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The Cornish Transnational Communities Project
One of the first regions in Britain to industrialise, specialising in metalliferous mining and engineering, Cornwall was also one of the first to de-industrialise following mining decline from the 1860s.  During its industrialisation and de-industrialisation it witnessed the migration of over a quarter of a million people, making it an emigration region comparable with any in Europe.  

Many families from Cornwall settled in communities around the world that were described as ‘Cornish’, built on mining pride and prowess that had evolved from the industrial experience back in Britain, and were connected by dynamic transnational circuits that bound receiving and sending communities closely together.  Along these vital conduits travelled people and financial remittances, and equally important social remittances: ideas and beliefs, the social capital that defined transnational identity.  Cornish people came together in a transnational public sphere to debate their common affairs, contest meanings, issues of identity and to negotiate claims.    

However, the years from the 1930s witnessed a slowing down of migration streams from Cornwall as mining in many parts of the world contracted, which had implications for the future of Cornish transnationalism. For transnational public spheres can disintegrate if migrants sever their homeland ties and completely assimilate into their host communities, or they can be re-invented and re-negotiated to face the challenges of a new set of circumstances.   

Today there are believed to be over 6 million people world-wide who can claim Cornish descent. There are numerous Cornish societies worldwide and cultural events like the Lowender Kernewek (Cornish Festival) in South Australia draws over 80,000 people, suggesting that Cornish transnationalism has re-invented itself following mining decline to such an extent that a Cornish diaspora has emerged in recent years. 

With Cornwall's population of just over 500,000, with the indigenous Cornish making up less than 50 per cent of this total, the importance of a Cornish diaspora becomes evident. The diaspora has great relevance for Cornwall as its people seek recognition as a national minority within the British Isles, and wide ramifications for the concept of the homogenous nation-state as groups such as the Cornish attempt to legitimise their ethnic and national aspirations.

Using the Cornish as a case study, this project will explore the tensions and disjunctions brought about by the changing nature of transnationalism among the Cornish worldwide over the past century and what this reveals about national and ethnic identities, citizenship and belonging.