The Eurostars go global: young Europeans’ migration to Asia for distinction and alternative life paths

ABSTRACT

This paper describes young Europeans’ labour migration to Asian global cities as one emerging consequence of European bureaucrats’ vision of the ideal citizen. Qualitative interviews with highly educated European millennials working in Singapore and Tokyo demonstrate that they have internalised mobility as a norm. They perceive international experience as beneficial for their career and self-development and view the lack of such experience as a personal deficiency. They pursue migration to socio-culturally distant Asian cities as a means of distinguishing themselves; in addition, these cities offer good employment and a high living standard whereas Europe’s economic power is decreasing. I argue that these migrants are using mobility to Asia as a practice of middle-class reproduction. They are avoiding constraints on their cosmopolitan and professional aspirations in their home countries by moving to locations where they anticipate that the cultural and social capital gained during previous overseas sojourns will be more valued. The longitudinal research design reveals that fear of immobility at home deters many of these ‘ideal’ young Europeans from returning and instead propels them towards on-going geographical mobility. I conclude by problematising the celebration of mobility in discourse on Europeanisation and higher education and by reflecting on the implications of this new mobility pattern.

KEYWORDS:

• Europe
• Singapore
• Japan
• youth mobility
• do-it-yourself biography
• distinction
• middle class

Acknowledgements

I thank Gracia Liu-Farrer for the inspiring discussions that sparked the idea of writing this article, Adrian Favell for his insightful comments on an earlier draft, Kim Lim Suan for kindly copyediting the first full version of the manuscript and the two anonymous reviewers for their critical and helpful observations.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Singapore and Japan apply strict terms for skilled work visas. They are tied to the employer and require a university degree, specialisation relevant to the position, and (in Singapore) a minimum monthly salary, which is high compared to wages in most OECD countries (Ministry of Manpower 2018).

2. I prepared and initially expected to use a written informed consent form, but the participants, who were only slightly older than me, seemed to regard the interview as fairly informal and unanimously stated that written consent was not necessary. In a few cases, the prepared form even created an awkwardly stiff situation. I, thus decided to use oral informed consent, explaining my use of data, confidentiality and purpose of the project in detail.

3. Nationalities are not specified in some cases to protect informants’ anonymity.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Haraguchi Memorial Asia Research Fund, from which I received grants in 2014–2015 and 2016–2017, and the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science [Kiban C 15K03884: ‘Beyond Multiculturalism: Organizational Logics and Cultural Practices at Japanese Workplaces’, principal investigator Gracia Liu-Farrer].