White Migrations ― Gender, Whiteness and Privilege in Transnational Migration

The migrant is often thought of as a non-westerner in search for a better future in Europe or the United States. From a multi-sited ethnography with Swedish migrant women in the US, Singapore and Spain, this book explores the intersections of racial and class privilege and gender vulnerabilities in contemporary feminized migration from or within 'the West'. Through an analysis of 'white migration', Catrin Lundstrom develops theoretical tools to understand the dynamics that shape the women's lives as wealthy housewives, expatriate wives and lifestyle migrants. By shifting the gaze towards privileged migrants, Lundstrom illustrates how race shapes contemporary transnational migration and how white privilege is reproduced through family formation, expatriate geographies or 'international communities' in response to the shifting boundaries of whiteness in different national and regional settings. Looking at how whiteness migrates through a transnational lens the book fills a gap in literature on race and migration, presenting some of the complexities of the current global power relations and the contextual variations that surround these.

Catrin Lundstrom is Associate Professor in Sociology and Future Research Leader at the Department of Studies of Social Change and Culture, Linkoping University, Sweden.