Migration and Social Pathways : Biographies of Highly Educated People Moving East-West-East in Europe / Anna Guhlich.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Guhlich, Anna, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Social sciences.

Genre:

Electronic books.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (364 pages)

Other Title:

Knowledge Unlatched.

Place of Publication:

Leverkusen-Opladen, Germany : Verlag Barbara Budrich, 2017.

System Details:

text file

Summary:

The landscape of European migration has changed considerably over the past decades, in particular after the fall of the iron curtain and again after the EU enlargement to the east. The author researches the phenomenon of highly qualified migration using the example of migration between the Czech Republic and Germany. The book reveals diverse strategies migrants use to respond to the possible de-valuation of their qualification, e.g. by making use of their language skills, starting new studies or using transnational knowledge. Anna Guhlich investigates the role of migration within the biographies, the shifts of social positions, as well as the ways migrants negotiate their skills, qualification and knowledge across the borders. Based on biographical narrative interviews, she investigates the migration pathways and the processes of social mobility. The study investigates the influence developments within the Czech society have on migration decisions and transnational spaces as well as o

Contents:

1 Introduction 11

1.1 The context of EU enlargement 13

1.2 Outline of my research questions 15

1.3 Studying migration and social pathways by means of life stories 15

1.4 Structure of this thesis 16

2 Context: Czech-German border crossings against the backdrop of the shifting landscape of European migration 20

2.1 Historical interconnections over the past millennium 21

2.2 The 19th and 20th century 22

2.3 Border crossings during the Cold War 25

2.4 The fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989 and the establishment of new migratory spaces 29

2.5 The enlargement of the EU in 2004 and 2007 and the financial crisis 35

3 Research on highly skilled migration in Europe: state of the art 42

3.1 Changing contexts of highly skilled migration: working towards the liberalisation of skilled migration flows 42

3.2 Rethinking the migration of highly skilled people: the research agenda 47

3.2.1 "Highly skilled migrants" as the subject of research 47

3.2.2 The neglected gender dimension within studies on highly skilled migration 49

3.2.3 Going beyond the dichotomy of "low skilled migration" and "highly skilled migration" 54

3.2.4 Redefining "highly skilled migrants" and "highly skilled migration" 56

3.3 An overview of recent studies on highly skilled migration pathways to and within Europe 58

3.3.1 Education - the ticket to work? Statistical evidence 59

3.3.2 Legal and institutional frameworks affecting highly skilled migrants: studying the interplay of class, gender and ethnicity 60

3.3.3 An agent-centred approach to pathways to the labour market 63

3.3.4 Experiences and coping strategies for deskilling and contradictory class mobility 70

3.3.5 The role of the family and social networks 79

3.4 Summary and research desiderata 83

4 Biographical approaches to migration and social mobility 85

4.1 Biographical approaches 85

4.1.1 Historical and theoretical background of the biographical approach 86

4.1.2 The central biographical concepts 93

4.2 Biographical approaches to migration 100

4.2.1 First approaches to migration from a biographical perspective 101

4.2.2 Links between the transnational and biographical approach 106

4.3 Shifting social positions in transnational spaces 119

4.3.1 Theorising social mobility in transnational spaces 119

4.3.2 The transferability of skills across borders 126

4.3.3 Translocational positionality 129

4.3.4 Making sense of one's own class positioning 132

4.4 Summary: biographical approaches to migration and social mobility 134

5 The research process 137

5.1 Telling the stories: the theoretical background behind the "biographical narrative interview" 138

5.1.1 Theoretical assumptions 139

5.1.2 The focus on storytelling 141

5.1.3 The autobiographical presentation 141

5.1.4 Narrative constraints 143

5.1.5 Cognitive figures of autobiographical presentation 143

5.2 The reflexive research process 147

5.3 Constructing the sample 149

5.4 Interview settings 150

5.5 The interview process 152

5.6 A brief summary of interviewees 153

5.7 Ethnographical notes 156

5.8 Transcription 158

5.9 Analysis 159

5.9.1 Formal analysis of the text 160

5.9.2 Structural description 162

5.9.3 Analytical abstraction and the construction of types 164

5.10 Reflections on the research process 167

5.10.1 Reflections on the research process in transnational settings 167

5.10.2 The role of language and translation in the research process 170

5.10.3 Being part of it: reflections on my own position within the field 172

6 Biographies 175

6.1 Background: the Czech educational system 176

6.2 Lenka: the difficult route from private to public sphere 178

6.2.1 Interview setting and biographical presentation 178

6.2.2 Lenka's migration and social pathways 187

6.2.3 Summary 213

6.3 Martin: moving places and passing classes 215

6.3.1 Interview setting and biographical presentation 216

6.3.2 Martin's migration and social pathways 223

6.3.3 Summary 240

6.4 Barbora: a story of reorientation 241

6.4.1 Interview setting and biographical presentation 242

6.4.2 Barbora's migration and social pathways 246

6.4.3 Summary 256

6.5 Arnošt: living in "exile" 258

6.5.1 Interview setting and biographical presentation 258

6.5.2 Arnošt's migration and social pathways 262

6.5.3 Summary 272

7 Cross-case comparisons and findings 275

7.1 Biographical reflections on borders and border crossings 275

7.1.1 Borders and border regions in biographical renderings 276

7.1.2 Becoming an "Eastern European" after migration 279

7.2 Migration as an enlargement of possibility spaces 281

7.2.1 Experiences of inequality in the region of origin 281

7.2.2 Discovering new possibility spaces through initial border crossings 284

7.2.3 Moving back and forth in transnational spaces 287

7.2.4 Doing "transnational work" 291

7.3 Linking spatial and social mobility 299

7.3.1 Biographies at the intersection of migration and gender regimes 299

7.3.2 Negotiating one's own possibilities, skills and knowledge across borders 306

7.3.3 The question of translatability and recognition of social positions across the border 319

8 Conclusion 324.

Notes:

Description based on print version record.

Local Notes:

KU Select 2018: HSS Backlist Books

BiblioBoard internal publisher id: 102298

ISBN:

9783847421184

Publisher Number:

10.3224/84742118

Access Restriction:

Open Access Unrestricted online access