Paper short abstract:

I interview elite migrants from Buenos Aires and Beijing to understand how they make sense of their realities as they move throughout the life course. Highly skilled, they are often perceived as transient; however, through their cultural exchanges, they often position themselves as interconnected.

Paper long abstract:

My research with elite migrants in the Metropolitan DC area explores their multi-dimensional realities (physical, perceptual, emotional). I interview elites from Buenos Aires and Beijing who move between multiple job markets and who often become connected to United States' society for longer stays than anticipated. However, because the more "settled citizen" often perceives them as being transient, they are not fully recognized as influencing or challenging U.S. identity as the consensual knowledge of conventional immigrants does. I explore this difference by asking elites to narrate their movement over the life course to understand 1) how they make sense of their realities through cultural exchanges in which some form of knowledge, practices, beliefs, etc. are imparted, shared, and often synthesized into new forms and 2) how they construct a sense of place and identity in a society that does not always recognize their realities but is interconnected with them nonetheless.