Venera R Khalikova (The Chinese University of Hong Kong)

Transnational migration brings about far-reaching transformations in people’s subjectivities, including those that relate to racial and ethnic identity. Since governments classify populations into racially and ethnically defined groups, people who arrive in a new country become placed into pre-existing identity categories. These categories constitute complex structures of positioning loaded with cultural assumptions and hierarchies that enable privilege and prejudice. This is visible in the racialized and classed distinction between “expatriates” and “migrants”: migrants are often thought of as underprivileged people of color who move across borders for low-paid jobs, while expats are white members of transnational corporate capitalism with premium income. However, the accelerated global mobility of non-white professionals complicates these notions. I explore these complexities by focusing on elite migrants from India that work in lucrative positions in Hong Kong.