IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/joimai/v20y2019i1d10.1007_s12134-018-0608-7.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Becoming ‘the Internationals’—how Place Shapes the Sense of Belonging and Group Formation of High-Skilled Migrants

Author

Listed:
  • Jörg Plöger

    (ILS – Research Institute for Regional and Urban Development)

  • Susanne Kubiak

    (ILS – Research Institute for Regional and Urban Development)

Abstract

Within the context of the transformation of work, mobility turns into a characteristic of contemporary (work-)lives and a pre-requisite for career biographies. High-skilled migrants who are employed in academia, IT or engineering increasingly incorporate the mobility demands of their ‘mobilised professions’. This paper examines how mobile professionals relate to their current place of residence, what kind of frictions they face and what forms of (alternative) belonging they develop in response. In doing so, the paper links ideas from governmentality studies with recent work from migration studies and the spatial sciences. Our analysis draws on interviews with high-skilled migrants in Manchester (UK). While broadly accepting the mobility demands of their respective fields of work without questioning, their resulting mobile practices often undermine the development of a sense of belonging based on place attachment and local social interaction. Our empirical material suggests that this potential conflict is mediated through the constitution of a group of ‘internationals’ who share mobile biographies and the experience of in-betweenness. Based on our findings, we suggest three directions for future research: to focus on the relational aspects of place ties, to investigate the role of the workplace and more specifically the employer, and to explore how places shape differential politics of belonging.

Suggested Citation

  • Jörg Plöger & Susanne Kubiak, 2019. "Becoming ‘the Internationals’—how Place Shapes the Sense of Belonging and Group Formation of High-Skilled Migrants," Journal of International Migration and Integration, Springer, vol. 20(1), pages 307-321, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:joimai:v:20:y:2019:i:1:d:10.1007_s12134-018-0608-7
    DOI: 10.1007/s12134-018-0608-7
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s12134-018-0608-7
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s12134-018-0608-7?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Micheline van Riemsdijk, 2014. "International Migration and Local Emplacement: Everyday Place-Making Practices of Skilled Migrants in Oslo, Norway," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 46(4), pages 963-979, April.
    2. Barry Wellman, 2001. "Physical Place and Cyberplace: The Rise of Personalized Networking," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25(2), pages 227-252, June.
    3. Eve Chiapello & Luc Boltanski, 2005. "The New Spirit of Capitalism," Post-Print hal-00680089, HAL.
    4. Eve Chiapello & Luc Boltanski, 2005. "The New Spirit of Capitalism," Post-Print hal-00678024, HAL.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Choon-Lee Chai, 2022. "Picturing Settlement Experiences: Immigrant Women’s Senses of Comfortable and Uncomfortable Places in a Small Urban Center in Canada," Journal of International Migration and Integration, Springer, vol. 23(3), pages 1567-1598, September.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Vigvári, Gábor, 2022. "Transzformáció és a populizmus a visegrádi országokban [Transformation and populism in the V4 countries]," Közgazdasági Szemle (Economic Review - monthly of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences), Közgazdasági Szemle Alapítvány (Economic Review Foundation), vol. 0(3), pages 339-366.
    2. Jesús Manuel Palma-Ruiz & Julen Castillo-Apraiz & Raúl Gómez-Martínez, 2020. "Socially Responsible Investing as a Competitive Strategy for Trading Companies in Times of Upheaval Amid COVID-19: Evidence from Spain," IJFS, MDPI, vol. 8(3), pages 1-13, July.
    3. Benzecry, Claudio E., 2022. "Traduttore, traditore: The expert work of producing global (yet local) market classifications," economic sociology. perspectives and conversations, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies, vol. 23(2), pages 5-9.
    4. Louis Moreno, 2012. "Looking backward," City, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 16(3), pages 345-354, June.
    5. Virginie Xhauflair & Benjamin Huybrechts & François Pichault, 2018. "How Can New Players Establish Themselves in Highly Institutionalized Labour Markets? A Belgian Case Study in the Area of Project†Based Work," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 56(2), pages 370-394, June.
    6. Stéphane Debenedetti & Isabelle Huault & Véronique Perret, 2015. "Resisting the power of organizations in Modern Times : May we all be Charlot? [Résister au pouvoir des organisations dans les Temps Modernes : Peut-on tous être Charlot ?]," Post-Print hal-01525807, HAL.
    7. Sikka, Prem & Lehman, Glen, 2015. "The supply-side of corruption and limits to preventing corruption within government procurement and constructing ethical subjects," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 28(C), pages 62-70.
    8. Sikka, Prem, 2015. "The corrosive effects of neoliberalism on the UK financial crises and auditing practices: A dead-end for reforms," Accounting forum, Elsevier, vol. 39(1), pages 1-18.
    9. Neman Muradli & Fariz Ahmadov, 2019. "Managing contradiction and sustaining sustainability in inter organizational networks through leadership: a case study," Entrepreneurship and Sustainability Issues, VsI Entrepreneurship and Sustainability Center, vol. 6(3), pages 1255-1269, March.
    10. Philippe Batifoulier & Jean-Paul Domin & Maryse Gadreau, 2011. "Market Empowerment of the Patient: The French Experience," Review of Social Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 69(2), pages 143-162.
    11. Milena I. Kremakova, 2014. "Trust, Access and Sensitive Boundaries between ‘Public’ and ‘Private’: A Returning Insider's Experience of Research in Bulgaria," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 19(4), pages 148-161, December.
    12. Luppi, Roberto, 2023. "Die Einsamkeit des Prekariats und die Bedürfnisse des "Wir": Warum es notwendig ist, das Konzept der gemeinsamen Bedürfnisse in die Definition des Prekariats aufzunehmen," Discussion Papers 01/23, Europa-Kolleg Hamburg, Institute for European Integration.
    13. Justin O'Connor, 2015. "Intermediaries and Imaginaries in the Cultural and Creative Industries," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 49(3), pages 374-387, March.
    14. Philippe Batifoulier & Rainer Diaz-Bone, 2022. "Perspectives on the economics and sociology of health. Contributions from the institutionalist approach of economics of convention -an introduction," CEPN Working Papers hal-03584852, HAL.
    15. Robin Holt & Yutaka Yamauchi, 2023. "Ethics, Tradition and Temporality in Craft Work: The Case of Japanese Mingei," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 188(4), pages 827-843, December.
    16. Münnich, Sascha, 2016. "Note from the editor: Economic sociology and capitalism," economic sociology. perspectives and conversations, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies, vol. 18(1), pages 2-5.
    17. Antonio ALOISI & Valerio DE STEFANO, 2020. "Regulation and the future of work: The employment relationship as an innovation facilitator," International Labour Review, International Labour Organization, vol. 159(1), pages 47-69, March.
    18. Lutter, Mark, 2014. "Creative success and network embeddedness: Explaining critical recognition of film directors in Hollywood, 1900-2010," MPIfG Discussion Paper 14/11, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies.
    19. Meg Holden & Andy Scerri & Azadeh Hadizadeh Esfahani, 2015. "Justifying Redevelopment ‘Failures' Within Urban ‘Success Stories': Dispute, Compromise, and a New Test of Urbanity," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 39(3), pages 451-470, May.
    20. Rob Shields, 2008. "The Urban Question as Cargo Cult: Opportunities for a New Urban Pedagogy," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(3), pages 712-718, September.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:joimai:v:20:y:2019:i:1:d:10.1007_s12134-018-0608-7. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.