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Overcoming ‘crisis’: Mobility capabilities and ‘stretching’ a migrant identity among young Irish in London and return migrants

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journal contribution
posted on 2019-03-12, 16:23 authored by Aija Lulle, Liam Coakley, Piaras MacEinri
We bring into dialogue the migrant identities of young Irish immigrants in the UK and young returnees in Ireland. We draw on 38 in-depth interviews (20 in the UK and 18 in Ireland), aged 20-37 at the time of interview, carried out in 2015-16. We argue that ‘stretching’ identities – critical and reflective capabilities to interpret long histories of emigration and the neglected economic dimension need to be incorporated into conceptualising “crisis” migrants. Participants draw on networks globally, they choose migration as a temporary “stop-over” abroad, but they also rework historical Irish migrant identities in a novel way. Becoming an Irish migrant or a returnee today is enacted as a historically-grounded capability of mobility. However, structural economic constraints in Irish labour market need to be seriously considered in understanding return aspirations and realities. These findings generate relevant policy ideas in terms of relations between “crisis” migrants and the state.

History

School

  • Social Sciences

Department

  • Geography and Environment

Published in

International Migration

Volume

58

Issue

1

Pages

31 - 44

Citation

LULLE, A., COAKLEY, L. and MACEINRI, P., 2019. Overcoming ‘crisis’: Mobility capabilities and ‘stretching’ a migrant identity among young Irish in London and return migrants. International Migration, 58 (1), pp.31-44.

Publisher

Wiley

Version

  • AM (Accepted Manuscript)

Rights holder

© The Authors and IOM

Publisher statement

This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Overcoming ‘crisis’: Mobility capabilities and ‘stretching’ a migrant identity among young Irish in London and return migrants. International Migration, 58 (1), pp.31-44, which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1111/imig.12577. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Use of Self-Archived Versions.

Acceptance date

2019-02-27

Publication date

2019-03-25

ISSN

0020-7985

eISSN

1468-2435

Language

  • en