Introduction

Abstract

Research on migration from the West has expanded rapidly in recent years. The emergence of a burgeoning research discipline reflects an increased number of people from developed countries living and working between national boundaries and the anticipated effect this may have on both sending and receiving nations. It also reflects an increased interest in the social sciences in the everyday lives of those of a ‘middling’ level of transnational experience (Smith 2001). In other words, those who fit neither in the upper echelons of the transnational elite moving between highly paid jobs in major international centres nor in the unskilled or forced migrant group that represents the underprivileged and often disempowered face of globalization.