Mapping infrastructural encounters: an analysis of skilled migrancy in Australia and Canada

Abstract

This thesis argues for a new research agenda that begins by “mapping” when, where, and how skilled migration infrastructure is experienced and navigated by immigrants. It explores experiences of “skilled migrancy” as a perspective that focuses on the agentive potential of migrants in dictating and designing their mobile trajectories. This study builds upon the recent ‘infrastructural turn’ in migration studies, which has provided valuable insights into the emergence and functions of the different aspects of migration infrastructure (i.e., commercial, social, technological, regulatory and humanitarian) (Xiang and Lindquist, 2014). Empirical studies on migration infrastructure have predominantly focused on exploring processes involved in informal and semi-formal labour migration. There is a scarcity of literature that examines formal skilled migration, which is a type of labour migration distinguished by its specific qualities regarding how “skill” is assessed, evaluated and perceived by both policy frameworks and migrant groups. There remains a further and related gap in exploring the multiplicity of infrastructural processes within singular migration trajectories, which hinders the capacity to understand holistically the lived experience of contemporary migration. My thesis aims to address both these gaps. This thesis introduces the concept of “infrastructural encounter” to explore specifically the relational dynamics between skilled individuals and what I have framed as “skilled migration infrastructure”. Showcasing migrant case studies from Australia and Canada, two popular skilled immigration destinations, the empirical analysis identifies three relational frames or “sets of relationships” between migrants and skilled migration infrastructure. The first set of relationships demonstrates the ways in which skill is constructed, negotiated and redefined through infrastructural encounters rather than being a static classification for migration as defined by policy frameworks. The second set of relationships explores the temporal dynamics of infrastructural encounters and the ways in which they shape or direct migrants’ desire for skilled mobility over time. The final relational frame delves into the affective and emotional potentialities of infrastructural encounters and the ways in which they influence skilled immigrant experiences. In presenting these relational frames, this thesis argues that rather than simply being facilitated or constrained by migration infrastructure, contemporary skilled mobility is shaped by infrastructural encounters, or the relational and two-way interactions between immigrants and skilled migration infrastructure. These interactions embed within them negotiations, considerations, desires, and emotions that are fluid, mobile, and constantly evolving across time and space. This research contributes to migration scholarship, specifically to the continuing academic focus on migration infrastructure by providing nuanced understandings on how it is experienced in the context of skilled mobility. In doing so, it also responds to the call for more critical examinations of the notion of skill by understanding it from the migrants’ perspective.

Date of Award	2023
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Western Sydney University
Supervisor	Liam Magee (Supervisor)