Work in London, love in Paris: middle class mobility over the Channel Tunnel

ABSTRACT

Our paper contributes to the analysis of the transformation of middle classes in Europe by linking the issue of spatialization of class at the transnational and urban levels with the question of mobility and skilled migration. We therefore analyse the migration motives and urban practices (lifestyle and residential choice) of about ninety mobile middle class French nationals in London and middle class British nationals in Paris. The respondents belong to various fragments of an emerging European transnational middle class, whose diversity is reflected in their reasons for moving and their experience in the new city. Drawing on the concept of elective belonging, we argue that both the transnational and urban levels are important for class making mechanisms. Our results illustrate the relevance of the transnational level, i.e. cross-border mobility, for the making and reproduction of middle-class status. At the same time, the urban level – both the city and neighbourhood – is a crucial element that facilitates or obstructs middle-class practices, e.g. related to lifestyle or residential choice. For our respondents, multicultural London presents the economic capital of Europe with abundant professional opportunities, while Paris is viewed as a provincial city, liked for its beauty and lifestyle, but economically far behind London.

KEYWORDS:

• Cross-border mobility
• skilled migration
• European middle classes
• residential choice
• elective belonging

Acknowledgements

We thank the two referees of the journal for stimulating and useful comments

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Not to mention Brexit – a topic for the next step of the research.

2 As part of the research, we tried to measure themes on twitter conversations between London and Paris, done by Matthieu Jacomy at the Medialab of Sciences Po. Although our exploration was not very successful, the most common subject for tweets linking individuals in Paris and London was personal relationships and love

3 We are working on a data base to document business exchanges between Paris and London, including in the world on banking or when a transnational firm (for instance Microsoft) organize its European activities in Europe between several European cities including London or Paris. Large service firms with offices in Paris and London will send staff in the other place for instance

4 According to ongoing research, this is probably changing as many young middle classes families have increased the long term trend of leaving to the immediate surroundings of Paris, hence the difference between Paris and next door suburbs is in decline for the new generation, also as the metro lines are now reaching those communes.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Paris City Council, Programme Paris 2030 (CONVENTION n°2012 DDEEES 218 ‘Paris Londres 2030’).