Material Cultures, Migrations, and Identities. What the Eye Cannot See

The book is an invitation to discover how objects and practices are embedded in the process of preserving or (re)building identities on national roots. Pechurina’s book about Russian immigrants in ...

Conferința Anuală a Cercetării în Sociologie și Asistență Socială - ULBS 2018

Gendered Migratory Pathways: Exploring the Work Trajectories of Long-Term Romanian Migrants

This chapter analyzes the work trajectories of Romanian returnees who lived and worked for a long period of time in other EU countries. To understand the evolution of the work dimension of migrants’ lives, the chapter is built on subjective evaluations of their work experiences before migration, during their stay abroad, and upon return. The qualitative methodology and homogenous sample allow us to employ a gendered perspective on the relationship between international migration and individuals’ work trajectories. Employing a classical sociological distinction between agency and structure, the chapter illustrates four contrasting patterns of work trajectories. Agentic models are differently…

Transnational return and social change: hierarchies, identities and ideas

The volume’s eight chapters are organized in three thematic sections: (I) Changing Social Hierarchies; (II) Reshaping Collective Identities; and (III) Questioning Ideas, Local Knowledge and Norms. ...

Green Barons, Force-of-Circumstance Entrepreneurs, Impotent Mayors. Rural Change in the Early Years of Post-Socialist Capitalist Democracy

First Trip Abroad: Expectations, Experiences and Stories of Transnational Romanians

Abstract The paper analyzes transnational Romanians’ stories about their first trip abroad. The concept of physical mobility is seen in a broader framework for understanding transnational and cosmopolitan behaviours as well as international migration. In order to distinguish between different types of travelling for the first trip abroad the article is constructed keeping in mind the structural changes and constraints regarding physical mobility for Romanian citizens. During the process of transition from a communist country to the status of EU member, Romanian citizens’ stories about travelling abroad for the first time fundamentally changed. Labour migrants, asylum seekers, business trave…

Bidding for Research Funds. Inter-Fields Differences and Predictors of the Evaluation Scores: Insights from a Romanian National Competition for Postdoctoral Grants

This study sought to address an important gap in the existent knowledge about the development of the Romanian research system by looking at a very specific population of young scholars who participated in the national competition for postdoctoral grants (2016) which included over 900 participants. The paper is structured by two main research objectives. Firstly, the analysis if focused on differences between scientific fields by looking at research entities which host young scholars’ grant proposals, gender balance, young scholars’ academic performance measured through a standardized indicator (Google Scholar H index), share of people trained abroad, and information about the evaluation pro…

Nesting self-employment in education, work and family trajectories of Romanian migrant returnees

Challenging a biased view towards self-employed returnees as neoliberal selves, as the normalized approach of the migration–development nexus tends to depict them, this article builds an alternative conceptual framework to unpack the variegated experiences of migrant returnees’ self-employment trajectories in post-socialist Romania. The authors argue that the overemphasis on the benefits of return migration for origin countries through the skewed focus on the migrants’ accrual of human and financial capital and their ostensible entrepreneurial orientation has resulted in disregarding more influential biographical and cultural aspects. Life story interviews with middle-aged participants reve…

Tailoring a Fashionable Self: Sartorial Practices in an Emerging Market Context

Abstract This study consists in a quantitative analysis of fashion preferences, examining various factors influencing clothing personalization. The first part of the paper sets out the theoretical framework, discussing the historical relationship between the emergence of modernity and the configuration of fashion industry. The study proceeds with detailing the regional context where the empirical research is grounded, paying particular attention to the development and current status of the region’s clothing industry. After presenting the data and the methodology, the paper discusses the empirical findings followed by their interpretation. Based on the results we argue that the level of educ…

Migrant Friendships in a Super-Diverse City. Russian-Speakers and their Social Relationships in London in the 21st Century

The book is built on excellent premises which include a super-diverse city, a highly heterogeneous migrant population, as well as a post-Soviet cultural background which embeds two opposed tendenci...

Great Expectations: A Regional Study of Entrepreneurship Among Romanian Return Migrants

This article examines the main determinants for entrepreneurial activities among return migrants in a regional context within Romania. The analytical framework is based on conceptual tools provided by the intersection of entrepreneurship theory and return migration research. The study aimed to answer a set of research questions regarding migrant individuals’ probability for entrepreneurial careers upon return, and Romania constitutes a fertile European origin country for testing them. Returnees are perceived as one of the main transformational forces within the country, and great expectations are related to their entrepreneurial orientation. We test this general assumption using survey data…

Two facets of returnees’ entrepreneurship in romania: Juxtaposing business owners and self-employed return migrants within a multi-method research frameworkê

This paper contributes to the growing literature on the diversity of return migration by analysing the different types of small-scale entrepreneurship among returnees. Data from an original survey conducted among Romanian returnees and in-depth interviews with returnees in entrepreneurship are combined to reveal distinct profiles of returnee entrepreneurs and to illustrate their specific ways of thinking about entrepreneurship and migration. Currently, Romania is one of the most fertile settings to research intra-European return migration due to its important flows of temporary international migrants. The paper highlights that there are major differences between business owners and self-emp…

No Entrepreneurship without Opportunity: The Intersection of Return Migration Research and Entrepreneurship Literature

Abstract The article proposes a theoretical discussion at the crossroads of the return migration scholarship with the entrepreneurship research. Its main goal is to build an analytical framework in which entrepreneurial experiences of international return migrants are conceptualized. The fertile theoretical legacy within the study of entrepreneurship along with an idealized view of the positive effects of migration constitute essential premises for understanding the biased outputs of the empirical studies of entrepreneurship upon return to the origin country. Firstly, the article draws on the main lines of theorising opportunities within the Weberian and Schumpeterian theoretical traditions…

Diaspora Start-Up Programs and Creative Industries: Evidence from Romania

Romania is one of the main countries of origin for intra-European migration. The national authorities recently implemented the first major program —Diaspora Start-up—to support the business initiatives of Romanian citizens who live abroad and who are interested in opening a business in their home country. This scheme was developed in parallel with a broader program—Romania Start-up Plus—which was designed to support the entrepreneurial initiatives of individuals residing inside the country. These programs have already supported over 8,600 non-agricultural start-ups created in urban areas. This study conducted a comparative analysis of the two programs based on different criteria and explore…

Stimulating return migration to Romania: a multi-method study of returnees’ endorsement of entrepreneurship policies

This study sought to address an important gap in the contemporary literature on intra-European return migration and examines the factors shaping Romanian returnees’ support for return policies base...

Stepwise migration: What drives the relocation of migrants upon return?

Introduction to the Special Issue. Migration, food and agriculture: Insights into what we eat and how our food is produced at the beginning of the third millennium

Do Return Migration Policies Matter? A typology of young Romanian returnees’ attitudes towards return policies

Abstract During the last decades, the interest in migration policies has increased, both at institutional level and in academia. However, if the scientific understanding of policies associated with migration at destination has tremendously advanced, our knowledge about origin countries interventions in migration stays limited. Our paper addresses one of the largely unexplored topic of this area: if and what kind of policies supporting return/returnees the returnees themselves find appropriate. The analysis is based on 120 interviews with Romanian returnees, aged 18 to 39, coming back after at least 6 months of working or studying abroad in different EU countries. The article reveals that ev…