The Current Status of the Privileged Class: A Discussion on Transnational Elite Migrants (original) (raw)
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Current Sociology, 2018
The sociological study of class, whether Marxist, Weberian or Bourdieusian, has discussed class systems and individuals’ location in these systems within the framework of the nation-state and has largely ignored the presence of a growing population of international migrants in western societies. At the same time, the emerging literature on transnational migration has largely neglected the question of social class. This article argues that the simultaneous privileging of the nation-state and the neglect of social class by these research traditions, respectively, has been unfortunate. Working from a Bourdieusian class perspective, the article discusses how today’s enhanced international migration – whereby actors regularly cross national borders, physically and virtually, and live their everyday lives in multiple social spaces and class systems – produces class systems in which many actors hold multilocal, inconsistent and instable class identities. The discussion employs a mixed meth...
Immigrant “transnationalism” reconsidered
2003
At the turn of the 21 st century, the view that nation-state and society normally converge has waned. Instead,“globalization” is the order of the day, with international migration bringing the alien “other” from third world to first, and worldwide trade and communications amplifying and accelerating the feedbacks traveling in the opposite direction. Consequently, social scientists are looking for new ways to think about the connections between “here” and “there,” as evidenced by the interest in the many things called “transnational”. The ...
In many recent debates on the political theory of immigration, conflicts between immigrants and citizens of host societies are explored along identity lines. In this paper, I defend the relevance of social class. I focus on two types of conflict, distributive and cultural, and show how class boundaries play a crucial role in each. In contrast to both defenders and critics of freedom of movement, I argue that borders have always been (and will continue to be) open for some and closed for others. The same applies to barriers on integration and civic participation. It is time to return to the connection between immigration and social class and to start carving political solutions that begin with the recognition of class injustice as a fundamental democratic concern.
Living here, Working there: Elite Migrants at the Interstices of Global Trade and Culture
Global media journal, 2017
Twenty elite migrants, highly educated or highly skilled, explain how communication technologies are helping them manage multiple identities and readjustments as they interact with family, friends and co-workers in multiple locations across the world. Elite migrants’ stories are often under reported yet their impact on societies is relevant because of the role they play in shaping societies. Two intercultural issues important to this distinctive group are explored: belonging and identity. Findings suggest elite migrants’ experiences of living between and within cultures are creating more flexible, fluid identities and belongings and issues of citizenship, identity and loyalty have become more complex in the twenty-first century.
This paper revisits the concept of migrant transnationalism. I review how the concept emerged and highlight which dimensions were subsequently developed in the literature. I also consider the notion of 'diaspora' and suggest that it provides an important heuristic tool. I examine the literature on transnationalism and integration and propose that while the literature on transnational social fields has developed an effective model for examining migrants' experiences that enables scholars to move away from 'container' notions of society, it has limited applicability in terms of second generation immigrants. This paper then suggest a research path that moves away from the duality of sending and receiving localities to instead consider the impact of the global on the local. I end by suggesting how a 'transnational spectrum' could help us map how the transnational dimension of everyday life impacts on identity-formation and integration people of immigrant background
2010
Abstract Focusing on the interaction between migrants and stay-at homes, this paper shows how the host country experience at once facilitates and structures immigrants' involvements with the countries from which they come. The vehicle is a study of a migration universal: the associations that bring together migrants displaced from a common hometown. These associations provide a strategic research site, allowing us to take apart the two very different aspects–namely, state and nation–that the transnational concept conflates.