FACULTY OF CULTURE AND SOCIETY | Seminar
Migration seminar: “Make money, not friends”

Thursday 26 March, 13:15 - 15:00
Niagara, 9th floor, Nordenskiöldsgatan 1, or Zoom 26
Mar

Welcome to the Migration Seminar!

“Make money, not friends”: rethinking transnationalism through the lens of temporary intra-EU migration

Profile

Magdalena Ulceluşe, Assistant Professor in International Migration and Ethnic Relations, Department of Global Political Studies, Malmö University

Abstract

This paper examines how the migration experiences of temporary EU migrants challenge existing theories of transnationalism. Transnationalism is often understood as dual embeddedness, emphasising that migrants simultaneously maintain and cultivate ties to both origin and destination places. However, this paper finds that seasonal migrants working in the agriculture and food production sectors in the Netherlands reveal an asymmetric pattern in which migrants maintain strong emotional, social, and future-oriented attachments to the origin, while deliberately limiting social, cultural, and civic integration at destination.

Drawing on semi-structured interviews with Romanian and Polish seasonal workers in the Netherlands, the analysis shows that temporary intra EU migration generates forms of transnationalism rooted in detachment, short temporal horizons, and infrastructural constraints. These dynamics challenge long-standing expectations of reciprocal incorporation and call for a reconceptualization of transnationalism under conditions of temporariness and circular mobility within the EU.

Attendance

This is a hybrid seminar, you are welcome to connect via Zoom or join us at MIM seminar room, floor 9, Niagara, Nordenskiöldsgatan 1. To attend on campus, please gather by the reception area at 13.05.