Imagining London: The role of the geographical imagination in migrant subjectivity and decision‐making

Abstract

This article employs a qualitative, biographical approach, to explore the motivations and subjectivities behind migration of middle‐class Brazilians to London. It uses the concept of the geographical imagination to understand how migrants imagine not only their destinations and places of origin but also how their own identity is shaped by their imagined relationship to these places. The paper argues that for many middle‐class Brazilians, their motivation to migrate is couched in terms of “societal alienation”: a feeling of distance from the place of origin resulting from a lack of identification and trust in its institutions and the very culture of the place itself. This is in contrast to the more popularly understood concept of migrating due to “material alienation”: migrating to access a higher level of material consumption or to acquire financial capital to use “back home.” For those who migrate due to “societal alienation” what is “fetishised” is the cultural and less material aspects of the ‘quality of life’ of the migration destination, which become a kind of commodity in their own right. It argues that social class which often intersects with regional and racial divisions within Brazilian society, is a key marker of difference in these two types of imaginary.

Re‐imagining belonging to Brazil: Active immobility in times of crisis

“…The main criterion for these interviewees was social class: individuals from mostly the middle or upper middle classes of Brazilian society, as they are the most capable of emigration. Initial contacts were made with immigrants in London (Robins, 2018(Robins, , 2019. I then utilised 'snowball sampling' (Margolis, 2009) to contact London participants' friends and family in Brazil, and 'snowballed' additional interviewers from these first contacts.…”

Imagining Finland: negotiating the sense of self through return imaginaries

“…Both social and personal referents are important when narrating the place as 'home' -home can mean the actual domestic setting where everyday is lived or the symbolic spatiality that one links with the feeling of familiarity (Antonsich 2010). When approaching it from the opposite perspective, the perception of 'societal alienation' is the lack of identification with the societal atmosphere in one's sending country, and 'material alienation' is the motivation behind moving to gain a better economic situation (Robins 2019). Robins (2019) points out that when one moves because of societal alienation, the motivation is often expressed through 'quality of life' that is not necessarily defined through materiality but is often cultural and psychological.…”

“…When approaching it from the opposite perspective, the perception of 'societal alienation' is the lack of identification with the societal atmosphere in one's sending country, and 'material alienation' is the motivation behind moving to gain a better economic situation (Robins 2019). Robins (2019) points out that when one moves because of societal alienation, the motivation is often expressed through 'quality of life' that is not necessarily defined through materiality but is often cultural and psychological. The value of this 'quality of life' comes through especially in the reflections on return, where it is often described through societal qualities (such as atmosphere, bureaucracy and image) in both sending and destination countries.…”

“…Objectors articulated clearly that they did not see returning as a preferred choice. They expressed their imagined return through societal alienation (Robins 2019) and described feeling distanced from Finland. They identified against qualities like 'cold climate' and Finland's social atmosphere; but also narrated an attachment to Finland through social referents (Antonsich 2010) such as 'quiet, beautiful nature' and 'the snow in the winter and the sea in the summer'.…”

Temporality and acquiescent immobility among aspiring nurse migrants in the Philippines

“…Sociologists have talked about the culture of migration, where leaving the country is valorised as a natural part of the life course (Kandel and Massey 2002;Ali 2007). Others have also explored the impacts of place, which further complicates discussion on the cultures of migration (Thompson 2017;Robins 2019). 3.…”