ABSTRACT

The migration of professionals is widely seen as a paradigmatic representation and a driver of globalization. The global elite of highly qualified migrants—managers and scientists, for example—are partly defined by their lives’ mobility. But their everyday lives are based and take place in specific cities. The contributors of this book analyze the relevance of locality for a mobile group and provide a new perspective on migrant professionals by considering the relevance of social identities for local encounters in socially unequal cities. Contributors explore shifting identities, senses of belonging, and spatial and social inequalities and encounters between migrant professionals and ‘Others’ within the cities. These qualitative studies widen the understanding of the importance of local aspects for the social identities of those who are in many aspects more privileged than others.

chapter 1|17 pages

Introduction

Local Lives, Work and Social Identities of Migrant Professionals in the City

part I|56 pages

Considerations of the City

chapter 2|19 pages

Further Stay or Return?

Insights from the Highly Educated Turkish Migrants in Amsterdam, Barcelona and London

chapter 3|19 pages

Seeing ‘Difference' Differently

Life Trajectories of Professional Migrants' Children in Melbourne, Australia, and in Singapore

chapter 4|16 pages

Learning the City by Experiences and Images

German Finance Managers' Encounters in London and in Singapore

part II|60 pages

Local Incorporation and Work

chapter 5|21 pages

Agents of Local Incorporation

Skilled Migrant Organizations in Oslo, Norway

chapter 6|17 pages

Germany for the Ambitious

Everyday Life of Russian Professionals in a Research Center in Jülich

chapter 7|20 pages

Socializing Spouses in Gabon

The Petroleum Wives' Club of Port-Gentil

part II|115 pages

Local Encounters and Identities

chapter 8|20 pages

Are Professional Migrants Elite?

A Case of Japanese Expatriate and Host National Employees in Jakarta

chapter 9|18 pages

‘Londres Accueil'

Mediations of Identity and Place among the French Highly Skilled in London

chapter 11|18 pages

Translocal Lives

Polish Migrant Entrepreneurs in the Cities of the West Midlands, the United Kingdom

chapter 12|20 pages

Cosmopolitans or New Americans?

The Experiences and Social Identities of Colombian and Puerto Rican Software Engineers in Boston's Route 128

chapter 13|18 pages

British Transnational (Be)Longing

Emplacement in the Life of Skilled Migrants in Dubai