ABSTRACT
Globalisation has recently resurged scholars’ interest in the previously neglected phenomenon of global elite migrations, or GEM. There is, in fact, a rapidly increasing stream of elite niched professionals who try to build their elitist careers abroad: they build their second home at destination while sustaining the transnational and highly visible nature of their politically eminent work. Their list includes migrating artists, athletes, and fashion models. Through their migration, transnational employment, and integration, they continuously make a global social impact by shaping public tastes and values and enriching the world economics. It is only within the current context of globalisation that they have become visible to scholars. Unfortunately, there is limited knowledge about how this social group of global elite migrants should be understood, while the existing scholarship is overloaded with ambivalent concepts. This chapter systematises the scholarship evolving around global elite migrations and offers its first working definition. I also show the uniqueness of GEM as a phenomenon in the light of the competing theories of cosmopolitanism and transnationalism, and suggest venues for further research.
