Rethinking Privilege and Social Mobility in Middle-class Migration: Migrants In-between

Description

This volume explores the experiences of a wide variety of middle-class migrant groups across the globe, including ‘ethnic entrepreneurs’ building new businesses in cosmopolitan neighbourhoods in Sydney; Chinese grandparents shuttling between Australia, China and Singapore to support their extended families; well-off young Indians in Mumbai strategizing their future education pathways overseas; and Japanese mothers finding ways to belong in a London middle-class neighbourhood. This book asks how relatively privileged migrant groups negotiate their life trajectories, relationships and aspirations while ‘on the move’ and how they transform the communities and societies that they move between across time and space. The book’s chapters consider motives for migration, as well as experiences of risk, uncertainty and insecurity in diverse local contexts. A fresh look at the migration of those who possess skills and resources that can bring about significant economic, social and cultural change, this book engages critically with the notions of ‘middling’ migration, social mobility and mobile privilege in the global context of hardening borders and immigration complexity. It will appeal to scholars with interests in contemporary forms of migration and mobility and their local and transnational consequences. Cover Half Title Series Page Title Page Copyright Page Contents Contributors Acknowledgements Series Editor's Preface Note 1. Migrants 'in-between': Rethinking privilege and social mobility in middle-class migration Introduction Rethinking middling migration through a lens of privilege Attuning to multiple mobilities and shifting articulations of race Centring biographical temporalities: Life stage and life course Conclusion References Part I: Relocating Class: Reconfigurations of Class Through Migration 2. The classed frustrations of middling migrants from China in Australia: Suzhi discourse meets the neoliberal logics of selective migration policies Introduction Australian selective migration policies and intra-ethnic class positions during a Western Australian resources boom "Quality" and mobility in PRC national class frames Classed frustrations and inter-ethnic class contestations in Perth Conclusion Notes References 3. Shifting privileges: An ethnographic study of White and upper-class Colombian migrant women living in Melbourne, Australia Introduction A conceptual approach: Intersectionality, privilege and transnational migration Methodology Context Colombian migrants in Australia Transnational social positions across Colombia and Australia Narratives of relatively privileged ethnic migrant women Teresa Gabriela Discussion Notes References 4. Mobile lives in search of place: Homelessness and frustrated mobility among young Romanians in Madrid Introduction To be of the middle and on the move: Young homeless in the city Middling forms of frustrated mobility in homeless studies Middle-class young homeless Romanians in Madrid Methodology Young homeless frustration: Between acceptance and defiance Frustration as loss of and search for place Helping young homeless Romanians to combat their frustration Conclusion References Part II: Place, Taste and Aspiration: Local Geographies and Middleclass Imaginaries 5. Suburban strivers and the South Bombay elite: How localised micro-categories of class shape international education in Mumbai Introduction Cosmopolitan cultural capital and international education Research methods Situating Mumbai's 'localised micro-categories of class' Classed aspirations to 'gain exposure' Classed experiences of return Conclusion Notes References 6. Migrant entrepreneurs and urban cultural economy in Sydney, the 'City of Villages': Haymarket's 'Chinatown' and Leichhardt's 'Little Italy' Introduction Framing the small business entrepreneur Zooming into Sydney's cultures Doing business in Leichhardt Doing business in Haymarket/Chinatown Conclusion Notes References 7. The view of lifestyle migration: A brief exploration of the ethics of seeking a better way of life Introduction Setting the scene Simmel's relational sociological approach Understanding that life is not what it 'ought' to be The unfolding of lifestyle migration - shifting perspectives of the 'Ought' through actuality Conclusion Note References 8. Navigating everyday life in a middle-class neighbourhood: The ongoing negotiations of Japanese women migrants in southeast London Introduction Understanding 'middling' migration experiences Japanese mothers in a middle-class neighbourhood Middle-class identity and elective local belonging Belonging through Japanese cooking Community participation through Japanese cooking Local knowledge as cultural capital Performativity of place, ethnicity and gender Conclusion Acknowledgement Notes References Part III: Relational Dynamics: Middleclass Migrant Families and Couples 9. 'Moving privilege': Middling transnational couples and the relational dimensions of privilege Introduction An intersectional approach to conceptualising privilege through forms of middling migration Research contexts and methods Responsive relocations: "I changed track to meet the market there" Disrupted trajectories: "If I had a time machine I'd have gone back and corrected that mistake" Reflecting on relational privilege Conclusion References 10. Mothers in the middle: Rethinking middling migration as relational Introduction Background: Mothers' invisibility in middling migration approaches Motherhood and migration: A relational approach Mothers in the middle: A study Mothers in middle: Lisa's story Mothers in the middle: Simran's story A relational approach to middling migration: Motivation, housework, knowledge Middling migrant motivations in relation Shifting positions in networks of care: Domestic and reproductive labour Transnational and glocalised knowledge networks Conclusion Notes References Index