2134/11702400.v1
Aija Lulle
Aija
Lulle
Cosmopolitan encounters: highly skilled Latvians in London problematise ethnicity and ‘Eastern Europeanness’
Loughborough University
2020
Sociology
Studies in Human Society
Language, Communication and Culture
cosmopolitan encounters
skilled migration
Eastern Europe
Latvia
London
2020-01-24 11:00:36
Journal contribution
https://repository.lboro.ac.uk/articles/journal_contribution/Cosmopolitan_encounters_highly_skilled_Latvians_in_London_problematise_ethnicity_and_Eastern_Europeanness_/11702400
In this paper I analyse the cosmopolitan aspirations of highly skilled Latvian migrants
residing in London. In particular, I explore the nuanced modalities of ethnicity and ‘Eastern
Europeanness’ and how these inform everyday encounters with people from different
ethnicities and races, and when meeting co-ethnics in a global city. These encounters are
illustrated with data, drawn from 18 in-depth interviews with Latvian graduates in London. I
argue that such encounters are shaped and informed by the post-Soviet heritage, emerging
understandings of inter-racial encounters, hegemonic discourses of ‘East’ and ‘West’, all
embedded in specific power relations.