A University of Sussex DPhil thesis Available online via Sussex Research Online: http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/ This thesis is protected by copyright which belongs to the author. This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the Author The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the Author When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given Please visit Sussex Research Online for more information and further details Middling Transnationalism and Translocal Lives: Young Germans in the UK. Dorothea Sophia Mueller Doctor of Philosophy University of Sussex September 2012 I hereby declare that this thesis has not been and will not be submitted in whole or in part to another University for the award of any other degree. University of Sussex Dorothea Sophia Mueller, Doctor of Philosophy Middling Transnationalism and Translocal Lives: Young Germans in the UK. SUMMARY The thesis examines the migration decision-making and everyday experiences of young highly skilled professional migrants through the case study of German migration to the UK. It develops a framework combining the twin notions of transnational urbanism and translocal subjectivities, allowing a strong focus on migrants’ subjective experiences, perceptions and emotionalities of mobility, while acknowledging the centrality of spaces and places for them. The geographical setting of the case study further serves to accentuate the relatively small-scale disruption occurring during the migration process, and the subjectivities connected to this. Data was collected in the UK (mainly London) during thirteen months of fieldwork, using participant observation, in-depth interviews and expert interviews. The research reveals a previously unacknowledged high ambivalence and diversity of this migrant group. Young German highly skilled migrants display various mobility and migration patterns with regard to the translocal connections they maintain, the emotional importance they attach to these connections, and their previous internal and international migration history. Three mobility types emerge from this: ‘bi-local’, ‘multi-local’ and ‘settled’ migrants. The close translocal connections practiced by migrants can lead to conflict, particularly for bi-local migrants, as judging of the migration project can occur by friends and families; meaning the spatial and emotional proximity between the migrants and their social network can be both positive and negative. The expectations towards the UK are also highly complex, and strongly influence micro-scale personal geographies. Lastly, the diversity of migration projects leads to widely varying attitudes towards fellow German migrants, as well as tensions and potentially conflicts within German social spaces. Overall, a strong and pervasive ambivalence about the migration experience emerges, which is experienced differently by the three migrant groups and the geographical proximity between Germany and the UK plays a large role in this. This thesis adds empirical and analytical insight to the academic debate regarding young professional migrants within the EU, and German contemporary migration in particular. Theoretically, it contributes to the discussion around lifestyle migration and middling transnationalism, and it enhances the practical use of the concept ‘emotional geographies’ for migration studies. Acknowledgements Clearly, the first thanks goes to my supervisors, Prof Russell King and Dr Anne-Meike Fechter, who have seen me through the four years of this project with a lot of patience, support and great input. They formed a fantastic team, and I am hugely grateful for their belief in this project and their ability to challenge me and push me further. Secondly, without the participants in my study, this would have been impossible. Thank you all for answering my questions patiently, and being so willing to be interviewed. I was floored by how happy you were to participate. Thank you for providing me with insights into your lives in the UK and sharing your stories; I hope that this thesis is a fair account of your experiences. The University of Sussex, and in particular the geography department, provided me with funding, teaching, and great colleagues. Thanks go in particular to Dr Katie Walsh and Dr Simon Rycroft for the discussions which helped me with this project, and to the rest of the fantastic department for a great four years of teaching, coffee and socialising as well as learning. Thank you to my PhD colleagues: MaryBeth Kitzel for being a great human geography colleague, and an inspiration both personally and professionally; my office colleagues in D531 - Franziska Meissner, Maria Abranches, Hannah Warren, Ines Hasselberg, Daniela deBono, Siobhan McPhee, and Ali Houseyinoglu for the many cups of coffee and the great support. Fran, in particular, thank you for the innumerable German books and articles you provided, the feedback and the chocolate, and for the moral support, together with Linnet Taylor and Ines Hasselberg, provided in the last few weeks. More coffee, tea and cake was had with Linnet Taylor, Miguel Rivera, Christina Oelgemueller, Gunjan Sundhi and Dr Jamie Goodwin-White. This would have been so much less fun without you! Other researchers have at times provided me with incredibly useful feedback and support. Particular thanks go to Dr Tim Elrick for reading the outline for my scholarship application, and for improving my awful academic German; to Dr Jonathan Everts and Dr Lauren Wagner for a fascinating discussion on practice and emotional geographies. There were numerous other scholars who shared their work, their articles and theses, and their ideas, without which this thesis would be a lot poorer. Dr. Alisdair Rogers and Dr. Richard Washington, my former tutors, enabled me to set off on this journey. Many thanks also to my former geography teacher, Herr Holz, for making me want to study geography, and to my English teacher Frau Beeger: Without you both, my path would have looked very different. The Foundation of German Business (sdw) provided a scholarship, and much more in the form of courses and seminars that helped me along the way. Perhaps most importantly, it provided a great crowd of people who became friends, motivators and inspirators. Personal thanks go to many people. Firstly to my friends, who are still my friends despite the number of times I did not make coffees, and weekends away (‘I’ve got fieldwork!’) Laura Sutherland, Nisha Sriram, Alma Iacob, Marketa Weiglova, Tom Midgley and the rest of the Oxford crew. Cornelius Nohl, Johannes Trissler, Christina Christophorou, Birgit Leuppert and Marianne Kuehlmann too provided good times and great support. Lukas Hook taught me to not take myself or the PhD too seriously. Barbara Sennholz-Weinhardt and Lukas Obholzer provided much-needed moral support during the the whole process since 2009: thank you both. Many thanks go to my amazing sisters Friederike, Mareike and Annkatrin, for their unwavering support, motivational postcards and phonecalls, and their firm belief that this will be ok. Thank you. You’re awesome, and the best. My parents were a huge help, not least as they had both been there before, and kept me motivated when it got really hard, via phone, emails and visits. Thank you for the amazing and unquestioning support, for being an inspiration and generally the best parents I could wish for. I really could not have done this without you. Last but not least, thank you to Andy Berridge, who is probably happier than me that I have finished this project, for the many years of incredible support and motivation: thank you for being my Puncture Repair and my Mirrorball . Here’s to coffee and chocolate muffins without a PhD waiting for me. TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. INTRODUCTION......................................................................................... 1 1.1. Aims, Scope and Research Questions .........................................................................................1 1.2. Overview of Chapters: Structure of the Thesis .........................................................................6 1.3. Methodology .................................................................................................................................9 1.3.1. German Spaces in the UK .......................................................................................................11 1.3.2. Participant Observation in German Spaces .............................................................................13 1.3.3. Interviews ................................................................................................................................15 1.3.4. Positionality.............................................................................................................................18 2. ‘MIDDLING TRANSNATIONALISM’: EUROSTARS, LIFESTYLE MIGRATION AND TRANSNATIONAL URBANISM........................................ 22 2.1. Introduction ................................................................................................................................22 2.2. Middling Transnationalism.......................................................................................................24 2.2.1. Germans Abroad: Worldwide and Intra-EU Migrations .........................................................26