Irene Skovgaard-Smith presents her research on transnational belonging on Tuesday 9th January in an International Business guest webinar
Welcome to the COSMO webinar, where Dr. Irene Skovgaard-Smith will give a presentation on: “Pandemic disruptions on mobilities: Transnational belonging under conditions of intensified bordering”. The event will take place on Tuesday the 9th of January 2024 at 14.00-15.30. You are welcome to follow the presentation at TSE (LS12) or via Zoom (ask for the link via email to johanna.raitis@utu.fi). The COSMO research project is funded by Academy of Finland and Työsuojelurahasto: https://cosmoresearchproject.wordpress.com/
The presentation will focus on transnational belonging and the impact of intensified bordering and othering in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. This involved a dramatic intensification and reconfiguration of existing mobility regimes and bordering practices with severe consequences for transnationally mobile groups whose lives span territorial borders, such as globally mobile professionals, migrants and transnationalised families. Those affected by closed borders and entry bans were left in a prolonged state of limbo. Based on a study of the experiences of skilled transnational migrants across a range of nation-states during the pandemic (May 2020–May 2021), I will explore how pandemic bordering disrupted transnational life worlds, social ties and belonging and further acerbated existing precarities. Denigration of the mobile Other as a carrier of disease and the intensification of nationalist bordering and exclusionary mobility regimes had a significant symbolic impact with potential implications beyond the crisis of the pandemic. For many it was the painful realisation that, whether citizen or non-citizen, as a transnational you are the Other. Finding oneself attributed with a new form of 'hostile' identity brought on a range of what Anthias (2008) calls belonging questions. The pandemic disruption of mobilities also laid bare how the rights and needs of transnationally mobile populations are further marginalized by nation-states as the politics of 'controlling' national borders and exclusion of mobile Others gain traction in times of crisis.
Irene Skovgaard-Smith is a social anthropologist and Associate Professor at Norwich Business School, University of East Anglia (UEA) in the UK. Key research interests include identity, belonging and othering in the context of transnational work and cross-border mobility. Irene's work has appeared in Human Relations, Global Networks, Critique of Anthropology, Journal of Classical Sociology, Group & Organization Management, European Journal of International Management, Social & Cultural Geography, Organization, The Conversation and in books from Palgrave Macmillan and Information Age Publishing. More information: https://research-portal.uea.ac.uk/en/persons/irene-skovgaard-smith