The (Dis)embodied Regimes of Skilled Mobilities

Abstract

In policy discourse, transnational mobilities are described as being created and affected by the global competition for talent. While it is admitted that the policy discourse certainly influences transnational mobilities, this article concurrently argues that migrants always share the world with other people and things, and aspects of transnational mobilities reflect their engagement in the world. The review of related literature and migration policies in this article points out several ways in which migrants are considered disembodied objects of development and talent policies in the global regime of human capital. Transnationalism problematizes this conceptualization by exploring the influences of multi-faceted processes and conceptualizing transnational mobilities as the reflection of migrants’ entwinement with the world across borders.