Transnational practices and local lives. Quran courses via Skype in Norwegian-Pakistani families

With the emergence of an adult generation of descendants of migrants who are entering the labour market, marrying and having children, questions of transnationalism are made current in new ways. This article engages in the discussion of transnationalism and ‘the second generation’ by taking the everyday life of families as a starting point for discussing the role and meaning of what can be defined as transnational practices. The practice in question is the use of online Quran courses among families of Pakistani background in Norway. Employing Levitt and Glick Schiller’s distinction between ways of being and ways of belonging in transnational social fields, this article discusses how to understand this practice and its transnational dimensions.

"(R)revealing a social relation or practice that crosses borders, does not automatically imply that it is the transnational dimension(s) of that practice or relation that is the most significant for the ones that engage in it. Through grounded, ethnographic studies of the everyday family lives of an emergent generation of descendants, raised in the country their parents migrated to, we can gain insights into complex experiences and trajectories." (Aarseth, 2016)