Our Human Geography list tackles the big issues, from equality to population growth to sustainability, publishing in cultural and social geography, development geography, political geography, qualitative and quantitative research methods and urban geography.
The list includes internationally renowned names such as Danny Dorling, Loretta Lees and Anne Power. We publish a range of formats including research books that bridge theory and apply it to practice.
Human Geography
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Chapter 3 shifts the lens to Tokyo, a vibrant metropolis and business hub in the Asia-Pacific region and the capital city of Japan, an ‘island nation’ and country that, despite an influx of migrants over the past three decades, continues to be perceived as largely homogeneous both from within and outside of Japan. The chapter discusses how Japan has rapidly opened up to migration in recent years, leading to an immense diversification of Tokyo’s resident population, including its foreign residents. However, foreigners are still seen as guests rather than immigrants. The chapter traces the roots of Japan’s constructions of difference and thereby explains the peculiar positioning of the (mostly white) European migrants in contemporary Tokyo society.
Drawing on a longitudinal qualitative study with young Europeans who migrated to Singapore and Tokyo in the 2010s, this book sheds light on the life course effects of early-career migration and on the changing outlook of the immigrant receiving countries of Singapore and Japan. The book demonstrates how migration to Asian business centres has become a way of distinction and an alternative way of middle-class reproduction for young Europeans during that period. It also reveals how 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. After years of working experience and of building a life and networks in the two cities, Singapore and Tokyo – and for some migrants, other Asian hubs – have become temporary homes. Having spent the crucial first life stage of ‘full’ adulthood and economic independence in Asia, the migrants have established grounds for a middle-class lifestyle that they might not be able to replicate easily in their home countries or elsewhere. Singapore’s and Japan’s changing migration regimes, however, pose different barriers to the migrants, which results in the Europeans’ ambiguous feelings towards their differentiated embedding in the host societies.
Part III, (Im)Mobility Through Differentiated Embedding: The Ties That Bind, complements the analysis of migrants’ geographical, organisational and career mobility by examining the non-work-related aspects of migrants’ lives abroad. It connects the EU Generation’s place making and socialising practices to intimacy and thereby unearths complex processes of differentiated embedding, which result in either repeated physical mobility or staying. Chapter 7 engages questions of the migrants’ interaction with the heterogeneous and constantly diversifying resident population of their host cities. Emerging feelings of familiarity and security allow migrants to varying degrees to develop a sense of belonging. Such differentiated embedding, rather than a full-fledged belonging or outright marginalisation, best describes the complexities of migrants’ prolonged staying in Singapore and Tokyo.
The introduction presents the European millennial subjects of the book. It coins the term of the EU Generation in order to capture the commonalities of the group: their middle-class backgrounds and upbringing with the ideals of intra-European mobility in the integrating EU of the early 2000s. The chapter explains the concepts of mobility, immobility and aspirations in the life course as a segue into the way middle-class dispositions and aspirations shape the trajectories of this migrant group. The chapter then considers the migrant destinations of Singapore and Tokyo as cities defying the binary of East versus West and ends with a note on the research design and data.
Drawing on a longitudinal qualitative study with young Europeans who migrated to Singapore and Tokyo in the 2010s, this book sheds light on the life course effects of early-career migration and on the changing outlook of the immigrant receiving countries of Singapore and Japan. The book demonstrates how migration to Asian business centres has become a way of distinction and an alternative way of middle-class reproduction for young Europeans during that period. It also reveals how 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. After years of working experience and of building a life and networks in the two cities, Singapore and Tokyo – and for some migrants, other Asian hubs – have become temporary homes. Having spent the crucial first life stage of ‘full’ adulthood and economic independence in Asia, the migrants have established grounds for a middle-class lifestyle that they might not be able to replicate easily in their home countries or elsewhere. Singapore’s and Japan’s changing migration regimes, however, pose different barriers to the migrants, which results in the Europeans’ ambiguous feelings towards their differentiated embedding in the host societies.
Chapter 4 opens Part II Organisational and Career Mobility: Seizing Security, Success and Self-realisation, which turns to a second dimension of mobility that shapes migrants’ lives: employment situation and professional development, which manifest in organisational and career mobility in Singapore and Tokyo. Chapter 4 on Singapore shows how the young European migrants strive to live up to the image of innovation-driven and high-potential foreign talents as painted by the Singaporean state. Lacking substantial work experience but aiming for the highly skilled visa, the migrants attempt to professionalise themselves in the neoliberal labour market by repeated job transfers, which facilitate career mobility. The majority of migrants pursue mobile careers in which organisational mobility, career mobility and geographical mobility go hand in hand. of the book.
Drawing on a longitudinal qualitative study with young Europeans who migrated to Singapore and Tokyo in the 2010s, this book sheds light on the life course effects of early-career migration and on the changing outlook of the immigrant receiving countries of Singapore and Japan. The book demonstrates how migration to Asian business centres has become a way of distinction and an alternative way of middle-class reproduction for young Europeans during that period. It also reveals how 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. After years of working experience and of building a life and networks in the two cities, Singapore and Tokyo – and for some migrants, other Asian hubs – have become temporary homes. Having spent the crucial first life stage of ‘full’ adulthood and economic independence in Asia, the migrants have established grounds for a middle-class lifestyle that they might not be able to replicate easily in their home countries or elsewhere. Singapore’s and Japan’s changing migration regimes, however, pose different barriers to the migrants, which results in the Europeans’ ambiguous feelings towards their differentiated embedding in the host societies.
Chapter 5 on Tokyo outlines the Japanese employment system, in which foreign university graduates have increasingly secured career track positions in Japan’s primary labour market. Yet, pressure to conform to their firms’ homogenising company culture causes most of them to opt out. Overall, migrants’ employment patterns in Tokyo resemble those of migrants in Singapore by their frequent turnover. The analysis demonstrates considerable fluidity and overlap between the much-discussed sharp divide drawn between jobs in Japan’s primary labour market, that is, regular jobs, and those in the secondary labour market, including contract positions. The findings call for attention to the diversifying Japanese labour market, which offers a greater variety of career paths to highly educated early career migrants than linear career progression or stagnation.
The Conclusion surveys the issues that have arisen in the book and draws together the consensus and solutions that are emerging after two years of the global pandemic. Key ideas are outlined, and the actions, both domestic and international, that are required to align pandemic mitigation to sustainable development are highlighted.
COVID-19 poses specific challenges for people living in more remote or relatively inaccessible pockets of rural and urban settlements. This chapter focuses on how the People’s Cultural Centre (PECUC), a nongovernmental organization in Odisha, India, initiated interim relief measures for families of migrant labourers, daily wage labourers, landless, child labourers, disabled, widowed and other vulnerable families in Odisha whose lives were severely affected by the pandemic. It examines and highlights success stories from the field where PECUC has laid down a substantial COVID-19 programming handprint. For over three decades, PECUC has been engaged with children’s rights, education, health, livelihoods, environment protection, women’s empowerment, care of the aged, youth empowerment and disaster management. Having built a presence in these regions, PECUC has been able to work with communities to support alternative livelihoods during the pandemic. More importantly, this chapter shows the importance of working at all levels with all sections of vulnerable communities such as children, youth, disabled and women specifically to create sustainable futures, and to be able to cope with the ongoing pandemic. It brings into focus values of empathy, respect and sharing, which are at the forefront of coping mechanisms.
