Imagined Mobility by Michiel Baas

Imagined Mobility by Michiel Baas

With its close analysis of the phenomenon of the migration of Indian students to Australia, this book critically approaches the entanglement of the education industry with migration opportunities, and looks into the goals and aspirations of the Indian middle class. It discusses the overlaps of studies on migration and transnationalism, and raises questions on skilled migration.

‘Baas’s juggling between the big and the small, between the global transformations of higher education and the specific aspirations and life trajectories of his informants […] gives the book its texture and complexity[…] What makes ‘Imagined Mobilities’ a fine example of ethnographic writing is the modest and reflexive way in which it shows how [student-migrant] paths urge us to think beyond current ways of conceiving migration and transnationalism.’ —Brett Neilson, University of Western Sydney, in ‘Asian Studies Review’

Michiel Baas is a researcher with the Amsterdam School for Social Science Research, University of Amsterdam. His work focuses on India, the middle class, migration, transnationalism and mobility.