Lesson 6: Migration and Social Class Flashcards
(17 cards)
What is an Expat/ Expatriate?
Person who resides out their country of citizenship. Refers to a skilled/ professional worker or a student from an affluent country. High-skill: professionals and have a strong background with relation to academics/ work
What is an Immigrant?
A person who moves to a new country with the intention of settling there permanently.
Low-skill: ‘unskilled’ such as janetorial work and hospitality work
What is a refugee?
A refugee is a person who has fled their own country because they are at risk of serious human rights violations and persecution there. The risks to their safety and life were so great that they felt they had no choice but to leave and seek safety outside their country because their own government cannot or will not protect them from those dangers. Refugees have a right to international protection.
What is an asylum seeker?
A person who has left their country and is seeking protection from persecution and serious human rights violations in another country, but has not been regally recognised as a refugee yet and is waiting to receive a decision on their asylum claim. Seeking Aslyum is a human right. This means everyone should be allowed to enter another country to seek asylum
Is there a proper definition for a migrant?
- No internationally accepted definition of a migrant is given: (Amnesty International) understand migrants to be people staying outside their country of origin, who are not asylum seekers or refugees.
For example: lots of people may not fit the description of a refugee or asylum seeker, but could be in danger nevertheless.
- Some migrants leave their country because they want to work, study or join family, for example. Others feel they must leave because of poverty, political unrest, gang violence, natural disasters or other serious circumstances that exist there.
Human Rights and Migrants
- It is important to understand that, just because migrants do not flee persecution, they are still entitled to have all their human rights protected and respected, regardless of the status they have in the country they moved to. Governments must protect all migrants from racist and xenophobic violence, exploitation and[forced labour]. Migrants should never be detained or forced to return to their countries without a legitimate reason.
- Ethnic and national migration categories also bring assumptions about class, STEREOTYPES:
- e.g. ‘East Europeans’ as agricultural, hospitality, construction workers
- Assumption of economic necessity.
Or that people are taking the British’s jobs
Migration and Race
- Form of racialisation
- Things are further complicated by the distinction between ‘race’ and ‘migration’
- TUDOR (2018): Racialised citizens (Black, non-white, non-Christian) are frequently considered migrants (negative associations with the ethnic minorities in society)
Irish experiences in England
Racialisation is not just applicable to people of colour:
- further examination of Irish experiences in England concludes that with their white skin and English accent, second-generation Irish in England reveals the weakness and vulnerability of Englishness (Hickman, Morgan et al., 2005).
- Because their whiteness was indicative of ethnically Irish whiteness, corporeally white Irish speaking
‘English accent’ could vacate the concept of Englishness as another specific ethnicity (ibid,p.162). - Conversely, in his discussion of Jewish immigrants to Britain in the late 19th century and early 20th century, Garner explains that Jews who were born outside the British Isles were seen as ‘whiter than others based on capital accumulation, educational level, attire, and proficiency of language’ (Garner, 2007, pp. 108-109; Moore, 2013).
Intersectionality and Racism
- Fuels stereotypes, hence leads to stigma such as ‘undesirable migrants’:simply based off looks
- Leads to discrimination: Eastern European migrants most lik- experience ‘deskilling’ despite being graduates ([Vasey, 2017]
- Non-white migrants more likely to experience institutional racism (e.g. non-recognition of degrees, de-skilling (reduce the level of skill required to carry out), deportation (jokes made towards Mexicans) ([Oommen, 2021]
A homogenous group is defined by its members’ shared characteristics or similarities, which can be demographic, behavioral, or cognitive.
And these migrant categories create this homogenous grouping: such as not all eastern europeans migrate for work purposes.
OR
Migration being seen as a cultural problem/ 40% surge in ethnic numbers
Migration as a ‘cultural issue’
- Migrants tend to be discussed (as an issue)- in politics, policy and also academia, in terms of ethnicity, nationality, religion (or culture)
- A form of ‘methodological nationalism’ ([Wimmer and Glick Schiller 2003]
-
Methodological nationalism is the tendency in social sciences to take the nation-state as the natural unit of analysis, assuming that societies are contained within national borders.
- (Essentially cultural hybridity is not approved): It overlooks transnational processes, global interconnectedness, and how migration, capitalism, and environmental issues transcend national boundaries.
Migration as an ‘economic problem’
- Assumption 1: migrants use services reserved to nationals (schools, hospitals, etc.)
- ‘Us vs. them’ narrative ([Fox et al., 2012]
- Assumption 2: they ‘steal’ jobs that would be taken by the nationals
Migration as an ‘economic problem’: Problem 1
State Services Dependence on State Choices and Local Political Institutions
*This problem highlights the dependency of state services on decisions made by the government, both at the national and local levels. Key factors include funding allocation and welfare policies, as outlined by Hansen in 2021. The implication here is that the effectiveness and accessibility of state services are contingent on the choices and priorities set by political entities.
Migration as an ‘economic problem’: Problem 2 Perception of Migration Impact on Employment
The second problem challenges a commonly held belief regarding the impact of migration on employment outcomes for UK natives. Citing Portes in 2018, it suggests that there is now a consensus that, even in the short term, migration does not seem to have a negative effect on the employment outcomes of UK natives. This challenges stereotypes or concerns that immigration adversely affects job opportunities for the local population.
Putting Class back into Migration
- Inequalities of economic, cultural and social capital among migrants
- Importance of life before migration and its impact on geographical mobility ([Varriale, 2019]
- Focus on inequalities within migrant groups: divisions within migrant ’communities’ normally imagined as homogeneous … including among British migrants
- Move away from a state-centric perspective (methodological nationalism) to focus on migrants’ own perspectives
- Beyond a ‘rucksack approach’ to migration ([Erel, 2010]: The rucksack approach defined thatindividuals can bring capital from their origins to utilise or depose capital in the new field. The approach is criticised because it ignores individuals’ agency: individuals producing and reproducing (mobilising, enacting, validating)cultural capitalin aneducationsetting.
How do class inequalities shape migrants experiences and identities?
- Cultural capital
- Educational qualifications (institutionalised cultural capital)
- A person having advanced degree, knowing how to appreciate fine art, or speaking multiple languages: more networking and capacity to go higher up the ranks | opportunities
- Embodied cultural capital – what could it be?
Can be easier to navigate secondary and higher education with cultural capital / facilitates more elite professions (you look like them/ target audience)
Lack of CC can be stigmatised as ignorant
EVAL: But would this be the same value in the western world from the eastern world?
BRITISH MIGRANTS IN (COSTA DE SOL) SPAIN EXPERIENCES: where the class based divisions show (Varriale 2019)/ class identities DO NOT disappear upon migration but then change into the mannerisms, tastes and social behaviours: essentially cultural capital
- Cultured middle-class migrants vs elite rich migrants
Class conciousness
Class position difficult to establish based on employment due to high levels of retirees, self-employment and casual work:
COSTA DE SOL CASE STUDY: O’Reilly (2000) : “They live out here with no visible means of support. They don’t work, they’re spongers, terrible! They have kids who are 4-5 years old, filthy, with their heads shaved. […] They’re filthy dirty and they drink all the free booze […] they’re not love and peace, they’re love and piss”
“They’re horrendous. It’s [imitating an upper -class voice] ‘Brigadier this, Colonel that. When we were in Africa!… I suppose I’m different because I’m working class. I used to be a teacher in an inner-city school.”
Economic Capital Case Study: intersectionality with race and jobs
- Economic capital still evident, e.g. in home ownership patterns, nature of work, mobility patterns, ability to buy labour, leisure pursuits
- Social capital (the networks, relationships, and social connections that provide individuals with resources, support, and opportunities) is also evident and assumptions made about other migrants based on their habitus and cultural status (e.g. behaviours, tastes, dress)
- Different lifestyles (‘hippies’) are read as evidence of laziness (‘spongers’) and lack of economic resources read as an individual failure (class stigma) “They live out here with no visible means of support. They don’t work, they’re spongers, Terrible! “
- But equally, those who are defined as working class by others complain about the exclusivity, snobbery and pretentiousness of some groups
case study: Roger saying that British handy men don’t do work and aren’t as efficient as EE/ and they just do it for more money and qualifications than bar work but EE do the work and leave ask for no food etc
Class travels across borders and race and theres a combination of social, economic and cultural migrants’ biographies
