-specific interviewer effect, and that the surface actor in the context of migration should still be made plausible in a larger scope.
However, Wettergren's analysis allows a deeper understanding of the so-called "emotional careers" of migrants in regard to the forms of their performed emotion work. Her discussed article is an excerpt of her ethnographically-inspired study "A Normal Life", which deals with the interactions of asylum-seekers and frontliners in Sweden and Italy, and marginally broaches the issue of emotional processes, emphasizing that her research project does not focus on the analysis of emotions and emotion work primarily. Instead, the results of the study should be seen as a basis for further research in the field of emotion sociology (Wettergren, 2013, p. 13 Wettergren highlights in her paper that the frontliners act on the maxim of making the migrants more autonomous and moving them to conform themselves to the social rules which are presented as specific to the society of arrival: With the Arci frontliners it was clear that when a participant in the project failed to discipline himself according to the 'solicited' autonomous person it was framed as a lack of knowledge and a failure to understand his own best interests -as if he were a child. (Wettergren, 2013, p. 64) This means, according to the observations of the author, that asylum seekers try to 'teach' migrant children how to discipline themselves. If this attempt fails, misbehavior is interpreted as being based on lack of knowledge and as the inability of migrants to act in their own interests. Also, if not defined explicitly, Wettergren highlights the feeling rules which are necessary from the point of view of the social workers for migrants being successful in the society of arrival (disciplining themselves, being autonomous). It also would have been interesting to highlight how this is experienced by the migrants. Especially when frontliners expressed anger towards the migrants, an emotional asymmetry became apparent. Wettergren interpreted this in the sense of a micro-policy of emotions, those who are subordinated have to control their emotions while superordinates can use a greater emotional register.
The author, however, also deals in part with the emotions of the asylum seekers. For instance, a refugee from Ethiopia named Liam talks about the emotions he experienced in the society of arrival. He broaches the issue of his skin color and articulates his feeling of always being seen as a stranger. Liam does not feel comfortable in Sweden because people stare at him and no one wants to talk to him (Wettergren, 2013, p. 133f). Johanna from Somalia also reports on her experiences in the country of arrival, in doing so she negates the question that she was confronted with racist behavior. She mentions that this maybe never happened because she does not have a paranoid personality. In her opinion, how situations are interpreted is relevant, and she points out that she had decided not to dive deep into them. There would be an exception if she is directly confronted with racist statements. Wettergren interprets this as emotion work: While Johanna's attitude may appear easy-going and carefree, from an emotion sociological perspective she had to perform emotion work to reach this point of detachment. By reframing situations, avoiding the negative influence (as she saw it) of migrant networks, and 'staying inside her head' (not looking for gazes), she protected her own-feelings. (Wettergren, 2013, p. 137) Wettergren's ethnographic study thus includes hints of emotion work which can become necessary for migrants in the context of the society of arrival. By redefining situations which can partially be racist Johanna keeps negative influences away and preserves her positive self-esteem.
The overview given in the present article shows that studies which deal in a first approximation with emotions and the concept of emotion work in the context of migration already exist, but furthermore the summary illustrates that a full systematical analysis of these topics has not yet been done, and that the consideration of feeling rules is disregarded. Moreover, none of the studies exploring the subject of emotion and migration so far are based on a consequently non-pathological perspective, but migrants have commonly been conceptualized as primary traumatized. Apart from that, they are usually described as not being the active shapers of their lives but rather as being victims of the circumstances feeling ashamed and humiliated. Yet, these conceptualizations definitely have their merits. But aiming for a study in the field of a sociology of emotions that focuses on the general functions of emotions in interactions during the process of migration, none of the research done so far on this subject goes far enough. The potential of an accordant perspective has not been fully tapped yet.

Emotional transnationality as a carrying concept of a non-pathological perspective on the sociology of migration?
After having described sociological studies in the context of migration which explicitly consider emotions and primary focus on the subject of emotion work, the following chapter highlights studies which deal with the concept of emotional transnationality. It is assumed that this concept might be useful to combine elements of emotion sociology and migration sociology, if it is utilized in a non-pathological way.
Referring to Faist et al. (2014, p. 12), transnationality can solidly be defined as the degree of connectivity of individuals and groups across national borders. The concept of emotional transnationality was amplified in a small number of publications and interpreted in the sense of an emotional transnationalism. In a first approach, Gu introduces this term as follows: […] the emotions experienced when immigrants and their children search for behavioral guidance and a foundation of moral judgements from the cultural norms of both their sending and receiving societies. (Gu, 2010, p. 691) Emotional transnationalism thus refers to emotions which individuals experience in their social space of cultural transnationalism, whereas the conception of a "two-cultures-model" has to be criticized at this point. Cultures cannot be regarded as locked, but have to be analyzed as hybrid entities (see also Bhabha, 2000) which are continuously in process. Furthermore, besides the cultural influences, other contexts exist which can affect individuals and their emotions. So far, the term of emotional transnationalism has exhibited deficits in its conceptualization and has almost exclusively been used from a pathological perspective. The study of Gu, for example, only deals with forms of suffering -depression, frustration, stress and pressure -of Taiwanese women after they had migrated to Chicago, while the author at least constructs them as agents, who develop strategies to deal with their suffering, and thus considers the migrants as active shapers in regard to the way they cope with their distress. She assumes that Taiwanese migrants continuously switch between the norms of the society of arrival and those of the society of origin -in trying to control their behavior as effectively as possible (Gu, 2010, p. 687). This also gives hints of practices of emotion work, which are not literally mentioned as such in Gu's study. The concept of feeling rules also shines through but it seems to be oversimplified to localize these norms in two different societies. It would be fruitful to analyze the specific situations in which migrants decide to feel and act according to special norms.
As one reason for "mental distress", the author indicates that migrants have to struggle with ambivalent feelings that arise from the discrepancies experienced in the search for their "cultural identity" and from the specific power dynamics in the context of arrival. Gu states that, so far, little has been explored about how aspects of transnational culture affect the emotions of migrants.
Individuals use this transnational cultural toolkit to interpret their behavior and interactions with others. These interpretations can be affected by various factors, such as social locations (gender/ race/ class), social relations, and psychological needs. It is thus important to contextualize individual interpretations and identify key factors that shape perceptions. (Gu, 2010, p. 690) Although Gu concedes that emotions experienced within transnational cultural spaces do not have to be solely negative, she declares this pathological focus as the most interesting one. She elaborates from a mental distress perspective, that the migrated women are stressed by the fact that they have to decide whether they should act according to Taiwanese or to American norms towards their husbands, mothers-in-law, and children. In this respect, they ask themselves if they act "American enough" and if their children meanwhile act "too American" (Gu, 2010, p. 694f). Therefore, which feeling rules depends on the specific context and situation they resort to: In the working environment women tended to act "American", while they switched between Taiwanese and American norms in their private surroundings. However, the question on how this clear classification of norms has been established analytically remains unexplained and could finally be only legitimated adequately by the own interpretations of the interviewed partners.
The concept of emotional transnationalism postulated by Gu can in a way also be found in Falicov's work: If home is where the heart is, and one's heart is with one's family, language, and country, what happens when your family, language and culture occupy two different worlds? This has more or less always been the plight of immigrants. The outcome was often to live with one's heart divided. (Falicov, 2005, p. 399) Therefore, migrants keep up their emotional and economic relations to their society of origin. However, Falicov's article is written from an explicitly therapeutic-pedagogic perspective and speaks moreover of practices of assimilation. Seen from the current state of migration research and theory, the concept of assimilation is highly questionable (for details see for example Amelina, 2013).
As therapists, we are curious about the multiple ways in which migrants and their children combine transnational and assimilative practices inside and outside their homes as different stages of their lives, and they use these various combinations to construct their flexible hyphenated identities. (Falicov, 2005, p. 400) Falicov's work involves developing guidelines for therapeutic work with migrants through insight gained by watching practices of emotional transnationalism. Furthermore, her study focuses mainly on the difficulties between the first and the second generation of migrant individuals -emphasizing the instance that parents ritually try to keep up the emotional connectivity to their society of origin by telling stories of the past which should establish emotional ties to the present, developing narrative coherence, and maintaining familial continuity. The author assigns protective effects for migrants of these culturally influenced narratives as well as the continuous connection to the context of origin.
New research shows that the rapid assimilation advocated in the past appears to correlate with more symptoms of depression and anxiety, less personal satisfaction, and less educational achievement for adults and for children than the maintenance of social and cultural capital and validation of ethnic identity made possible by transnationalism. (Falicov, 2005, p, 405) Thus, her consideration of the concept of emotional transnationalism has also been established from a merely pathological perspective. Gu  the ways migrants handle their -also culturally induced-stress and suffering, she analyzes people with a background of migration in a first approximation as active shapers of their own lives. Falicov uses the concept of emotional transnationalism only for showing guidelines for therapeutic practices to work against depression and states of anxiety of migrants. From an emotion sociological point of view which aims to gather the general functions of emotions experienced in the process of migration, the analytical potential of the concept of emotional transnationalism is not fully used.
Nevertheless, it has to be mentioned at this point that a concept of emotional transnationality or a concept of emotional transnational spaces could indeed be fruitful for further sociological research on emotions in the context of migration. By considering the studies of Faist et al., Gu and Falicov, emotional transnationality could in a first approach be understood as emotional relation or emotional connectivity of individuals and groups across national borders, which also implies the handling of feeling rules and patterns of interpretation, that also could have their roots in different cultural contexts and have to be considered in various situations. These feeling rules and patterns serve the individual for interpreting their own actions and the interactions with others, which does not mean that individuals can only act in conformity with these rules. On the contrary, a decision could be to position themselves against these rules or patterns and in doing so being capable of acting in their own way. In a cultural-symbolic way, transnational emotional spaces which influence people irrespectively of the place where they de facto are were created. Furthermore, an emotional interconnection develops which links the society of origin and the society of arrival because in these emotional transnational spaces the migrants' emotions are in a relational context with the autochthonous people, and in a relational context with the people in the society of origin as well. So the concept of emotional transnational spaces can be conceptualized multidimensional and could convey an interesting frame for analyzing emotions. With the aid of such a conceptualization, the general functions of emotions experienced in interactions in the context of migration could be analyzed in an adequate way.

Conclusion
In summary, it can be stated that the results of the studies presented in this article provide a first indication on the question as to how far migrants have to perform emotion work, and they highlight that emotional relations of people are not capped by national borders, but remain relevant and unfold their social impact. In this way, emotional transnational spaces emerge, which are actively co-constructed by migrants.
On the one hand, in the studies described above, the aspects of emotion work in the context of migration refer to keeping up familial relations after being migrated, whereas the care debate represents their main focus. The studies thus refer to a very specific context. Wettergren's and Lindqvist's works broaden this frame by focusing on emotion work practiced during the process of migration in a more general way. The authors, however, follow an implicitly pathological perspective by mainly seeing migrants as individuals who are traumatized by the process of migration and who have to cope with shame and abasement in the context of their arrival. In Wettergren's work, the pathological perspective is more distinct than in Lindqvist's case, where certain spaces of acting are still attributed to the migrants.
Generally, it has to be mentioned that such a perspective is indeed justified, but it does not fully exploit the potential that a theoretical foundation of research in emotion sociology could actually provide. Such an adequately realized research focus would consequently concentrate on the general functions of emotions in interactions in the context of migration and consider migrants not only as victims of the circumstances but also as active shapers of their lives. Nevertheless, both authors provide interesting aspects regarding the extrapolation of the subject of emotions in the context of migration and demonstrate that the concept of emotion work deserves further attention in the future.
The studies, which refer to the aspects of emotional transnationalism, also only analyze the subject of migration from a primary pathological perspective. Gu, for example, focuses on the suffering of migrants who are torn between different -also culturally induced-requirements and have to cope with this situation. The study is based on an explicit mental distress perspective, which the author considers to generally be the most interesting approach. However, Gu gives credit to migrants for at least certain spaces of action in handling their suffering. The work of Falicov, which also highlights elements of emotional transnationalism, is completely conceptualized from a therapeutic perspective. The aim is to develop guidelines on how to deal with migrants who are depressed and anxious.
From the perspective of a sociology of emotions, the consideration of the general functions of emotions in contexts of migration is important. The existing studies about emotional transnationalism do not exploit the full potential to which such a focus could actually offer. The conceptualization of emotional transnationality as emotional connectivity of individuals and groups across national borders, which could also imply the handling of and the positioning to culturally different feeling rules and patterns of interpretation in various situations, could be fruitful for a non-pathological emotion-focused sociological perspective on migration in the future.
Hence, this analysis exhibits that for a further entanglement of a sociology of migration and a sociology of emotion, it could be quite relevant and useful to consider Hochschild's concepts of emotion work and feeling rules as well as the concept of emotional transnationalism used in the studies described above. The specific analytical advantages of a perspective that is based on a sociology of emotions can especially be gained from a non-pathological point of view on the process of migration, which so far has not yet been applied to in a consequent manner. In the scope of future research, this aspect has to be changed.