ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book examines how globalization theory conceives of skilled migrants. Many globalization theorists claim that a new highly mobile and disembedded transnational capitalist class now exists which transcends bordered connections with the national and the local. It expands on grounded methodological approach through a discussion of the ways in which the theoretical and methodological ideas associated with transnationalism can provide a productive way through the questions raised by globalization theory. The book focuses on the discursive, material and spatial practices of social actors, and the ways in which these make connections across and between societies. It introduces recent developments in migration research which focus on the lives of expatriates/mobile professionals. Some theorists argue that mobile professionals such as these: corporate executives, globalizing bureaucrats, knowledge workers, politicians and professionals are part of global class formations which are creating a new privileged transnational elite.
