Call for papers. Privileged migration, children and families, A symposium April 23rd-24th, 2020

Privileged migration, children and families

Career expatriates, highly skilled (temporary) migrants, privileged migrants, transnational corporate elites or simply expatriates; these are terms that have been used to describe highly educated professionals who move abroad voluntarily for career reasons. They are relatively well-paid professionals who do not necessarily stay in the destination permanently but move on after a few months or years. Such skilled labour force is welcome to many countries.

The destination countries and employers tend to focus on the individual expert whose skills and expertise are needed, and much less attention has been paid to the fact that those experts often have children and spouses who either move abroad with them or stay behind. This workshop focuses on their experiences. Third Culture Kids or trailing spouses are sometimes used to describe those who travel along, yet both terms have also been heavily criticised.

This symposium invites contributions that provide fresh perspectives for the study of privileged family migration. Contributions discussing the experiences and situations of expatriate children or spouses are particularly welcome. The symposium will, for example, discuss the multiplicity of the phenomenon; privileged migration or skilled migration is a much more heterogenous phenomenon than is often assumed, and this has effects also to the family members’ lives. In other words, the symposium asks who is privileged and in relation to whom, and how this relates to the experiences of the accompanying or left behind family members. Contributions discussing the children’s and spouses’ everyday experiences, practices and views are also welcome. In addition, the symposium welcomes papers on methodological issues; how can we reach the family members’ views and experiences?

Abstracts of no more than 250 words should be sent to mari.korpela@tuni.fi by February 1st, 2020.

The symposium is free of charge but participants are required to pay for their own travel, accommodation and food.

The symposium consists of a keynote lecture, participants’ presentations and discussions.

The keynote lecture on Thursday April 23rd will be given by professor Vered Amit (Concordia University, Montreal, Canada).

Welcome to Tampere!
https://projects.tuni.fi/expatkids/news-and-events/