Transnationalism has been the subject of much scholarly reflection over the last two decades. In one of the earliest definitions of the term, historian Aihwa Ong suggests:

Trans denotes both moving through space or across lines, as well as changing the nature of something. Besides suggesting new relations between nation-states and capital, transnationality also alludes to the transversal, the transactional, the translational, and the transgressive aspects of contemporary behavior and imagination that are incited, enabled, and regulated by the changing logics of states and capitalism.1

In the context of Australia—a multicultural society that is necessarily multiethnic, multireligious, multiracial and multilingual—Ong’s emphasis on movement and change across many spheres of activity is particularly apt. Indeed, critical interventions that over-privilege the national or limit analysis to within its borders undermine the multiplicity inherent in Australian society, culture and identity.2