Gendered Intergenerational Experiences of Social Mobility in Migration

Social mobility, understood as a change of social location within a hierarchical social structure, can be investigated along changes of vertical and horizontal social position in a society. However, this says little about the multiple experiences and social positions of people like labour migrants, transmigrants, and forced migrants who cross nation-state borders and experience social mobility in reference to different nation-states as spatially linked transnational experiences. Further, little is known from an intergenerational gendered perspective about how experiences of social mobility, such as upward, downward, and contradictory class mobility, are individually and collectively conceived, valued, and negotiated and how these experiences influence not only individual agency but intergenerational relations and family biographies. In our session, we hope to discuss the following questions:

- How can intergenerational social mobility be conceptualized beyond nation-state borders? Which methods are helpful?

- How are social mobility experiences intergenerationally negotiated? Are there gendered patterns of difference in such practices?

- How do family members’ different social mobility trajectories influence the development of individual agency?

- What does the intersectional perspective contribute to this field?

We invite papers discussing the topic from different theoretical perspectives, methodologies, and migration contexts. We particularly welcome contributions from empirically based studies.