6 Career Trajectories through an Intersectional Lens
-
Helena Hof
Abstract
Chapter 6 unearths how the entanglements of gender, ‘race’, age and generation, as well as class identities shape the EU Generation’s work experience in the destination cities. This chapter conceptualises migrants’ employment and career development by their ‘Other’ identity as a way to unearth how work and (im)mobility affect each other. Integrating gender in the analysis reveals differences in the two cities. Yet, the comparison also highlights how this generational cohort value work as an undeniable factor of identity-making. As middle-class migrants, they are often unwilling and insecure about forfeiting their career for a family. This raises questions about the value of work in neoliberal labour markets but also about the taken-for-grantedness of having a family at a certain life stage – or at all. Augmented by ongoing geographical mobility, frequent organisational mobility, and the anxiety of becoming socially immobile, many migrants project family plans into a vague point in the future.
Abstract
Chapter 6 unearths how the entanglements of gender, ‘race’, age and generation, as well as class identities shape the EU Generation’s work experience in the destination cities. This chapter conceptualises migrants’ employment and career development by their ‘Other’ identity as a way to unearth how work and (im)mobility affect each other. Integrating gender in the analysis reveals differences in the two cities. Yet, the comparison also highlights how this generational cohort value work as an undeniable factor of identity-making. As middle-class migrants, they are often unwilling and insecure about forfeiting their career for a family. This raises questions about the value of work in neoliberal labour markets but also about the taken-for-grantedness of having a family at a certain life stage – or at all. Augmented by ongoing geographical mobility, frequent organisational mobility, and the anxiety of becoming socially immobile, many migrants project family plans into a vague point in the future.
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
