This panel engages migrants’ own understandings of inequality. Specifically, it considers how migrants make sense of economic inequality, their changing class positioning in the context of migration, as well as their strategies for social mobility. As such, the panel addresses itself to scholars working at the intersection of migration, class, and inequality.
Perceptions of inequality and mobility are interwoven with migration dynamics. They can play a role as drivers for migration and return. Conversely, mobility can affect the perception of inequality. Therefore, we follow Johan Fredrik Rye’s (2019) plea for a systematic analysis of inequality and class in migration studies.
We invite empirical and theoretical contributions that explore migrants’ lay perceptions of economic inequality, class, and social mobility. Themes can include:
- Aspirations for upward social mobility and perceptions of economic inequality in the home country as drivers for migration
- Migrants’ perceptions of inequality in the context of Global North – Global South dynamics, circular and return migration, as well as internal migration
- Perceptions of inequality as drivers or obstacles in migrants’ strategies for upward social mobility in the receiving context
- Migrants’ transnational subjective class positionings
Please submit an abstract of max. 250 words by 23 November 2022 to: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Notification of acceptance into panel proposal: 28 November 2022
Submission of panel proposal to IMISCOE: 5 December 2022
Panel organizer: Margherita Cusmano, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity
Panel chair: Dr. Johanna M Lukate, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity