‘Seeing the world from my parents’ shoulders’: temporary middle-class Asian migrants, privilege, woes and boundary work

This paper focuses on the continuities and transformations of middle-class identities, through examining Asian international graduates on temporary visas. Studies on this group have provided important insights into how middle-class youth negotiate insecurity and instability after graduation in host countries. Few, however, have considered the role of class in sustaining and shaping international graduates’ experiences as well as their migration trajectories. This paper aims to address the ongoing calls of scholars studying temporary middle-class migrants to investigate how their privilege is unstable and relational, and just like other migrants; their everyday lives are shaped by identity markers such as class. The paper is divided into two parts. Part 1 focuses on the continuities of global middle-classness. It highlights similarities between the Asian middle-class and the global (often western) middle-classes through discussing how (a) their middle-class parents’ socio-economic stability enables them to embrace instability; (b) despite their privilege, however, not meeting the aspirations of stable employment can have repercussions; and (c) their embrace of instability is temporary as their future migration trajectory may include returning to their home country to reclaim their class privileges. Part 2 of the paper focuses on middle-class transformations. Through examining the boundary work that Asian international graduates do, it de-universalises middle-classness. Finally, the paper suggests Asian middle-class migrants offer a productive space for further understanding middle-classness, its diverse meanings and manifestations.