The New Expatriates: Postcolonial Approaches to Mobile Professionals

by Fechter; Anne-Meike

• ISBN13: 9780415503662
• ISBN10: 0415503663
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2012-07-17
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

While scholarship on migration has been thriving for decades, little attention has been paid to professionals from Europe and America who move temporarily to destinations beyond '¬Üthe West'¬". Such migrants are marginalised and depoliticised by debates on immigration policy, so there is an urgent need to develop nuanced understanding of these more privileged movements. In many ways, these are the modern-day equivalents of colonial settlers and expatriates, yet the continuities in their migration practices have rarely been considered. This volume advances our understanding of contemporary mobile professionals by engaging with postcolonial theories of race, culture and identity. The volume brings together authors and their research from across disciplines, seeking to evaluate the significance of the past in shaping contemporary expatriate mobilities and highlighting postcolonial continuities in relation to people, practices and imaginations. Acknowledging the resonances across a range of geographical sites in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, the chapters consider the particularity of postcolonial contexts, while enabling comparative perspectives. The focus on race and culture in this volume is often obscured by assumptions about class, occupation and skill, but this volume explicitly examines the way in which whiteness and imperial relationships continue to shape the migrations experiences of Euro-American skilled migrants as they seek out new places to live and work. This book was originally published as a special issue of Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies.