Abstract

Many case studies on the rationale and purpose of transnational housing initiatives and so-called remittance houses have been published over the past two decades. Still missing, though, is a framework to illustrate the conceptual value of researching these buildings and their ways of mediating the relationships between movers and stayers. With a view to this, the article illustrates what remittance houses ‘do’ to narrow down the gaps that emerge—in space, time, status, and knowledge—between migrants and their communities of origin. As our fieldwork with Ecuadorian migrants in Europe and their left-behind counterparts shows, remittance houses are more than investments, or resources for migrants’ emotional attachment and dreams of return. They are also central to the negotiation of class, status and belonging, and to the very interplay between housing and home along the course of migration. As ‘agents’ in themselves, these houses shape the transnational connections between distant and disparate places, and the circulation of home-related ideas and practices across them. Over time, they embody a variety of meanings and expectations that, unlike the buildings, are far from fixed or immobile.

中文翻译：

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固定的地点，变化的距离：厄瓜多尔的汇款行和移民对房屋的谈判

摘要

在过去的二十年中，已经发表了许多关于跨国住房计划和所谓的汇款房屋的理由和目的的案例研究。但是，仍然缺少一个框架来说明研究这些建筑物的概念价值及其调解搬家者与住户之间关系的方式。鉴于此，本文说明了汇款所采取的“措施”，以缩小移民与其原籍社区之间在空间，时间，地位和知识方面出现的差距。正如我们对欧洲厄瓜多尔移民及其留守的同行所做的实地调查所显示的那样，汇款所不仅仅是投资，还是移民对情感依恋和梦想返回的资源。它们对于阶级，地位和归属的谈判也很重要，以及移民过程中住房与房屋之间的相互作用。这些房屋本身就是“代理人”，它们塑造了遥远和不同地方之间的跨国联系，以及与之相关的家庭观念和实践的传播。随着时间的流逝，它们体现了各种含义和期望，与建筑物不同，它们远非固定的或固定的。