Baltijos trynukai? Emigracija, migracija ir atsakas krizei

2021

Šiame straipsnyje nagrinėjama migracijos ir ekonominio vystymosi sankirta, kaip viena aktualiausių problemų, su kuriomis susiduria Baltijos šalys. Pasinaudojus empirine prieiga, lyginami vyriausybių veiksmai esant ekonominei 2008 metų krizei. Straipsnyje analizuojama, kaip jie išryškėjo socioekonominę dinamiką atskleidžiančioje statistikoje. Tyrime taikomi lyginamosios statistikos ir antrinių duomenų analizės metodai. Visos trys valstybės patiria panašių ateities iššūkių: visuomenės senėjimas ir gyventojų skaičiaus mažėjimas, tuo tarpu emigrantų sugrįžimas matomas kaip viena iš priemonių, galinčių padėti šias problemas spręsti. Estijoje vykstantys procesai leidžia manyti, kad jos Vyriausybe…

Shifting notions of gendered care and neoliberal motherhood: From the lives of Latvian migrant women in Guernsey

2014

Synopsis In this article I analyse how socioeconomic constraints structure the geographical mobility of Latvian migrant women working on the island of Guernsey. A shifting notion of gendered care is revealed through a time-geographic investigation of distant emplacements of workplace and home, and through the neoliberal-informed evaluations by the mothers themselves. Their justifications emphasise the belief that care from a distance should be prioritised over physical proximity to those in need of care. With examples from interviews with mothers who have provided care during their movements between Latvia and Guernsey, I demonstrate how the outcomes of shifting notions of gendered care are…

The production of “rhythms of responsibility” for childcare in a post-socialist society

2021

Drawing on 32 face-to-face interviews with mothers and childcare providers in Latvia, this paper examines the mundane mobilities. We argue that attention to mundane mobilities reveals crucial arran...

Iespēju laiktelpa: translokāla ģeogrāfiskā mobilitāte no Latvijas Gērnsijā

2014

Promocijas darba autore radoši izmanto laika ģeogrāfijas perspektīvu, izveidojot translokālu modeli, ar kura palīdzību tiek analizēti migrācijas veidi no vienas puses un klātbūtnes/prombūtnes pieredze no otras puses. Pētījuma pamatu veido kvalitatīvās metodes: intervijas, novērojumi un ģeogrāfiskās mobilitātes līdzdalīgais novērojums no 2010. gada līdz 2012. gadam. Šis ir pirmais detalizētais pētījums vienā no Lielbritānijas salām – Gērnsijā, kas pēdējo 20 gadu laikā piesaistījusi migrantus no Latvijas. Ģeogrāfiski norobežotas vietas mērogs kopsaistē ar Eiropas Savienības pilsoņu brīvas pārvietošanās iespējām veido īpašus ierobežojumus un iespējas laiktelpā, kurā īslaicīga migrācija pārtop …

Spaces of encounter–displacement: contemporary labour migrants' return visits to latvia

2014

The context of this paper is return visits to the homeland of labour migrants in Europe. The paper draws on data from the author's ethnographic fieldwork on the island of Guernsey and in Latvia dur...

Research methods for children

2014

Research on children has been burgeoning across social sciences and child development studies over the past decade. Seeing children as active agents shaping their own lives and the lives of the adu...

Children and Borders

2016

Between a ‘student abroad’ and ‘being from Latvia’: inequalities of access, prestige, and foreign-earned cultural capital

2017

This paper visualises tertiary-level students who study abroad as simultaneously both international students and members of an emerging diaspora. Coming from a country (Latvia) which is peripheral and relatively poor by European standards, students go abroad for multiple reasons not necessarily directly connected with study (e.g. family reasons, labour migration); yet their evolving diasporic status is instrumentalised by the Latvian government which wants them to return and contribute to the country’s development. Based on 27 in-depth interviews with Latvian students and graduates who have studied abroad, our analysis focuses on three interlinked dimensions of inequality: access to educati…

Conclusions, Discussion, and Policy Implications

2016

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

2015

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

2016

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

2016

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…

Mobilities and waiting: experiences of middle-aged Latvian women who emigrated and those who stayed put

2018

By revisiting De Beauvoir’s feminist arguments on ageing I interrogate work-related (im)mobilities of women in two contexts: migrating in middle-age or pre-retirement, and ageing ‘in place’. The da...

Asylum Seekers Crisis in Europe 2015: Debating Spaces of Fear and Security in Latvia

2015

Abstract In this paper we analyse emerging discourses of fear on the one hand and safety and security on the other. In the context of rupture - sudden, unprecedented asylum flows as well as the historical context of the fear and experience of losing the state’s freedom, we pose the following research question: Where do insecurities and fear come from and how are spaces of security and safety carved out through public discourses? We argue that, instead of singling out political discourses in Eastern European as filled with hatred towards other ethnicities and races or an inability to show solidarity with human suffering, we have to open up a far more deep reaching debate on the interplay of …

Temporal fix, hierarchies of work and post-socialist hopes for a better way of life

2021

ABSTRACT This paper proposes to rethink the agriculture–migration nexus through the notions of temporal fix and migrant hierarchies. Its empirical setting is the post-socialist migration of Latvians who move to the Channel Island of Guernsey and to Norway, where they take temporary jobs picking crops such as tomatoes and strawberries. I analyse both how agricultural migrants are viewed by others and how they evaluate themselves. The research material comes from long-term ethnographic engagement with Latvian migrants in these two destinations. In both geographical contexts, temporary agricultural work positions migrants at the bottom of the labour hierarchy. Yet, because of their experience …

Time-space of possibilities: translocal geographies of Latvians in Guernsey

2014

Promocijas darba autore radoši izmanto laika ģeogrāfijas perspektīvu, izveidojot translokālu modeli, ar kura palīdzību tiek analizēti migrācijas veidi no vienas puses un klātbūtnes/prombūtnes pieredze no otras puses. Pētījuma pamatu veido kvalitatīvās metodes: intervijas, novērojumi un ģeogrāfiskās mobilitātes līdzdalīgais novērojums no 2010. gada līdz 2012. gadam. Šis ir pirmais detalizētais pētījums vienā no Lielbritānijas salām – Gērnsijā, kas pēdējo 20 gadu laikā piesaistījusi migrantus no Latvijas. Ģeogrāfiski norobežotas vietas mērogs kopsaistē ar Eiropas Savienības pilsoņu brīvas pārvietošanās iespējām veido īpašus ierobežojumus un iespējas laiktelpā, kurā īslaicīga migrācija pārtop …