Transnational mobility among early-career academics: gendered aspects of negotiations and arrangements within heterosexual couples

ABSTRACT

Today, transnational mobility is often presented as indispensable for a successful academic career. This institutionalisation of transnational mobility for young academics has important effects in (re)producing or transforming gender inequalities. Building on the results of a qualitative study conducted at three universities – Zurich (Switzerland), UCLA (U.S.A), and Cambridge (UK) – this paper examines the mobility experiences of early-career academics and their partners and seeks to understand the gendered mechanisms underlying mobility patterns. Drawing on three case studies, this paper focuses on the negotiations and arrangements of mobile couples. Each case study represents a different ideal-typical pattern of how gender is entangled with mobility. We show how gender is ‘done’ and ‘undone’ by the academics and their partners throughout these mobility trajectories, and how these couples’ negotiations and practices are closely entangled with gender representations that are structurally anchored in labour markets and discursively expressed within the wider social environment. As such, this paper questions the dichotomy between economic men and social and cultural women sometimes reproduced in studies on highly skilled migration. Furthermore, the findings challenge earlier studies that suggest a causal link between mobility and the leaky pipeline by showing that important transformations with regard to gender relations are occurring.     

The racial politics of STEM education in the USA: interrogations and explorations

ABSTRACT

This special issue brings together a mix of early-career, mid, and senior scholars to critically examine current realities of, and boldly imagine future possibilities for, STEM education in the lives of racially minoritized children in the United States. Given the implicit and sometimes explicit aspirations of STEM education to be a counteracting force against racialized injustice, how do students and communities of color experience and make sense of STEM reforms/initiatives? By examining a broad range of STEM contexts including mathematics, computer science, science and environmental science education, and through a diversity of methodological approaches, this special issue aims to contribute to a scholarly conversation about how racialized power intersects with the larger themes and foci of STEM education. In our introduction, we both highlight broad themes of the issue, and offer possible directions for future research at the intersections of race, power, and STEM.     

The intra-European transferability of graduates’ skills gained in the U.K.

ABSTRACT

Mobility has been seen as the hallmark of the European Higher Education Area with student and graduate mobility being promoted and facilitated through the Bologna process. This paper follows the experiences of 12 U.K.-educated mobile graduates of British and other European Union (EU) nationality and analyses both their skills gained by studying at a U.K. higher education institution and the obstacles they experienced to transfer their U.K. qualification to a different country. We demonstrate that graduates not only developed – as part of their course and within the opportunities that the U.K. higher education environment offers – but also used various skills ranging from subject-specific to language and generic skills in their current activities. While a U.K. degree is reputable and well known in other European countries, there seem to be limitations in relation to its transferability and recognition for studying and working beyond the U.K., which contribute to unequal treatment in the local labour market between domestic- and foreign-educated graduates. More than a decade after the inception of the Bologna process and the introduction of tools to facilitate mobility, structural barriers still exist which prevent the smooth recognition of skills and qualifications of mobile students and graduates within the EU. This has implications for further study and employment outcomes for mobile graduates but also for mobility decisions before and after higher education.     

Caste,kinship and the realisation of ‘American Dream’: high-skilled Telugu migrants in the U.S.A.

ABSTRACT

Literature on the Indian diaspora domiciled in the U.S.A. largely portrays the group as educated, highly skilled migrants in pursuit of their American Dream, without critically engaging with the regionally particularised migration trajectories that predispose only certain groups to become skilled migrants from the global South to the North. Migration studies bracket skilled migrants as those who make rational choices and choose formal routes to migrate whereas unskilled migrants often rely on informal channels of kinship or ethnicity to migrate. Unsettling this proposition, in this article, based on an ethnographic study of the high-skilled Telugu professionals in the U.S.A. and their families living in Coastal Andhra, India, I show how aspirational and topographical migration pathways from Coastal Andhra to the U.S.A. are created and sustained through networks of kinship, caste and endogamous transnational marriage alliances. These high-skilled migrants (doctors, engineers and scientists) from the dominant castes have successfully manoeuvred spatial mobility and social upward mobility by utilising ‘caste capital’ within a transnational social field. Moreover, decades of migration from the dominant castes have shaped a caste-inflected transnational habitus among its members who see migration of their youth to the U.S.A. as desirable, and at times, also inevitable.     

Perceptions of diversity and attitudes of tolerance in the ‘fragmented’ U.K.

ABSTRACT

Relying on a quantitative survey (n = 1497) and semi-structured interviews (n = 30) conducted in the U.K., we explore British nationals’, Romanian and Turkish migrants’ attitudes of tolerance and the factors influencing them in the current socio-political context in the U.K. The quantitative data reveal the role of younger age, diverse networks, higher education, attachment to city/region and supranational identifications in more open attitudes towards diversity. The qualitative findings illustrate how diverse these three groups’ attitudes of tolerance can be and how they are affected by their position and status in the U.K. The British’ attitudes show their tolerance can reflect diverse forms of acceptance of ethnic and cultural differences but can also draw lines in terms of civic values opposing ‘those who contribute to society’ versus those who ‘live as parasites’. The Turks are in favour of diversity with the expectation of receiving more civic rights and facing less prejudice. The Romanians tend to have a more ambiguous relation to diversity given their position of stigmatised migrants in the U.K. Our analysis reveal how inclusive or exclusive people’s (sub- and supra-)national identities can be and how these frame their attitudes of tolerance.     

Using our voices,losing our bodies: Michael Brown,Trayvon Martin,and the spirit murders of Black male professors in the academy

Abstract

The recent deaths of Michael Brown, Trayvon Martin, and other Black males have generated new civil rights urgencies in Black communities and spirited academic discourses in higher education regarding the educational and social plight of Black males in America. Connecting the deaths of Black males to our lived experiences in the academy, we use a text messaging performative writing style to demonstrate how Black males are not only gunned down in the streets of America by police but also are metaphorically gunned down in the academy. That is to say, white colleagues and students attempt to use what we call the bullet of rejection, the bullet of silencing, and the bullet of disrespect to destroy us and our academic agenda. We conclude with a call to action for teacher education programs as a way to deepen their understanding of the racialized experiences of Black males in the academy and Black males in America.     

Communicating intersectionality through creative claims making: the queer undocumented immigrant project

ABSTRACT

Social movements confronting overlapping inequalities face the unique challenge of elucidating the heretofore invisible experiences of those whose identities lie at the intersection of existing movements. Social media platforms provide a direct outlet for intersectional social movements to make political claims visually by illuminating these complexities creatively with discursive resources such as symbols, text, and narratives. Using content analysis of images posted to the organization’s Facebook, we examine how lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) immigration activists – as embodied by the Queer Undocumented Immigrant Project (QUIP) – attempt to communicate intersectionality online. Images posted by QUIP demonstrate how the existing ideas and values of separate established immigrant and LGBTQ movements can be reformulated and repackaged. However, the available discursive resources may compartmentalize identities, which then requires movements to generate new symbols, text, and narratives. By leveraging extant discursive resources and innovating new expressions, activists aim to communicate intersectional experiences and unite multiple struggles.     

Adulteration of pure native blood by aliens? mixed race kapya in colonial and post-Colonial Myanmar

ABSTRACT

Colonization may be viewed not only as loss of sovereignty and territory but also of ‘purity’ of a native race to an alien power. After the British colonized Burma in the late nineteenth century, they brought in Chinese and Indians to the sparsely populated colony as labour for new administrative and economic activities. Intermarriage, mainly between native Burmese women and men of alien races – British, European, Chinese and Indian – was thus inevitable. Mixed-race peoples – kapya in Burmese – were then born out of these relationships, and their identities became a key political issue in colonial Burma. Importantly, all natives, foreigners, and kapya were British subjects at that time. Independent Burma from 1948 through 1962 was not expressly anti-foreigner/kapya; working to naturalize those who had overstayed or remained. However, the Ne Win government from 1962 through 1988 was openly against ex-foreigner and kapya citizens, passing a new citizenship act in 1982 to downgrade their citizenship to a second class tier. The Myanmar Citizenship Law (1982), which remains in force, has downgraded the legal, political and social stature of ex-foreigner and kapya citizens. A more problematic and racist term thway-nhaw or ‘adulterated’ race has come to the fore, being used in official law-like language in recent years and highlighting the racist roots of the Myanmar Citizenship Law.     

Oh,give me a home: diasporic longings of home and belonging

The conversations surrounding an ephemeral home – left behind decades ago or perhaps never even visited – always and continually begs the question: why? Why do we constantly talk about geographies to which we have little or no connection with such nostalgia and fervor? Why do immigrants pick a distant space and mark that territory as home, even as we settle into the spaces we presently occupy and slowly begin the journey toward some form of assimilation? Framed by these questions, this essay attempts to articulate – through a multi-site analysis including interviews, literary and media texts – how identities are shaped through – and in relation – to the nostalgic longings of non-white immigrant experiences. The essay contends that this nostalgic longing is constructed as a response to racial relationships in the United States that identifies non-white, in this instance South Asian Americans, as aliens and others who should go back home.     

Angered: Black and non-Black girls of color at the intersections of violence and school discipline in the United States

While most research examining school discipline policies have focused on the experiences of boys of color, this article explores the relationship between violence and school discipline as they shape the lives of girls of color and their disciplinary records. Using in-depth interviews, this article re-narrates the experiences of Black and non-Black girls of color who have discipline records to explore their experiences. The author found that in addition to being subject to multiple, intersecting forms of violence outside of school, girls of color – particularly Black girls – are also subject to schools as sites of control that elicit their anger and resistance. This author contends that faculty should establish new ways of understanding Black and non-Black girls of color by accounting for the ways that intersectional violence shapes the girls’ lives and supports their ‘anger’, agency and resistance to violence.     

Racial witnessing and the formation of los conscientes – race critical preservice teachers

This article introduces the concept of racial witnessing – i.e. defining moments where an individual experiences a strong event in which they (or someone they care deeply about) were racialized, Othered, and/or treated differently (usually negatively) because of their racial group, racial affiliation, etc. It is these moments of racial witnessing that are pivotal in the development of los conscientes. These were the more critical-minded preservice teachers who demonstrated a greater understanding regarding race and racism and the impacts it has on the educational system and human lives. This article argues that it is not a specific variable and/or experience (such as those gained in field experiences) that creates race consciousness among preservice teachers. It is the accumulation of racial witnessing events that allow for a deeper understanding of how race dictates lives.     

The disinterested state: negative diasporic policy as an expression of state inclusion and national exclusion

ABSTRACT

This article engages with the understudied phenomenon of the ‘disinterested, denouncing’ diaspora state (Levitt, P., and N. G. Schiller. 2004. “Conceptualizing Simultaneity: A Transnational Social Field Perspective on Society.” International Migration Review 38 (3): 1002–1039. doi:10.1111/j.1747-7379.2004.tb00227.x) or ‘indifferent’ diaspora state (Ragazzi, F. 2009. “Governing Diasporas.” International Political Sociology 3 (4): 378–397. doi:10.1111/j.1749-5687.2009.00082.x). Focusing on U.S. citizens abroad, the article argues that there is negative diasporic outreach on the part of the state – ‘disinterested’ from the state's perspective, but ‘denouncing’ from that of the diaspora. Negative diasporic outreach is exemplified by the 2010 FATCA legislation, which sought to root out tax evaders resident in the U.S., but has, instead, affected millions of American emigrants through increased financial control and the repercussions of those policies, and has resulted in sharply higher citizenship renunciation figures. Impact on an American diaspora was not considered in the law's proposal, debate and passage into law. Second, the article argues that this negative diasporic outreach, in combination with the continued facilitation of the right to vote, is a reflection of the inclusion of these American emigrants in the American state, but their simultaneous exclusion from the American nation.     

‘Mixed’ Japanese-Filipino identities under Japanese multiculturalism

ABSTRACT

The ways in which multiculturalism is debated and practiced forms an important frame for ‘mixed’ ethnic identities to take shape. In this paper, I explore how young migrants of Japanese-Filipino ‘mixed’ parentage make sense of their ethnic identities in Japan. My key findings are that dominant discourses constructing the Japanese nation as a monoracial, monolingual and monoethnic nation leave no space for diversity within the definition of ‘Japanese’, creating the necessity for alternative labels like haafu or ‘mixed roots’. Japanese multiculturalism does not provide alternative narratives of Japaneseness but preserves the myth of Japanese racial homogeneity by recognizing diversity while maintaining ethnic and racial boundaries. Lastly, these categories have not been actively questioned by my respondents. Rather, they show flexibility in adopting these various labels – haafu, ‘mixed roots’, Filipino, Firipin-jin – in different contexts.     

Shaking the bad boys: troubling the criminalization of black boys’ childhood play,hegemonic white masculinity and femininity,and the school playground-to-prison pipeline

ABSTRACT

Few studies have sought to understand the childhood play experiences of Black boys in early childhood education (ECE), and a majority of those that investigate them often socially construct Black boys’ play as criminal, dangerous, and monstrous. Considering the dangers of hegemonic masculinity and femininity or the racial and gendered power and privilege White boys and girls bring to societal spaces including playgrounds, little is known about how such power influences the experiences of Black boys who play with them. In this conceptual paper, I draw on critical race theory (CRT) to trouble the criminalization of Black boys’ childhood play and hegemonic White masculinity and femininity, which can prove violent and dehumanizing to Black boys. As such, I suggest that similar to the school-to-prison pipeline (STPP), Black boys may become victims of what I call the school playground-to-prison pipeline (SPTPP) as a consequence of White children’s accusations, fears, misperceptions, and misreadings of Black boys’ play. Recommendations are provided for teacher and ECE to better support Black boys and the cross-cultural play interactions between them and White children.     

Advancing teacher preparation through ethnic studies: portraits of Filipino American self-identified male teachers

ABSTRACT

At once a political and cultural intervention, Ethnic Studies as a field sought to create an education whereby students’ knowledges and experiences were valued. While research demonstrating how Ethnic Studies affects students’ academic and social-emotional outcomes, the prowess of Ethnic Studies, as a site for teacher preparation remains under examined in empirical research. Drawing from portraiture, critical race and Ethnic Studies frameworks, I analyze in-depth interviews, focus groups, and artifacts with Filipino American self-identified male teachers. I work to make explicit how Ethnic Studies prepared these teachers in ways their formal teacher education did not. I conclude with recommendations for how teacher education steeped in Ethnic Studies supports culturally sustaining, critically conscious, and community responsive learning for students and teachers committed to justice.     

Identity construction through English language learning in intra-national migration: a study on Uyghur students in China

ABSTRACT

This study explores how a group of Uyghur minority students construct their identities in and through English language learning experiences as they move from Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region to study in a prestigious East coastal university in China. The research findings show that the processes of English language learning enable the ethnic minority students to develop multiple yet powerful identities, that is, a situated elite identity constructed as opposed to other Uyghur members and a positive heritage identity negotiated within the academic community, and allow them to imagine multilingual and multicultural memberships for themselves. The favourable identities thus forged are found to facilitate their adaptation to the host community. However, these minority elites are confronted with a series of problems in learning English compared to their Han counterparts, which hinder their socialisation into the society and upward social mobility. Finally, implications for policy-makers, the host institution, and ethnic students are discussed.     

Obamacare in action: how access to the health care system contributes to immigrants’ sense of belonging

ABSTRACT

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) aimed to reduce stark health inequalities by providing universal health insurance to all Americans and long-term authorised immigrants. Later regulations, however, gave the 50 U.S. states latitude to choose the degree of coverage for their constituencies. In this paper, we explore how interactions with these diverse systems of care contribute to the incorporation of immigrants into America, especially among the most likely to remain uninsured: the working poor. We uncovered a process in which immigrants’ access to health coverage and care was informed by the procedural justice embedded in their interactions with representatives of the health care system. These interactions signalled to immigrants their deservingness in American society, operating as a system of incorporation in the most inclusive states and as a barrier to incorporation in the most exclusive ones. Repealing the ACA may exacerbate differences across states in access to health care among eligible immigrants and end the incipient transformation of the U.S. health care system into an agent of immigrant incorporation.     

Surviving teacher education: a community cultural capital framework of persistence

In this article, we communicate the experiences of a bilingual/biracial Peruvian-Anglo European student teacher, Serina, enrolled in a ‘teacher education for diversity’ program. Although the majority of the 13 (mostly Anglo European) students in Serina’s cohort expressed satisfaction with the social justice focus of the program, Serina was frustrated by the mixed messages she received about teacher professionalism as both teaching for social change and as deference to power. Serina was often vocal in her critique and, as a result, endured and negotiated cumulative microaggressions throughout her teacher education program. Despite these challenges, she drew on her community cultural capital to become a credentialed science teacher in an underserved urban middle school. Serina’s experiences compel us to think about how teacher educators might better support pre-service Teachers of Color – particularly as we strive to more actively recruit Teachers of Color to our teacher education programs. Implications for ‘becoming’ more socially just teacher educators are also discussed.     

Meeting myself: race-gender oppression and a genre study of Black men teachers’ interactions with Black boys

ABSTRACT

Increasing the number of Black men teachers and single-sex schooling options have been heralded as necessary to reverse trends in the failure of US education institutions to adequately educate Black boys. Too little research interrogates Black men teachers’ interactions with Black boys for how they might reinforce anti-oppressive conceptions of race, gender and sexuality. A genre study – the multidimensional, intersectional examination of social identity to explain one’s persistent dehumanization – was utilized to investigate how Black men teachers’ interactions with Black boys shape the boys’ understanding of Black manhood and masculinities. Regardless of schooling arrangement, findings suggest Black men teachers must recognize and disavow hegemonic gender logics in interaction efforts aimed at improving Black boys’ lives. Additionally, I argue the potential of Black men teachers’ interactions with Black boys to function as sites for reimagining Black boys’ humanity in ways that counter persistent messages of their inferiority and disposability (i.e. aniblackness).     

Racial capitalism and STEM education in Chicago Public Schools

ABSTRACT

This article analyzes the role of STEM initiatives designed by city and corporate elites in a large urban district and outlines an alternative, grassroots vision for (STEM) education and city schools. Within a neoliberal context of gentrification, displacement, disinvestment, and privatization, STEM schools have become strategic components of Chicago’s ‘portfolio district’ that serve the interests of racial capitalism in three ways. First, STEM schools provide a claim to fairness in the midst of racist school closures. Second, STEM high schools are a corporate strategy for racially stratified labor force preparation that restricts curriculum and reifies tracking. Third, curriculum restriction prioritizes corporate interests over students’ capacity to shape their communities and the world. The authors draw on the wisdom of Chicago communities who have led resistance against corporate education reform to critique Chicago STEM policy and point to critical mathematics and science education as part of a model for sustainable community schools.