“I Make Here My Soil. I Make Here My Country.”

Abstract

This article discusses the complex and multilayered notion of class in the lives of Iranian women migrant doctors in Britain. Addressing classed identities in skilled migrants' lives and professional belonging, the article first examines the construction of foreignness and the problem of belonging for a groups of doctors and dentists who lived in different cities in Britain in 2009–11. Second, drawn from the first point, it discusses the notion of “deserving to belong.” This article suggests that these highly political narratives should be read within an intersectional framework in order to understand the complex issues involved in the lives of skilled migrants.

Skilled Migrants Employed in Developed, Mature Economies: From Newcomers to Organizational Insiders

“…However, separation may also be imposed by coworkers. SMs from India and the Middle East reported that their colleagues imposed foreignness upon them and reinforced differences between their home- and host-country identities (Fathi, 2015; Mielly et al, 2017; Nagel, 2005).…”

“…For example, SMs in France attributed their successful integration to their organizations helping SMs and their families to find accommodation, supporting SMs’ efforts to obtain resident and work permits, and sponsoring SMs to take courses in French language and culture (Cerdin et al, 2014). Once they were registered to practice in Britain, the female Iranian doctors studied by Fathi (2015) gained a new professional role identity that superseded the “foreign” and “female” identities that had been ascribed to them and had hindered their career progress. Over the long run, SMs experience the greatest career success when their organizations help them to simultaneously build human, social, and cultural capital (e.g., Grigoleit-Richter, 2017; Legrand et al, 2018; Ressia et al, 2017a).…”

‘My life is on hold’: examining home, belonging and temporality among migrant men in Ireland

“…Pink (2013) has argued that visual methods and representation might play a fuller role in ethnography, however, I used photography only as a tool to understand better the spaces to which I could not have access: their domestic milieus. In this methodology, I am reflecting on my experience in co-constructionist narrative analysis (Esin, Fathi, and Squire 2013) of the photos that participants produce to understand the ways in which imageries of home are constructed. I am also aware that these photos of their homes were 'produced' intentionally by the participants having an audience in mind: the researcher, audience in the exhibition (which was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic), publications and project website.…”

Home-in-migration: Some critical reflections on temporal, spatial and sensorial perspectives

“…The first is the complexity of seemingly contradictory elements that are seen in relation to home-in-migration such as settlement and movement, departure and arrival, rooting and uprooting. The second complexity evident in these definitions is that although migrants may be ‘successful’ in creating a home, there are spatial, temporal and embodied concepts that run through most of these contributions: one is the sense of belonging stemming from emotional attachments to people, places and relationships (Yuval-Davis, 2006) and the other is the sense of recognition that one needs to feel as part of the process of home-making (Fathi, 2015).…”