4 Singapore: Professionalising the Self
-
Helena Hof
Abstract
Chapter 4 opens Part II Organisational and Career Mobility: Seizing Security, Success and Self-realisation, which turns to a second dimension of mobility that shapes migrants’ lives: employment situation and professional development, which manifest in organisational and career mobility in Singapore and Tokyo. Chapter 4 on Singapore shows how the young European migrants strive to live up to the image of innovation-driven and high-potential foreign talents as painted by the Singaporean state. Lacking substantial work experience but aiming for the highly skilled visa, the migrants attempt to professionalise themselves in the neoliberal labour market by repeated job transfers, which facilitate career mobility. The majority of migrants pursue mobile careers in which organisational mobility, career mobility and geographical mobility go hand in hand. of the book.
Abstract
Chapter 4 opens Part II Organisational and Career Mobility: Seizing Security, Success and Self-realisation, which turns to a second dimension of mobility that shapes migrants’ lives: employment situation and professional development, which manifest in organisational and career mobility in Singapore and Tokyo. Chapter 4 on Singapore shows how the young European migrants strive to live up to the image of innovation-driven and high-potential foreign talents as painted by the Singaporean state. Lacking substantial work experience but aiming for the highly skilled visa, the migrants attempt to professionalise themselves in the neoliberal labour market by repeated job transfers, which facilitate career mobility. The majority of migrants pursue mobile careers in which organisational mobility, career mobility and geographical mobility go hand in hand. of the book.
Chapters in this book
- Front Matter i
- Contents v
- Series Preface vi
- List of Figures and Tables vii
- List of Abbreviations viii
- Glossary ix
- Notes on the Author xi
- Acknowledgements xii
- Introduction 1
-
Spatial Mobility to Asia: Moving Ahead by Moving Out
- The EU Generation and Their Migration Motivations 23
- Destination Singapore: The Dream of a Cosmopolis 51
- Global City Tokyo: Japan’s Diversification from Within 66
-
Organisational and Career Mobility: Seizing Security, Success and Self-Realisation
- Singapore: Professionalising the Self 85
- Tokyo: (Dis)Embedding in the Japanese Labour Market 103
- Career Trajectories through an Intersectional Lens 121
-
(Im)Mobility through Differentiated Embedding: The Ties That Bind
- Immobility and Emplacement: Making the City Home 147
- Belonging through Romantic Relationships 167
- Conclusion 186
- Positionality: Researching Migrants as a Migrant 198
- Demographic Profiles of Interlocutors 203
- References 212
- Index 242
Chapters in this book
- Front Matter i
- Contents v
- Series Preface vi
- List of Figures and Tables vii
- List of Abbreviations viii
- Glossary ix
- Notes on the Author xi
- Acknowledgements xii
- Introduction 1
-
Spatial Mobility to Asia: Moving Ahead by Moving Out
- The EU Generation and Their Migration Motivations 23
- Destination Singapore: The Dream of a Cosmopolis 51
- Global City Tokyo: Japan’s Diversification from Within 66
-
Organisational and Career Mobility: Seizing Security, Success and Self-Realisation
- Singapore: Professionalising the Self 85
- Tokyo: (Dis)Embedding in the Japanese Labour Market 103
- Career Trajectories through an Intersectional Lens 121
-
(Im)Mobility through Differentiated Embedding: The Ties That Bind
- Immobility and Emplacement: Making the City Home 147
- Belonging through Romantic Relationships 167
- Conclusion 186
- Positionality: Researching Migrants as a Migrant 198
- Demographic Profiles of Interlocutors 203
- References 212
- Index 242
