High-skilled migration has become a defining feature of the global knowledge economy. Yet high-skilled migrants’ lived experiences, strategies of belonging, and impact on both local and transnational social spaces remain insufficiently understood. Often portrayed as “transnational elites” or hyper-mobile cosmopolitans (Sklair 2001; Favell, Feldblum & Smith 2006), these individuals display complex forms of embeddedness and selective detachment from both origin and destination societies (Andreotti, Le Galès & Moreno-Fuentes 2013; Bielewska 2021).
This interdisciplinary workshop—organized as a joint collaboration between the Radboud University Network on Migrant Inclusion (RUNOMI), the GLOCAL (Global–Local Divides and Connections) research hotspot and the Sector Plan Social Inequality and Diversity —invites scholars to explore high-skilled migration as a multifaceted phenomenon shaped by tensions between mobility and rootedness, privilege and exclusion, global aspirations and local entanglements. Building on the concepts of partial exit and elective belonging (Andreotti et al. 2012; Savage et al. 2005), we aim to expand theoretical and empirical approaches to high-skilled migration across diverse contexts. We welcome contributions from sociology, anthropology, migration studies, geography, political science, urban studies, cultural studies, and related fields. Topics may include (but are not limited to):
- Partial Exit and Selective Rootedness: How do high-skilled migrants balance global trajectories with local attachments? (Andreotti et al. 2015)
- Labeling and Identity Work: How are categories like “expat” or “elite” constructed, challenged, or internalized? (Bielewska 2021; Meier 2015)
- Urban Strategies and Classed Space: What spatial and symbolic strategies do highly skilled migrants enact in shaping and navigating urban environments? (Savage et al. 2005; Andreotti
et al. 2014) - Bi/multifocality: How do high-skilled migrants develop their strategies and navigate opportunities by engaging with multiple locations and diverse social groups, moving beyond the traditional home–host country dichotomy? (Vertovec, 2004; Solano et al., 2022)
- Digitalization: What is the impact of digitalization on the mobility and embeddedness of high-skilled migrants? (Leurs, 2023)
- Beyond the Global North: What dynamics emerge when high-skilled migration occurs in or through semi-peripheral, post-socialist or less studied regions? (Favell & Recchi 2009; Bielewska 2021)
We particularly encourage submissions that adopt intersectional, critical, or transnational approaches, and that challenge dominant assumptions around meritocracy, privilege, and (migrant) integration/inclusion.
- Selected papers are planned to be included in a special issue proposal to be submitted to Global Networks journal.
Submission Guidelines
Please send a 200-word abstract and a short bio (max 100 words) to:
Deadline for submissions: 7 September 2025
Notification of acceptance: 29 September 2025
The workshop will take place in person on 11-12 December 2025 at Radboud University, Nijmegen (The Netherlands). Participation is free. For any inquiries, feel free to contact the organizers.
References
Andreotti, A., Le Galès, P., & Moreno Fuentes, F. J. (2013). Transnational mobility and rootedness: the upper middle classes in European cities. Global Networks, 13(1), 41-59.
Andreotti, A., Le Galès, P., & Fuentes, F. J. M. (2014). Local and Transnational Everyday Practices in Four European Cities: Are New Barbarians on the Road?. In Mobilities and neighbourhood belonging in cities and suburbs (pp. 23-41), Palgrave Macmillan.
Andreotti, A., Le Galès, P., & Moreno-Fuentes, F. J. (2015). Globalised minds, roots in the city: Urban upper-middle classes in Europe, John Wiley & Sons.
Bielewska, A. (2021). Game of labels: Identification of highly skilled migrants. Identities, 28(5), 615-633.
Favell, A., Feldblum, M., & Smith, M. P. (2006). The human face of global mobility: A research agenda. In M.P. Smith, & A. Favell (Eds.), The human face of global mobility (pp. 1-25). New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Press.
Leurs, K. (2023). Digital migration, Sage.
Meier, L. (2015). Migrant professionals in the city.Local Encounters, Identities and Inequalities, Routledge.
Recchi, E., & Favell, A. (Eds.). (2009). Pioneers of European integration: Citizenship and mobility in the EU. Edward Elgar Publishing.
Savage, M., Bagnall, G., & Longhurst, B. (2005). Local habitus and working-class culture. In F. Devine, M. Savage, J. Scott, & R. Crompton (Eds.), Rethinking class: Culture, identities and lifestyle (pp. 95–122). Palgrave Macmillan.
Sklair, L. (2001). The transnational capitalist class (Vol. 17). Oxford: Blackwell.
Solano, G., Schutjens, V. & Rath, J. (2022). Multifocality and opportunity structure: towards a mixed embeddedness model for transnational migrant entrepreneurship. Comparative Migration Studies,10(3), 1-24.
Vertovec, S. (2004). Migrant transnationalism and modes of transformation. International Migration Review, 38, 970–1001.