Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Tables
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- 1 The Coloniality of Meritocracy: From the Anglosphere to Post-Austerity Europe
- 2 Imagining Meritocracy in Unequal Positions
- 3 (Re)Imagining Meritocracy in Unequal Migrations
- 4 The Coloniality of Belonging
- 5 The Coloniality of Brexit
- Conclusion
- Appendix A Interviewing: From Theory to Practice
- Appendix B Sample Composition
- Appendix C Summary of Participants
- Appendix D Interview Topics and Questions
- References
- Index
4 - The Coloniality of Belonging
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 19 January 2024
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Tables
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- 1 The Coloniality of Meritocracy: From the Anglosphere to Post-Austerity Europe
- 2 Imagining Meritocracy in Unequal Positions
- 3 (Re)Imagining Meritocracy in Unequal Migrations
- 4 The Coloniality of Belonging
- 5 The Coloniality of Brexit
- Conclusion
- Appendix A Interviewing: From Theory to Practice
- Appendix B Sample Composition
- Appendix C Summary of Participants
- Appendix D Interview Topics and Questions
- References
- Index
Summary
‘I’ve always had the impression that they [Britons] appreciate us, for one reason or another, maybe it's for our positive lifestyle, our capacity at fully enjoying life's pleasures, our good cuisine, fashion, because we dress well, we always strike a good impression. All things that are partly cliché, but are also, in my experience, how the English perceive us … a lifestyle, a cult of beauty, an artistic and cultural heritage that we have and they miss, and envy a little, the missing piece of their exotic dreams. I come from Venice and when I say I’m Italian is OK, if I say Venice is “Wow!”, if I said I was Polish, or maybe other university friends said they were Polish, it's “Oh, OK” [she mimics an underwhelming reaction].’
Moving to Britain, the land of meritocracy, also means becoming Italian. Participants become recognizable as foreigners, get asked where they come from, and mobilize ethnicity and nationality as categories of practice through which they (and others) navigate everyday conversations and interactions (Ryan, 2010). Mara, introduced in Chapter 2, summarizes the positive associations between Italianness and “beauty”, “cultural heritage” and “life's pleasures”, which emerge from her interactions with Britons and which are experienced more widely, albeit unequally, by participants, as I discuss in this chapter.
She also introduces a contrast: being recognized as Polish would not command the same enthusiasm. Mara concedes that ethno-national distinctions are “clichés”, but also suggests that clichés have real effects in everyday life. Indeed, the racialization of Eastern European migrants is an increasingly well-documented phenomena, in Britain and beyond (Drnovšek Zorko and Debnár, 2021). Eastern Europeans are not only racialized as a homogeneous, ‘problematic’ group, but are also overrepresented in lower-status, lower-paid jobs in Britain and Northern Europe (Felbo-Kolding et al, 2019). By contrast, Italians are overrepresented among managers and professionals in Britain, compared to British nationals as well as other Southern European nationalities (D’Angelo and Kofman, 2017). This does not exclude the possibility of structural discrimination, for example in terms of lower pay (Felbo-Kolding et al, 2019).
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Coloniality and Meritocracy in Unequal EU MigrationsIntersecting Inequalities in Post-2008 Italian Migration, pp. 87 - 112Publisher: Bristol University PressPrint publication year: 2023