Migrants’ social positioning and inequalities: The intersections of capital, locations, and aspirations

Abstract

This special set of articles promotes new studies and conceptualizations of migrants’ social positioning in the contexts that they form by living in new locations, and/or by being simultaneously connected to several locations. In different ways, the contributors explain the migrants’ social positioning as consisting of the intersections of the migrants’ various forms of capital, the characteristics of the different locations and of the social actors in these locations that control access to resources, and the migrants’ different aspirations about accessing various resources. The migrants’ social positioning is presented as an important indicator of their experiences of inequalities. The articles are highly relevant for conceptualizations and studies of capital conversions in multi-place contexts, migrants’ social integration and non-integration, the intersections of characteristics explaining migrants’ inequalities in place-specific and transnational locations, and for conceptualizations of cultural hybridity.

The making of a skilled worker: the transnational mixed embeddedness of migrant workers

“…Since "international migration inherently produces cross-border ties" (Waldinger 2017:8), opportunity structures accessible to migrants are also shaped by transnational connections and resources (Plüss 2013). "Transnational mixed embeddedness" has thus emerged as a concept that expands the researcher's analytical focus to include the migrant entrepreneur's country of residence, the country of origin, and sometimes also third countries, thus moving beyond the traditional dichotomy between home and host country.…”

Settler colonialism and migrant letters: the Forbes family and letter-writing in South Africa 1850–1922

“…7. For interesting discussions using a Bourdieusian framework, see Davis (2010);Erel (2010Erel ( , 2012; Noble (2013);Nowicka (2013);Plüss (2013);Pöllman (2013). 8.…”

Transnational social positioning through a family lens: How cross‐border family relations shape subjective social positions in migration contexts

“…Therefore, various scholars have argued for the globalization of class relations and the formation of transnational classes (Gill, 2017; Sklair, 2001; Weiß, 2005). To add to this debate around the links between cross‐border practices and the distribution of life chances in a globalized world, this article engages with social positioning as the process through which people subjectively evaluate their own social positions in migration contexts (Faist et al., 2021; Plüss, 2013). In contrast to conventional concepts such as ‘class’ or ‘social status’, we use social position to emphasize the meanings that individuals ascribe to their own position in social hierarchies.…”