Theorizing the relationality of skilled migrants’ transnational mobilities

Abstract

The issue of transnational mobilities of skilled migrants has been studied from multidisciplinary dynamics. They are built on various theoretical frameworks and methodological tools and at the same time, propose innovative approaches to understanding internationalism. Aiming to add further nuance to the field of transnational migration, this article outlines a theoretical perspective attending to inter-relational aspects in skilled migrants’ transnational mobilities which are reflective of their embeddedness in the world. This perspective is based on a critical review of literature on skilled migration and transnationalism which primarily argues that migrants follow their life pursuits and make sense of their migratory experiences under influences of socio-economic, political and cultural regularities that shape their subjectivities in transnational mobilities. By extending the conventional perception of these influences, it is argued in this paper that transnational mobilities are shaped and re-shaped through at least 5 interrelated aspects of migrants’ lived experience, from the initiation of migration to relocating to the destination country and making professional and personal plans. Therefore, the relationality of transnational mobilities can be theorised through skilled migrants’ entwinement with the world in multiple spaces and temporalities. This article has the potential to contribute a unifying framework to migration research methodologies which currently tend to examine each or some of migrants’ aspects of experiences separately.