WASEDA INSTITUTE OF ASIA-PACIFIC STUDIES COLLOQUIUM SERIES

(CO-SPONSORED BY WASEDA INSTITUTE OF ASIAN MIGRATIONS) PRESENTS

 

Book talk 'The EU migrant generation in Asia. Middle-class aspirations in Asian global cities'

26 January 2023 at 18:00-19:30 (JST)

 

ROOM 711, BUILDING 19, WASEDA UNIVERSITY (〒169-0051 Tokyo, Shinjuku City, Nishiwaseda, 1-chōme−21−１ 早稲田大学 西早稲田ビルディング) and ONLINE VIA ZOOM

Registration required

https://www.waseda-iam.org/event-details/book-talk-with-dr-helena-hof-the-eu-migrant-generation-in-asia-middle-class-aspirations-in-asian-global-cities

 

Speaker

Dr. Helena Hof (Senior Research Fellow and Lecturer, University of Zurich / Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity)

 

Abstract 

Drawing on an extensive study with young individuals who migrated to Singapore and Tokyo in the 2010s, this book sheds light on the friendships, emotions, hopes and fears involved in establishing life as Europeans in Asia.

It demonstrates how migration to Asian business centres has become a way of distinction and an alternative route of middle-class reproduction for young Europeans during that period. The perceived insecurities of life in the crisis-ridden EU result in these migrants' onward migration or prolonged stays in Asia.

Capturing the changing roles of Singapore and Japan as migration destinations, this pioneering work makes the case for EU citizens' aspired lifestyles and professional employment that is no longer only attainable in Europe or the West.

 

Speaker Biography 

Dr. Helena Hof is a Visiting Researcher at the Institute of Asian Migrations (IAM), Waseda University, and an alumnus of Waseda's Graduate School of Asia-Pacific Studies. In her doctoral and postdoctoral research at Waseda, she focused on the entanglements of physical mobility, career mobility, and social mobility in European migrants' early-career trajectories in the global cities of Tokyo, Singapore, and Sao Paulo. Helena's home institution is the University of Zurich where she is a Senior Research and Teaching Fellow at the Institute of Asian and Oriental Studies. She also holds an affiliation as a Research Fellow with the Max-Planck-Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity, Germany (MMG-MPG) where she started a new four-year research project in March 2021. She is book reviews editor of the academic journal Transitions: Journal of Transient Migration. Some of her recent publications include 'EU migrant retention and the temporalities of migrant staying: A new conceptual framework' (with Simon Pemberton and Emilia Pietka-Nykaza, 2021, Comparative Migration Studies), and 'Intersections of Race and Skills in European Migration to Asia: Between White Cultural Capital and 'Passive Whiteness' (Ethnic and Racial Studies).

 

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Dr. Helena Hof
Senior Research Fellow and Lecturer
University of Zurich / Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity

The-EU-Migrant-Generation-in-Asia

https://www.aoi.uzh.ch/en/japanologie/personenuebersicht/wissangestellte/hof.html

http://www.mmg.mpg.de/person/111317/2553

hof@mmg.mpg.de

 

Recent publications:

Hof, Helena, Simon Pemberton and Emilia Pietka-Nykaza. 2021. 'EU migrant retention and the temporalities of migrant staying: A new conceptual framework.' Comparative Migration Studies. 10.1186/s40878-021-00225-5

Hof, Helena. 2020. 'Intersections of Race and Skills in European Migration to Asia: Between White Cultural Capital and 'Passive Whiteness'. Ethnic and Racial Studies. 45 (11). DOI: 10.1080/01419870.2020.1822535.