Mobility and Relationships in Digitally Saturated Social Worlds

Social ties have long been recognised as a crucial factor in mobility decision-making and facilitation of everyday life. Moreover, the era of digital media has expanded novel forms of social ties significantly. However, whilst social ties have been more associated with medium-educated migrants landing lower-paid jobs, the role of social ties, especially fragile and novel digitally created ties in the case of the highly skilled, remains less understood.

This thematic issue examines the dynamics between social ties and forms of social connectedness in the context of the transnational mobility of the highly skilled—the so-called middling migrants. Under this umbrella, articles should analyse, both empirically and theoretically, the dynamics between various kinds of strong, weak, dormant ties as well as their ruptures and renewals in the context of work-related mobility policies and digital platforms that mediate human relationships. Authors are invited to unpack how institutional actors brand and manage social ties, examining the usage of digital social media platforms and inquiring how and to what extent relationships and networks facilitated by—and embedded in—digital platforms shape work-related movements across borders.

We also encourage the examination of regional, national, municipal, and industrial policies aimed at facilitating the movement of highly skilled workers into specific places, companies, universities, and regions. The thematic issue aims to critically address both the positive enabling of mobility for individuals and their families and the dark side of such management and branding, engendered by prohibitive and limiting visa regimes, housing arrangements, embedded social life, and precarious temporary contracts.

Authors interested in submitting a paper for this issue are asked to consult the journal's instructions for authors and submit their abstracts (maximum of 250 words, with a tentative title) through the abstracts system (here). When submitting their abstracts, authors are also asked to confirm that they are aware that Social Inclusion is an open access journal with a publishing fee if the article is accepted for publication after peer-review (corresponding authors affiliated with our institutional members do not incur this fee).

Readers across the globe will be able to access, share, and download this issue entirely for free. Corresponding authors affiliated with any of our institutional members (over 90 institutions worldwide) publish free of charge. Otherwise, an article processing fee will be charged to the authors to cover editorial costs. We defend that authors should not have to personally pay this fee and encourage them to check with their institutions if funds are available to cover open access publication costs. Further information about the journal's open access charges can be found here.