0000000000637072
AUTHOR
Russell King
Conclusions, Discussion, and Policy Implications
Our research on Latvian older women challenges the trope of vulnerability which generally surrounds the framing of older migrants’ lives. Through their ability to be mobile, find work, and experience a sensual reawakening, Latvian older women are able to question stereotypes about ageing and older women. They are able to escape their poor, dead-end lives in Latvia and develop a better future for themselves. The findings of the book offer policymakers insights into the realities of ageing working migrants, pensions policy, a more inclusive transnational citizenship, the need for better working conditions, and ongoing care arrangements for older migrants post-retirement, either abroad or back…
Rhythmic Island: Latvian Migrants in Guernsey and their Enfolded Patterns of Space-Time Mobility
Rather than a marginal activity, visiting friends and relatives (VFR) is a fundamental part of the migrant experience. We illustrate this assertion by an in-depth study of Latvian labour migration to Guernsey. Since the 1990s, low incomes and high unemployment in post-Soviet Latvia combine with niche-specific labour demands in Guernsey to create migratory flows of mainly female workers. The small-scale nature of this circular migration system allows a deeper theorisation of the many linkages between migration and VFR. In particular we deploy time-geography and rhythmanalysis to explore the various ways that migration and VFR are enfolded within each other, within the life-courses of the pro…
Beyond Remittances
Young, tertiary-educated emigrants see themselves, and are seen by their home country's government, as agents of economic and social change, especially if they can be incentivized to return home. In this paper we examine the barriers that prevent this positive impact from being fully realized, taking the case of Latvia, formerly part of the Soviet Union but since 2004 a member state of the European Union. We build our analysis on data from an online questionnaire (N = 307) and from narrative interviews (N = 30) with foreign-educated Latvian students and graduates. In moving beyond remittances, we examine knowledge transfer to the home country as a form of “social remittance” and break down …
Eurocity London: a qualitative comparison of graduate migration from Germany, Italy and Latvia
This paper compares the motivations and characteristics of the recent migration to London of young-adult graduates from Germany, Italy and Latvia. Conceptually the paper links three domains: the theory of core–periphery structures within Europe; the notion of London as both a global city and a ‘Eurocity’; and the trope of ‘crisis’. The dataset analysed consists of 95 in-depth biographical interviews and the paper’s main objective is to tease out the narrative similarities and differences between the three groups interviewed. Each of the three nationalities represents a different geo-economic positioning within Europe. German graduates move from one economically prosperous country to another…