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Imaginaries of the ideal migrant worker : a Lacanian interpretation

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McCollum_2014_EPDSS_Imaginaries.pdf (252.9Kb)
Date
01/06/2014
Author
Shubin, Sergei
Findlay, Allan MacKay
McCollum, David
Keywords
Migration
Lacan
Subjectivity
Recruitment
Drawing
HD Industries. Land use. Labor
GF Human ecology. Anthropogeography
BDC
R2C
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Abstract
This paper explores the production of ‘ideal’ migrant workers by recruitment agencies in the context of Latvian labour migration to the UK. The fantasies of the ‘ideal’ worker created by recruiters have a particular hold on migrant subjectivity, but they often hide inconsistencies and slippages implicit within the fabric of recruitment discourse and practice. By drawing on the notions of fantasy and desire as developed by Jacques Lacan, this paper analyses the determination of subjectivity in a migration context and explores both unconscious and conscious processes of identification. On the basis of an analysis of drawings sketched by respondents during qualitative interviews conducted in Latvia, it challenges narrower assumptions about migrants’ search behaviour and stable expectations of labour migration, and exposes the split and contested nature of migrant selfhood.It concludes with conceptual observations about the complex process of identification and the unachievable figure of the ‘ideal’ worker.
Citation
Shubin , S , Findlay , A M & McCollum , D 2014 , ' Imaginaries of the ideal migrant worker : a Lacanian interpretation ' , Environment and Planning D: Society and Space , vol. 32 , no. 3 , pp. 466-483 . https://doi.org/10.1068/d22212
Publication
Environment and Planning D: Society and Space
Status
Peer reviewed
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1068/d22212
ISSN
0263-7758
Type
Journal article
Rights
© 2014 Pion Ltd. Shubin S, Findlay A, McCollum D, 2014. The definitive, peer-reviewed and edited version of this article is published in Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 32(3) 466 – 483, doi:10.1068/d22212.
Description
The authors acknowledge the ESRC Centre for Population Change RES 62528001 for sponsoring this research.
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  • University of St Andrews Research
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/10023/6731

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