Migration at Work : Aspirations, Imaginaries, and Structures of Mobility

The willingness to migrate in search of employment is in itself insufficient to compel anyone to move. The dynamics of labour mobility are heavily influenced by the opportunities perceived and the imaginaries held by both employers and regulating authorities in relation to migrant labour. This volume offers a multidisciplinary approach to the study of the structures and imaginaries underlying various forms of mobility. Based on research conducted in different geographical contexts, including the European Union, Turkey, and South Africa, and tackling the experiences and aspirations of migrants from various parts of the globe, the chapters comprised in this volume analyse labour-related mobilities from two distinct yet intertwined vantage points: the role of structures and regimes of mobility on the one hand, and aspirations as well as migrant imaginaries on the other. Migration at Work thus aims to draw cross-contextual parallels by addressing the role played by opportunities in mobilizing people, how structures enable, sustain, and change different forms of mobility, and how imaginaries fuel labour migration and vice versa. In doing so, this volume also aims to tackle the interrelationships between imaginaries driving migration and shaping "regimes of mobility", as well as how the former play out in different contexts, shaping internal and cross-border migration.

Based on empirical research in various fields, this collection provides valuable scholarship and evidence on current processes of migration and mobility.

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Contributors: Iratxe Aristegui (University of Deusto), Deniz Berfin Ayaydin (CEMESO), Maria Luisa Di Martino (University of Deusto), Iraklis Dimitriadis (University of Milan), Russell King (University of Sussex / Malmö University), Aija Lulle (University of Louborough), Concepción Maiztegui-Oñate (University of Deusto), Faith Mkwananzi (University of the Free State), Christine Moderbacher (Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology), Alice Ncube (University of the Free State), Noel B. Salazar (KU Leuven), Fiona-Katharina Seiger (Erasmus University Rotterdam), Joana de Sousa Ribeiro (University of Coimbra), Mirjam Wajsberg (Radboud University), Johan Wets (KU Leuven)

Fiona-Katharina Seiger is a sociologist by training who has worked with women, children, and youth in Japan and the Philippines. She holds a PhD from the National University of Singapore.

Christiane Timmerman was Professor of anthropology and director of the Center for Migration and Intercultural Studies (CeMIS) at the University of Antwerp.

Noel B. Salazar is Research Professor in anthropology at KU Leuven, Belgium.

Johan Wets (PhD social sciences) is migration research manager at the Research Institute for Work and Society (HIVA), an interdisciplinary research institute from the University of Leuven, Belgium (KU Leuven).