‘Expatriate’ is an unstable and contested term, as emphatically embraced by some, as rejected by ... more ‘Expatriate’ is an unstable and contested term, as emphatically embraced by some, as rejected by others. The category ‘migrant’, on the other hand, can have all the veneer of a self-evident and technical category. Yet, their tense relationship suggests the usefulness of an examination of their co-production and combined effects. This article explores the everyday socio-cultural production of the category ‘migrant’ in its tense relationship with the category ‘expatriate’. More specifically, it draws on 8 months of ethnographic research in Nairobi and The Hague to examine how participants deploy the category ‘migrant’ in the context of conversations about ‘expatriates’ or ‘expatriate’ lives. The article argues that the category ‘migrant’ emerges as polysemic and malleable as it is constructed with and against the ‘expatriate’; both categories are joined by a constitutive but not straightforward relationship that is deeply politicised and specifically works to reproduce racialised power relations. The polysemy of these overlapping terms is thus reflective of and operative in racialised power relations in ways that demand more analytical attention. As such, the categories’ relationship reflects the ‘polyvalent mobility’ of race as it works through ostensibly neutral migration categories and ‘takes on the form of other things’.
Migrants who are privileged by citizenship, class or ‘race’ are largely still absent from mainstr... more Migrants who are privileged by citizenship, class or ‘race’ are largely still absent from mainstream migration research and theory; until recently, they were generally assumed to be adaptable and acceptable cosmopolites, positive drivers of cross-border transfers of knowledge and skills. This has been addressed by an emerging scholarship on ‘expatriates’. This article offers a review and critical reading of that literature; it considers the instabilities and ambiguities of the term ‘expatriate’ and situates expatriate migrants within the global economy, before examining the gendered nature of expatriation and attending to migrants’ incorporation in host contexts and expatriate negotiations of identity. The literature suggests that at the heart of these processes lie complex configurations of racialisation, gender, class and nationality, often involving problematic reproductions of the colonial past. This article argues that these issues are inherently related to the category’s inconsistencies, rendering it difficult as a ‘category of analysis’. Instead, rather than using the term as a pre-given conceptual frame, it needs to be treated as a ‘category of practice’ to be investigated in its own right. Especially as the subject becomes more established in migration studies, scholars need to reckon with the ongoing challenge that lies in studying the identity category ‘expatriate’ while resisting reproducing a reified understanding of it.
This paper examines what it means to be an ‘expatriate’ in Cairo through the lens of movement and... more This paper examines what it means to be an ‘expatriate’ in Cairo through the lens of movement and spacemaking. Inquiring into a set of migrant (im)mobilities, spatial practices, relations, and imaginations, it argues that as a ‘spatialised’ identity category ‘expatriate’ narrates and enacts migratory privileges linked to wider hierarchies of social difference. It contributes to a growing literature examining the social and political dimensions of ‘expatriate’ migration and further engages scholarship thinking space and movement in relational and socio-historical terms. Rather than denoting an easily distinguishable group of migrants, 'expatriate’ emerged as a contingent and ambiguous category of practice. As such, ‘expatriate’ stands in a productive relationship with privileged movement and socio-spatial processes. Like other migrants, respondents skillfully navigated the global differences in wealth, power and status they were presented with. Yet, unlike many other migrants, they did so from a privileged position within the global power-geometries of international migration. Migrants’ personal geographies were further shaped by how bodies were racialised and gendered in entangled, intersecting and sometimes counter-intuitive ways. This diversity and complexity of ‘expatriate’ geographies highlights the necessity of intersectional and situated analyses of privilege.
Based on ethnographic research, this chapter explores migrant narratives of belonging by tracing ... more Based on ethnographic research, this chapter explores migrant narratives of belonging by tracing readings and negotiations of the category ‘expatriate’. As the term ‘expatriate’ circulates among EAWL members, their families and friends, it proves a malleable, instable category, met with both enthusiasm and aversion. The term helps migrants belong partly through its very polysemy and ambiguity; contradictory uses are not mistakes but reflect the contradictions and tensions of belonging migrants expressed and reproduced. These were deeply entangled with the colonial past; the category ‘expatriate’ negotiated privileged liminal belonging as British migrants, geographically and temporally, straddled Kenya and the UK, the British Empire and its colony ‘Keenya’.
Gender, Work and Migration: Agency in Gendered Labour Settings, 2018
In this chapter, we explore processes of feminised labour migration from Bolivia to Spain during ... more In this chapter, we explore processes of feminised labour migration from Bolivia to Spain during the first decade of the twenty-first century. In particular, we discuss the changing narratives and practices associated with dominant gender discourses in translocal social networks. Our interviews with migrants and non-migrant family members reveal that migration has simultaneously challenged and reproduced traditional gender discourses. Such diverse and seemingly paradoxical outcomes imply ambivalent transgressions, regressions and, in certain instances, new autonomies.
The aim of this analysis was to explore how far patterns of change in public attitudes to poverty... more The aim of this analysis was to explore how far patterns of change in public attitudes to poverty and welfare relate to (and may be explained by) political and economic developments and experiences, both at the individual and societal level. Attitudes to and expectations for poverty levels are closely linked to economic circumstances and bear little relation to the targets and policies of political parties in power. However, changes in perceptions of causality reflect shifts over time in governmental approaches in this area. Current attitudes and expectations for child poverty sit at odds with the targets of successive governments, yet public perceptions of its causes favour individualistic over societal explanations, reflecting the current direction of Coalition policy.
ABSTRACT This paper highlights both an overreliance on legal perspectives in the study of paradip... more ABSTRACT This paper highlights both an overreliance on legal perspectives in the study of paradiplomacy at the expense of more dynamic understandings of agency, and also the affective force of waiting and other temporal states on political subject formation. Empirically, it reports the results of a longitudinal study on Gibraltarians’ concerns over the Gibraltar–Spain frontier. By comparing data from two identical surveys conducted a year apart during the period between the Brexit referendum and the (as yet incomplete) legal withdrawal, we trace the force of the incomplete event on political subjectivities. Conceptualizing our findings through assemblage theory and paradiplomacy, we highlight that the intensity of the event has heightened Gibraltarians’ dissatisfaction with their constitutional reliance on the UK to resolve Brexit in a way advantageous for Gibraltar. A minor shift occurred in the year studied towards more agentic proscriptions of what the Government of Gibraltar ought to do to resolve Brexit. Quantitative analysis reveals that younger respondents tend to emphasize this more agentic view, while older respondents tend to advocate further lobbying of the UK or feel Gibraltar has a complete lack of agency. Qualitative analysis of the respondents’ policy proscriptions reveals a complex set of views within each perspective on agency.
ABSTRACT ‘Expatriate’ is an unstable and contested term, as emphatically embraced by some, as rej... more ABSTRACT ‘Expatriate’ is an unstable and contested term, as emphatically embraced by some, as rejected by others. The category ‘migrant’, on the other hand, can have all the veneer of a self-evident and technical category. Yet, their tense relationship suggests the usefulness of an examination of their co-production and combined effects. This article explores the everyday socio-cultural production of the category ‘migrant’ in its tense relationship with the category ‘expatriate’. More specifically, it draws on 8 months of ethnographic research in Nairobi and The Hague to examine how participants deploy the category ‘migrant’ in the context of conversations about ‘expatriates’ or ‘expatriate’ lives. The article argues that the category ‘migrant’ emerges as polysemic and malleable as it is constructed with and against the ‘expatriate’; both categories are joined by a constitutive but not straightforward relationship that is deeply politicised and specifically works to reproduce racialised power relations. The polysemy of these overlapping terms is thus reflective of and operative in racialised power relations in ways that demand more analytical attention. As such, the categories’ relationship reflects the ‘polyvalent mobility’ of race as it works through ostensibly neutral migration categories and ‘takes on the form of other things’.
In this chapter, we explore processes of feminised labour migration from Bolivia to Spain during ... more In this chapter, we explore processes of feminised labour migration from Bolivia to Spain during the first decade of the twenty-first century. In particular, we discuss the changing narratives and practices associated with dominant gender discourses in translocal social networks. Our interviews with migrants and non-migrant family members reveal that migration has simultaneously challenged and reproduced traditional gender discourses. Such diverse and seemingly paradoxical outcomes imply ambivalent transgressions, regressions and, in certain instances, new autonomies.
‘Expatriate’ is an unstable and contested term, as emphatically embraced by some, as rejected by ... more ‘Expatriate’ is an unstable and contested term, as emphatically embraced by some, as rejected by others. The category ‘migrant’, on the other hand, can have all the veneer of a self-evident and technical category. Yet, their tense relationship suggests the usefulness of an examination of their co-production and combined effects. This article explores the everyday socio-cultural production of the category ‘migrant’ in its tense relationship with the category ‘expatriate’. More specifically, it draws on 8 months of ethnographic research in Nairobi and The Hague to examine how participants deploy the category ‘migrant’ in the context of conversations about ‘expatriates’ or ‘expatriate’ lives. The article argues that the category ‘migrant’ emerges as polysemic and malleable as it is constructed with and against the ‘expatriate’; both categories are joined by a constitutive but not straightforward relationship that is deeply politicised and specifically works to reproduce racialised power relations. The polysemy of these overlapping terms is thus reflective of and operative in racialised power relations in ways that demand more analytical attention. As such, the categories’ relationship reflects the ‘polyvalent mobility’ of race as it works through ostensibly neutral migration categories and ‘takes on the form of other things’.
Migrants who are privileged by citizenship, class or ‘race’ are largely still absent from mainstr... more Migrants who are privileged by citizenship, class or ‘race’ are largely still absent from mainstream migration research and theory; until recently, they were generally assumed to be adaptable and acceptable cosmopolites, positive drivers of cross-border transfers of knowledge and skills. This has been addressed by an emerging scholarship on ‘expatriates’. This article offers a review and critical reading of that literature; it considers the instabilities and ambiguities of the term ‘expatriate’ and situates expatriate migrants within the global economy, before examining the gendered nature of expatriation and attending to migrants’ incorporation in host contexts and expatriate negotiations of identity. The literature suggests that at the heart of these processes lie complex configurations of racialisation, gender, class and nationality, often involving problematic reproductions of the colonial past. This article argues that these issues are inherently related to the category’s inconsistencies, rendering it difficult as a ‘category of analysis’. Instead, rather than using the term as a pre-given conceptual frame, it needs to be treated as a ‘category of practice’ to be investigated in its own right. Especially as the subject becomes more established in migration studies, scholars need to reckon with the ongoing challenge that lies in studying the identity category ‘expatriate’ while resisting reproducing a reified understanding of it.
This paper examines what it means to be an ‘expatriate’ in Cairo through the lens of movement and... more This paper examines what it means to be an ‘expatriate’ in Cairo through the lens of movement and spacemaking. Inquiring into a set of migrant (im)mobilities, spatial practices, relations, and imaginations, it argues that as a ‘spatialised’ identity category ‘expatriate’ narrates and enacts migratory privileges linked to wider hierarchies of social difference. It contributes to a growing literature examining the social and political dimensions of ‘expatriate’ migration and further engages scholarship thinking space and movement in relational and socio-historical terms. Rather than denoting an easily distinguishable group of migrants, 'expatriate’ emerged as a contingent and ambiguous category of practice. As such, ‘expatriate’ stands in a productive relationship with privileged movement and socio-spatial processes. Like other migrants, respondents skillfully navigated the global differences in wealth, power and status they were presented with. Yet, unlike many other migrants, they did so from a privileged position within the global power-geometries of international migration. Migrants’ personal geographies were further shaped by how bodies were racialised and gendered in entangled, intersecting and sometimes counter-intuitive ways. This diversity and complexity of ‘expatriate’ geographies highlights the necessity of intersectional and situated analyses of privilege.
Based on ethnographic research, this chapter explores migrant narratives of belonging by tracing ... more Based on ethnographic research, this chapter explores migrant narratives of belonging by tracing readings and negotiations of the category ‘expatriate’. As the term ‘expatriate’ circulates among EAWL members, their families and friends, it proves a malleable, instable category, met with both enthusiasm and aversion. The term helps migrants belong partly through its very polysemy and ambiguity; contradictory uses are not mistakes but reflect the contradictions and tensions of belonging migrants expressed and reproduced. These were deeply entangled with the colonial past; the category ‘expatriate’ negotiated privileged liminal belonging as British migrants, geographically and temporally, straddled Kenya and the UK, the British Empire and its colony ‘Keenya’.
Gender, Work and Migration: Agency in Gendered Labour Settings, 2018
In this chapter, we explore processes of feminised labour migration from Bolivia to Spain during ... more In this chapter, we explore processes of feminised labour migration from Bolivia to Spain during the first decade of the twenty-first century. In particular, we discuss the changing narratives and practices associated with dominant gender discourses in translocal social networks. Our interviews with migrants and non-migrant family members reveal that migration has simultaneously challenged and reproduced traditional gender discourses. Such diverse and seemingly paradoxical outcomes imply ambivalent transgressions, regressions and, in certain instances, new autonomies.
The aim of this analysis was to explore how far patterns of change in public attitudes to poverty... more The aim of this analysis was to explore how far patterns of change in public attitudes to poverty and welfare relate to (and may be explained by) political and economic developments and experiences, both at the individual and societal level. Attitudes to and expectations for poverty levels are closely linked to economic circumstances and bear little relation to the targets and policies of political parties in power. However, changes in perceptions of causality reflect shifts over time in governmental approaches in this area. Current attitudes and expectations for child poverty sit at odds with the targets of successive governments, yet public perceptions of its causes favour individualistic over societal explanations, reflecting the current direction of Coalition policy.
ABSTRACT This paper highlights both an overreliance on legal perspectives in the study of paradip... more ABSTRACT This paper highlights both an overreliance on legal perspectives in the study of paradiplomacy at the expense of more dynamic understandings of agency, and also the affective force of waiting and other temporal states on political subject formation. Empirically, it reports the results of a longitudinal study on Gibraltarians’ concerns over the Gibraltar–Spain frontier. By comparing data from two identical surveys conducted a year apart during the period between the Brexit referendum and the (as yet incomplete) legal withdrawal, we trace the force of the incomplete event on political subjectivities. Conceptualizing our findings through assemblage theory and paradiplomacy, we highlight that the intensity of the event has heightened Gibraltarians’ dissatisfaction with their constitutional reliance on the UK to resolve Brexit in a way advantageous for Gibraltar. A minor shift occurred in the year studied towards more agentic proscriptions of what the Government of Gibraltar ought to do to resolve Brexit. Quantitative analysis reveals that younger respondents tend to emphasize this more agentic view, while older respondents tend to advocate further lobbying of the UK or feel Gibraltar has a complete lack of agency. Qualitative analysis of the respondents’ policy proscriptions reveals a complex set of views within each perspective on agency.
ABSTRACT ‘Expatriate’ is an unstable and contested term, as emphatically embraced by some, as rej... more ABSTRACT ‘Expatriate’ is an unstable and contested term, as emphatically embraced by some, as rejected by others. The category ‘migrant’, on the other hand, can have all the veneer of a self-evident and technical category. Yet, their tense relationship suggests the usefulness of an examination of their co-production and combined effects. This article explores the everyday socio-cultural production of the category ‘migrant’ in its tense relationship with the category ‘expatriate’. More specifically, it draws on 8 months of ethnographic research in Nairobi and The Hague to examine how participants deploy the category ‘migrant’ in the context of conversations about ‘expatriates’ or ‘expatriate’ lives. The article argues that the category ‘migrant’ emerges as polysemic and malleable as it is constructed with and against the ‘expatriate’; both categories are joined by a constitutive but not straightforward relationship that is deeply politicised and specifically works to reproduce racialised power relations. The polysemy of these overlapping terms is thus reflective of and operative in racialised power relations in ways that demand more analytical attention. As such, the categories’ relationship reflects the ‘polyvalent mobility’ of race as it works through ostensibly neutral migration categories and ‘takes on the form of other things’.
In this chapter, we explore processes of feminised labour migration from Bolivia to Spain during ... more In this chapter, we explore processes of feminised labour migration from Bolivia to Spain during the first decade of the twenty-first century. In particular, we discuss the changing narratives and practices associated with dominant gender discourses in translocal social networks. Our interviews with migrants and non-migrant family members reveal that migration has simultaneously challenged and reproduced traditional gender discourses. Such diverse and seemingly paradoxical outcomes imply ambivalent transgressions, regressions and, in certain instances, new autonomies.
Based on ethnographic research, this chapter explores migrant narratives of belonging by tracing ... more Based on ethnographic research, this chapter explores migrant narratives of belonging by tracing readings and negotiations of the category ‘expatriate’. As the term ‘expatriate’ circulates among EAWL members, their families and friends, it proves a malleable, instable category, met with both enthusiasm and aversion. The term helps migrants belong partly through its very polysemy and ambiguity; contradictory uses are not mistakes but reflect the contradictions and tensions of belonging migrants expressed and reproduced. These were deeply entangled with the colonial past; the category ‘expatriate’ negotiated privileged liminal belonging as British migrants, geographically and temporally, straddled Kenya and the UK, the British Empire and its colony ‘Keenya’.
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that as a ‘spatialised’ identity category ‘expatriate’ narrates and enacts migratory privileges linked to wider hierarchies of social difference. It contributes to a growing literature examining the social and political dimensions of ‘expatriate’ migration and further engages scholarship thinking space and movement in relational and socio-historical terms. Rather than denoting an easily distinguishable group of migrants, 'expatriate’ emerged as a contingent and ambiguous category of practice. As such, ‘expatriate’ stands in a productive relationship with privileged movement and socio-spatial processes. Like other migrants, respondents skillfully navigated the global differences in wealth, power and status they were presented with. Yet, unlike many other migrants, they did so from a privileged position within the global power-geometries of international migration. Migrants’ personal geographies were further shaped by how bodies were racialised and gendered in entangled, intersecting and sometimes counter-intuitive ways. This diversity and complexity of ‘expatriate’ geographies highlights the necessity of intersectional and situated analyses of privilege.
that as a ‘spatialised’ identity category ‘expatriate’ narrates and enacts migratory privileges linked to wider hierarchies of social difference. It contributes to a growing literature examining the social and political dimensions of ‘expatriate’ migration and further engages scholarship thinking space and movement in relational and socio-historical terms. Rather than denoting an easily distinguishable group of migrants, 'expatriate’ emerged as a contingent and ambiguous category of practice. As such, ‘expatriate’ stands in a productive relationship with privileged movement and socio-spatial processes. Like other migrants, respondents skillfully navigated the global differences in wealth, power and status they were presented with. Yet, unlike many other migrants, they did so from a privileged position within the global power-geometries of international migration. Migrants’ personal geographies were further shaped by how bodies were racialised and gendered in entangled, intersecting and sometimes counter-intuitive ways. This diversity and complexity of ‘expatriate’ geographies highlights the necessity of intersectional and situated analyses of privilege.