Journal of Global Mobility: Volume 11 Issue 1

Guest editorial: Living in a “bubble”: global working communities and insulation in mobile contexts

Hugo Gaggiotti, Peter Case, Jakob Lauring

Expatriate bubbles in Dubai: expatriates from West and East cohabitating with locals

Henriett Primecz

Focussing on the stratification of expatriates and the boundaries between different types of expatriates and locals, this study investigates the lived experiences and testimonies…

Breaking out of the expatriate bubble in Denmark: insights from the challenge of making connections with local Danes

Marian van Bakel, Charles M. Vance

The social context of expatriation is crucial for expatriate success, including for building local host country national (HCN) social network support that can facilitate effective…

Relationship dynamics of trailing spouses before and during a time of crisis

Judit Végh, Andrea Dúll, Lan Anh Nguyen Luu

This qualitative study explores how trailing spouses form their relationships before and after a crisis such as the COVID-19 pandemic and what patterns can be observed. It…

An examination of the insulation of global worker communities for political reasons: the case of the J-1 Visa in the United States

Jason Ryan, Sari Silvanto

The insulation of globally mobile workers into communities is often influenced by political considerations within the host country. Most studies examining this area have focused…

A bubble in the making: symbolic boundaries in a Finnish expatriate community

Tuomo Peltonen, Sirkka-Liisa Huhtinen

While there is anecdotal evidence that internationally mobile workers often form isolated nation-based communities or “expatriate bubbles,” previous academic scholarship on the…

Identity work in the backstage: exploring the role of expatriate bubbles in identity work of self-initiated expatriate engineers through a Goffmanian lens

Vanda Papafilippou, Christina Efthymiadou

While there is vast research on expatriate adjustment, it is still known very little on how self-initiated expatriates (SIEs) in particular might cope with identity conflicts and…

Popping the “bubble” metaphor: separation and integration of expatriate communities

Chengcheng Miao, Hugo Gaggiotti, Chris Brewster

This paper aims to discuss multiple uses of the concept of “bubble” as a metaphor to refer to different experiences of foreign working communities and suggests a more flexible and…

Migrants as “dissonant harmony-seekers” and migrant life in “foam”

Selen Kars-Unluoglu, Burcu Guneri Cangarli, Oznur Yurt, Mehmet Gencer

Migration of the Turkish new middle-class – high-skilled, well-educated, young professionals – has been growing in recent years. This paper explores their migration experience and…