Games without Frontiers? Questioning the Transnational Social Power of Migrants in Europe

Bibliographic Data

ID7770348
AuthorsA Favell (0000-0001-5801-6847, University of California, Los Angeles, corresponding author)
Year2003
Volume44
Issue3
Pages397-427
Publication date2003-12-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueEuropean Journal of Sociology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0003-9756 • E-ISSN: 1474-0583
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0003975603001334
OpenAlexW2109497024
LanguageEN
Citations received38
References cited2

This paper asks whether it is possible to study “elite” professional migrants in Europe with the same concepts and theories being used to explain the incorporation and/or integration of “ethnic” (i.e., non European) migrants in Europe; that is, in terms of their social mobility and social power in their new host countries. While globalisation may in theory make it easier for these professional migrants to transfer their “social capital” to other national contexts, observations of the personal and professional trajectories of European professional migrants in Brussels—particularly their difficulties establishing a true social power in a foreign national—suggests that theorists often overstate their arguments about “global cities” and the decline of the nation-state, at least as far as Europe is concerned. The paper links these empirical concerns with theoretical issues arising from the work of Bourdieu, Mann, Coleman, Castells and Portes, aiming to build a bridge between current work in ethnic and migration studies and core current issues in social theory

Bridge (graph theory · Elite · Explanatory power · Social integration · Social mobility · Migration, Ethnicity, and Economy · Migration, Refugees, and Integration · Social and Cultural Dynamics

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