Global Networks-A Journal of Transnational Affairs最新文献

This review examines the distinct treatment of millions of displaced Ukrainians amidst the ongoing conflict, compared to previous refugee groups in Europe, presenting a synthesis of research encompassing traditional and grey literature. Evaluating resettlement processes, the analysis underscores the unique factors shaping Ukrainian refugees' reception, shedding light on disparities compared to other refugee groups. Cultural perceptions, vulnerability, demographics and the framing of Russia as a common adversary influence responses from individuals, organizations and nations in unprecedented ways in Western societies. The discussion critically dissects these findings, proposing the concept of ‘promising victimhood’ for a nuanced understanding of differential treatment, while urging further theoretical development. This concise systematic review serves as a crucial benchmark for both academics and policymakers, emphasizing the need to address systemic injustices in refugee reception across various levels and sectors.

This article contributes to the literature at the intersection of migration and global production networks (GPNs) by examining the role of labour market intermediaries (LMIs) for migrant workers. It demonstrates mediation processes by LMIs and elaborates on migration networks in the global labour market through qualitative and quantitative data. It examines the role of LMIs in responding to mechanisms in GPN, including zero inventory and just-in-time production, and the impact of private employment agents on migrant workers, particularly on their career paths. The article found that LMIs play an active role in the mediation and cooperation between migrant labour and firms and in shaping structural conditions for migrant workers in response to global competitive pressures. However, LMIs play a controversial role in social upgrading. Private LMIs are identified as having a negative impact on career paths of migrant workers.

This paper examines the transnational and translocal experiences of the Rohingya in India, a stateless, refugee community forcibly displaced from Myanmar, onward migrants from Bangladesh, who currently occupy a legally precarious space in India. Drawing on approximately 90 interviews conducted with refugees, community leaders and NGOs across three Indian cities, along with informal group discussions and field notes, this paper makes two arguments that shed light on the complex, multi-factorial ways in which networks are rebuilt in displacement as well as the emerging characteristics of Rohingya onward migration in Asia. First, that early generations of Rohingya in India leveraged translocal network building spaces and encounters to rebuild their networks with others in the community and create translocal networks of care and support with local civil society actors, cementing the notion of a ‘Rohingya refugee community’ in India. Second, that the gradual internationalisation of the Rohingya crisis as well as the transnationalisation of the Rohingya diaspora in the last decade through multiple waves of displacement, onward migration and resettlement schemes has prompted a shift towards multi-sited transnationalism, particularly reflected in the emergence of multi-sited transnational families, digital transnational spaces among younger refugees and extended diasporic networks.

The recent war in Ukraine has prompted a global focus on refugees and their ability to successfully overcome adversity. This article focuses on the factors that foster resilience in women refugees. Refugee resilience depends on external environments as much as on internal strength, both of which relate to the nature of transnational families that stretch across at least two countries and rely on the family member's internal capacity to address the challenge of maintaining ties, alongside their external resources available in their circumstances. A qualitative study was conducted in November 2022 with 11 women refugees from Ukraine interviewed in Warsaw, Poland. Eight themes that contribute to resilience in women refugees were identified, including (1) family (in particular, intergenerational family solidarity), (2) community, (3) artistic expression and artisan creation, (4) connection to nature and environment, (5) access to mental health professionals, (6) work, (7) faith and spirituality and (8) hope for the future. Dominant, overarching narratives included the safety and well-being of participants’ children, overcoming adversities for the sake of their sons and daughters and facing daily struggles related to providing for their family.

This article challenges entrenched notions of otherness, which presuppose that migrants’ experiences always are inherently different from those of other people. By exploring the experiences of white, middle-class, highly educated Swedes living in Sweden, I highlight some similarities with challenges traditionally attributed solely to migrants. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in the Swedish hub of a large international company, the article examines experiences of Swedish employees participating in international digital meetings, a significant aspect of their daily professional lives. It elucidates aspects of their experiences that are often associated with migrants: struggling with language, feeling dominated and unseen and striving to adapt while subtly challenging the dominance of British and American ‘natives’ through practices of boundary maintenance. The article contributes to the de-exceptionalization of migrants’ experiences without further equating the privileged Swedes’ living conditions with those of people who are migranticized and subjected to enduring othering in their everyday lives.

Upper-middle-class Chinese families send children to the United States for high school to exit what some perceive as an ‘unhappy’ educational environment in China or in pursuit of a ‘better education’ in the United States. However, for some students, the American high school experience itself may be marked by ‘unhappiness’, endured in the pursuit of ‘success’. Based on ethnographic interviews with Chinese youth attending private American high schools, this study illustrates how narratives of unhappiness surrounding such transnational educational choices result in multiple success frames among students, categorized as ‘pragmatists’ and ‘rebels’. Those who downplay happiness or experience unhappiness in the US context tend to adopt the ‘pragmatic’ frame, while those emphasizing their exit from an ‘unhappy’ situation are more likely to align with the ‘rebel’ frame. Despite slight deviations from parental expectations, the relative economic security of these families enables Chinese youth to develop ambivalent success frames based on their familiarity with both US and Chinese contexts, questioning the dominance of a singular success narrative.

South Korea has been known for high rates of ‘early study abroad’ (ESA) or jogi yuhak participation, in which pre-college students go abroad for an international education. However, this trend has declined recently. Instead, many Korean parents and their children are seeking the benefits of ‘studying abroad’ without leaving Korea for long periods. Based on in-depth interviews with Korean parents, I explore various strategies they employ to provide their children, aged 4–12, with ‘study abroad experiences’ without actually studying abroad for an extended period. These approaches include English immersion programmes, such as English kindergartens and camps designed to expose children to foreign cultures and languages. I analyse how Korean parents’ aspirations to nurture ‘happy children’ while securing their future success shape diverse strategies that transcend traditional local–global and sedentary–mobile dichotomies. This highlights more complex motivations behind educational choices, emphasizing goals beyond mere capital accumulation or lifestyle consumption.

Transnational class formation has been a subject of considerable interest in recent years. This article provides the theoretical and thematic framework to the special theme on ‘Transnational class formation: identities, practices and symbolic classifications’ and presents a review of current literature on transnational social classes, arguing that we need to complement this literature by also considering transnational class-making. We introduce several theoretical approaches and concepts, emphasizing the role of (self-)classification, distinction, symbolic boundaries and intersectionality for analyses of transnational class-making. Drawing on the contributions collected in this special theme, we conclude by presenting some potential challenges and unresolved questions concerning the issue of transnational class formation.

Digital information and communications technologies like social media are critical for trade union renewal. Yet, although many unions now use social media, there remain ongoing debates as to what effective digital activism looks like. This question is even more pressing for the Global Unions, as international labour movement organizations without grassroots members. Drawing on social movement and networked communication theories, this article interrogates Global Unions’ social media practices through a mixed-method analysis of 19,009 Facebook posts created between 2017 and 2022. Based on this analysis, we find that Global Unions that adopt crowd-focused communication styles and post on broader social issues have more success in engaging with online crowds than those that emphasize workplace or organizational issues and adopt top-down communication styles. At the same time, our findings challenge assumptions in the literature that crowd-led, connective communication styles associated with engagement are necessarily the most effective in today's digital society.