17 research outputs found
Contesting language policy for asylum seekers in the Northern periphery: The story of Tailor F
This article is about navigating asylum, employment and language policy in a new country as an asylum seeker. Through the story of one individual, we show that profound inequalities are exacerbated when forced migrants are limited in their choice of language they might study or use. The individual is Tailor F, an Iraqi man seeking asylum, and the country is Finland, officially bilingual, with a majority language (Finnish) and a minority language (Swedish). Finland’s official bilingualism does not extend evenly to language education provided for asylum seekers, who are taught Finnish regardless of the region where they are placed. Upon arrival, Tailor F was housed in a reception centre for asylum seekers located in a Swedish-dominant rural area of the country. Through our linguistic ethnography we examine how he navigates multilingually in his early settlement, his current work and his online life. We relate his story to explicit and implicit official bilingualism in Finland and discuss his lived experiences in relation to the contexts of asylum policy and employment. Tailor F’s story shows how, through his practices, he has contested implicit language policy for asylum seekers in order to gain membership of the local Swedish-dominant community, achieve a sense of belonging, and potentially realise his aspirations for the future
The quantified self: what counts in the neoliberal workplace
Implementation of quantified self technologies in workplaces relies on the ontological premise of Cartesian dualism with mind dominant over body. Contributing to debates in new materialism, we demonstrate that workers are now being asked to measure our own productivity and health and wellbeing in art-houses and warehouses alike in both the global north and south. Workers experience intensified precarity, austerity, intense competition for jobs, and anxieties about the replacement of labour-power with robots and other machines as well as, ourselves replaceable, other humans. Workers have internalized the imperative to perform, a subjectification process as we become observing, entrepreneurial subjects and observed, objectified labouring bodies. Thinking through the implications of the use of wearable technologies in workplaces, this article shows that these technologies introduce a heightened Taylorist influence on precarious working bodies within neoliberal workplaces
Die Aushandlung von Migration in Städten: eine relational vergleichende Perspektive
This discussion paper calls for broadening the scope of research on cities and
migration, both empirically and theoretically, by applying a relational comparative perspective. It pleas to rethink how cities are studied and compared
in migration studies. Although cities have become central reference points in
migration research since the ›local turn‹, most studies still focus primarily on
capital cities and gateway cities as self-contained spaces in the Global North.
These biases lead to blind spots in the production of knowledge regarding
the migration–city nexus. Newer theoretical, empirical, and methodological
perspectives offer possible ways out by decentering migration and focusing
on the multiple relations sustained in and across cities in the Global South
and North.In diesem Diskussionspapier rufen wir dazu auf, die Forschung über Städte
und Migration sowohl empirisch als auch theoretisch um eine relational vergleichende Perspektive zu erweitern. Es plädiert dafür, die Art und Weise,
wie Städte in der Migrationsforschung untersucht und verglichen werden, zu
überdenken. Obwohl Städte seit dem ›local turn‹ zu zentralen Bezugspunkten in der Migrationsforschung geworden sind, konzentrieren sich die meisten Studien weiterhin hauptsächlich auf Hauptstädte und Gateway-Cities als
in sich geschlossene Räume im Globalen Norden. Dieser Blick führt zu blinden Flecken bei der Produktion von Wissen an der Schnittstelle von Stadt
und Migration. Neuere theoretische, empirische und methodische Perspektiven bieten mögliche Auswege, indem sie Migration dezentrieren und sich
auf die vielfältigen Beziehungen konzentrieren, die in und zwischen Städten
im Globalen SĂĽden und im Globalen Norden bestehen.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio
Migrant economies: opportunity structures and potential in different city types
In this paper we wish to appraise how opportunities for migrant economies and their role in urban development may differ among various city types. The article contributes to the debate about the relationship of migrant economies and urban development and takes up two perspectives: it examines local opportunity structures for migrant entrepreneurs and sheds light on migrant economies’ potential for urban development. To address the many interrelated historical and contemporary processes in cities that influence migrant economies, we adopt the rescaling and the mixed embeddedness approaches. Studies on the role of migrant economies in urban development have predominantly focused on metropolises. Based on mixed-methods case studies in two medium-sized German cities, we ask how different city types influence the opportunities and potential of migrant economies for urban development.Peer Reviewe