Arrived in the UK

Arrived in London on the 18th of September for research trip. Attended the University of Sussex for a week. Gave a seminar presentation in the Sussex Centre for Migration Research on Monday with mixed responses. I think some of this has to do with different disciplinary perspectives coming together on issues of migration. Had some really useful feedback, however, particularly in relation to how I define my migrant groups (i.e. cannot really call them skilled-migrants unless they specifically arrived in a country through a skilled-migrant visa/points system). Which rules out many in my research who entered as international students or even refugees but ended up being 'skilled'. Am thinking now that I need to refer to the research participants instead more broadly as transnationals but who are working in professional positions. Furthermore, that their transnational ties are expressed both through corporeal and imaginative mobility.

Was talking with a person today who had spent extended periods living and working in several developing countries during the past thirty years. Now that their children have left home they are considering relocating to another country for a few years to work in a volunteer capacity. When I asked where they would go they suggested the country that was the first place they relocated to when they were in their 20's. They said this was because your first place of relocation often has the strongest effect on you (e.g. emotionally, socially, environmentally etc).