TY - JOUR
T1 - Cosmopolitans and 'cliques'
T2 - everyday socialisation amongst Tamil student and young professional migrants to the UK
AU - Jones, Demelza
PY - 2013/8
Y1 - 2013/8
N2 - Among student and young professional migrants to the UK the opportunity for a global or cosmopolitan experience emerges as a motivating factor for migration. This article takes the example of student and young professional migrants to the UK from the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu, and explores how this cosmopolitan ambition plays out in the formation of UK social networks. Two 'types' of research participant are identified; 'self-conscious cosmopolitans' whose social networks are cross-ethnic, and others whose networks are largely co-ethnic and who are often derided by their self-consciously cosmopolitan counterparts as 'clannish' or 'cliquey'. The article asks how ethnicity emerges as salient (or not) in these migrants' talk and practice around UK social network formations. It then considers whether a co-ethnic social network necessarily limits the cosmopolitan experience, or whether this interpretation reflects a narrow understanding of cosmopolitanism which excludes the multiple inter-cultural encounters these migrants experience in their everyday lives. © The Author(s) 2013 Reprints and permissions: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav.
AB - Among student and young professional migrants to the UK the opportunity for a global or cosmopolitan experience emerges as a motivating factor for migration. This article takes the example of student and young professional migrants to the UK from the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu, and explores how this cosmopolitan ambition plays out in the formation of UK social networks. Two 'types' of research participant are identified; 'self-conscious cosmopolitans' whose social networks are cross-ethnic, and others whose networks are largely co-ethnic and who are often derided by their self-consciously cosmopolitan counterparts as 'clannish' or 'cliquey'. The article asks how ethnicity emerges as salient (or not) in these migrants' talk and practice around UK social network formations. It then considers whether a co-ethnic social network necessarily limits the cosmopolitan experience, or whether this interpretation reflects a narrow understanding of cosmopolitanism which excludes the multiple inter-cultural encounters these migrants experience in their everyday lives. © The Author(s) 2013 Reprints and permissions: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav.
KW - Tamils
KW - student migration
KW - international students
KW - skilled migration
KW - professional migration
KW - cosmopolitanism
KW - migrant social networks
UR - http://etn.sagepub.com/content/13/4/420
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-84880653791&partnerID=40&md5=f4548dcd8f9d55766ad126a5b54a1ab9
U2 - 10.1177/1468796813483729
DO - 10.1177/1468796813483729
M3 - Article
SN - 1468-7968
VL - 13
SP - 420
EP - 437
JO - Ethnicities
JF - Ethnicities
IS - 4
ER -