Migration, Legal Identity, and Social Belonging: A Qualitative Study of Transnational Communities

Abstract

This study aimed to explore how members of transnational communities in Tehran interpret legal identity, negotiate belonging, and experience inclusion or exclusion across everyday institutional and social settings. A qualitative research design was used. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with 24 participants from transnational communities living in Tehran. Participants included migrants, refugees, return migrants, and members of mixed-background families who had direct experience with cross-border mobility, legal documentation, and belonging in more than one national or cultural context. Participants were selected through purposive and snowball sampling. Interviews continued until theoretical saturation was reached at the twenty-first interview, with three additional interviews conducted to confirm the stability of the categories. Interviews were audio-recorded with consent, transcribed verbatim, anonymized, and analyzed through thematic analysis using NVivo software. Credibility was enhanced through member checking, peer review, and iterative comparison of codes and categories. Four main categories were identified: legal identity as conditional recognition, bureaucratic encounters and everyday uncertainty, transnational belonging and divided attachment, and social inclusion through relational recognition. Participants described legal documents not merely as administrative tools but as symbolic markers of social worth, security, mobility, and access to rights. Unstable or ambiguous legal status produced anxiety, restricted participation, and intensified dependence on informal networks. At the same time, participants maintained emotional, familial, linguistic, and digital ties across borders, producing layered forms of belonging that were neither fully national nor fully diasporic. The findings suggest that legal identity is a central mechanism through which transnational communities experience social belonging. Belonging was shaped not only by citizenship or residence status but also by institutional treatment, public recognition, language, family networks, and everyday interpersonal encounters. Legal and social inclusion therefore require policies that move beyond documentation control toward rights-based, culturally responsive, and socially integrative approaches.