ABSTRACT
Based on an ethnographic study of predominantly white millennial Europeans in Singapore and Tokyo, this chapter argues that their boundary-making practices pinpoint the tension between what they deem to be cosmopolitan aspirations and their desire for embeddedness in the host cities. I focus on two separate domains where the migrants’ dilemma manifests, housing in Singapore and friendships in Tokyo, and argue that these Europeans strive for differentiation from the senior European expatriate community. While the millennial migrants regard integration into Singaporean and Japanese networks as a way to satisfy their cosmopolitan longings and as a proof of their cosmopolitan competence, structural circumstances and cultural differences increasingly push them towards an internationally-minded majoritarian foreign community. The comparative approach offers valuable insights into the dilemmas that occur when cosmopolitan ideals prove to be incompatible with migrants’ longing for embeddedness and demonstrates the changing nature of contemporary Europeans’ migration to Asian metropoles.
