Cosmopolitan encounters: highly skilled Latvians in London problematise ethnicity and ‘Eastern Europeanness’
Aija Lulle
2134/11702400.v1
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.
2020-01-24 11:00:36
Sociology
Studies in Human Society
Language, Communication and Culture
cosmopolitan encounters
skilled migration
Eastern Europe
Latvia
London