Social Reproduction Abroad: Educational Strategies and Cosmopolitan Repertoires among French Migrants in Abu Dhabi

Abstract

Abstract This article looks at how the highly internationalized context of Abu Dhabi and the benefits of migration intersect for French migrants. It analyzes the tensions surrounding a specific form of the repatriation of the benefits of migration: how these are passed on to children. While French migrants generally receive higher salaries and consolidate dominant class positions in Abu Dhabi, they also have to deal with the remoteness of national structures of social reproduction. Drawing on an ethnographic study of French migrants in Abu Dhabi conducted from October 2015 to May 2016 (participant observation and interviews, n = 70), this article argues that migrants adjust their educational strategies in order to build up a cosmopolitan repertoire and ensure different paths of social reproduction. The article introduces three forms of educational strategies and associated cosmopolitan repertoires and shows how these relate to the parents’ social positions.