ABSTRACT This article unravels the emergence of new migration pathways which I call ‘startup migration’ and their framing as desired and ‘highly‐skilled’. Basing its arguments on qualitative data from migrant startup founders and stakeholders of Singapore and Tokyo's startup ecosystems, the article connects anthropological conceptualisations of global startup cultures and the future orientations of a ‘cruel optimism’ with critical migration scholarship. I analyse how stakeholders sell the dream of (migrant) startup success and attract (aspiring) startup founders to Singapore and Tokyo, two emerging startup hubs, which founders assess in comparison to established startup ecosystems. Migrants identify with an imagined transnational ‘founder community’ and believe in meritocracy and location independence. While success is often out of reach, migrants rarely exit the startup world. The cruel nature of the entrepreneurial dream not only tends to deny migrants’ to ‘make an impact’ but also to claim belonging to both the global startup culture and their countries of residence.
ABSTRACT This paper contextualises migration brokerage within specific social and institutional settings and shifts our attention to aspects that enable or constrain brokerage practices in the contemporary migration landscape. Focussing on the relational and institutional fabric underlying brokerage, this paper sheds light on the unique positionality of brokers, constructed vis‐à‐vis their interactions with the state and its regulatory framework on the one hand, and with the socially distant dyad, that is, the migrant worker and employer, which is essential to necessitating brokerage in the first place. Using qualitative research conducted in the Nepal–Malaysia migration corridor, the study reveals that the socio‐structural location of brokers, in relation to the state, migrants and employers, embeds brokerage practices, generating both opportunities and vulnerabilities for migrant workers. To illustrate this, I introduce the case of ‘run‐away’ migrants in the chosen corridor and compare two vignettes to analyse the responses of migration brokers to the act of migrants running away from their place of work. This analysis shows how brokerage as a practice is a product of an underlying social and institutional space, wherein framing networks of gain, trust and control are critical in conceptualising brokerage and its outcomes.
ABSTRACT In times of globalisation, digitalisation and increasing interconnectedness, cosmopolitan belonging becomes more important. Although cosmopolitan migrants are often considered a privileged group within migrant populations, we argue that their cosmopolitan belonging can also result from being socially excluded—a dynamic we term reactive cosmopolitanism. Using unique probability‐based panel data on Germans living abroad, we explore the extent to which their attachment to the European Union changes in response to growing perceptions of social exclusion and ethnic discrimination. We find original empirical evidence supporting the existence of reactive cosmopolitanism. The trend is moderate yet discernible across various subgroups, including migrants residing in non‐EU countries and those considered more cosmopolitan by virtue of migration experience, higher education and occupational status and a more open personality. These results suggest that cosmopolitan belonging cannot simply be reduced to expressions of privilege, prosperity or openness but can also reflect a compensatory response to social rejection.
ABSTRACT This study uses the concept of ‘smart migration’ to capture the strategies advocated by intermediaries who advise middle‐class family migrants on how best to migrate. Smart migration reflects a risk‐mitigating logic and is facilitated by both new and traditional intermediaries, who now use digital technologies to expand their services. The study analyses two types of intermediaries in the property sector—informal property‐market educators and formal transnational property agents—who facilitate the migration of Hong Kong families to the United Kingdom. The data are collected through participant observation at webinars and property fairs and in interviews with intermediaries and migrants. The study contributes to the theorisation of migration brokerage by showing how, under a low‐threshold visa regime, the work of mediation shifts from securing admission to brokering solutions to livelihood challenges. This brokerage is increasingly performed by person‐centred, platform‐based intermediaries who not only capitalise on but also co‐produce migrants’ aspirations and capabilities.
ABSTRACT In ‘fly now, pay later’ systems across Southeast Asia, migrant domestic workers accrue a snowballing debt, through recruitment processes beginning in their source villages and ending in their employers’ homes, which they repay through salary deductions. We examine debt as it circulates spatially across borders, temporally over the course of migrants’ recruitment and socially among a chain of migrant brokers and employers. On the basis of qualitative interviews with agents, regulatory authorities and NGO representatives in Singapore and Indonesia, we theorise recruitment agents as debt‐financed migration infrastructure. The capacity of Singapore‐based agents to bear and pass on debt accommodates low‐level corruption in Indonesia and advances to the migrant's family to secure recruitment. Agents manage the risks of debt through investing in phatic labour and relationship upkeep, recasting business partnerships through the regime of friendship. The collective capacity of agents to (re)distribute defaulted debt partly accounts for the efficacy of agents as infrastructure.
