Satellite Migration – Conceptualising High-Skilled Migration Beyond Existing Approaches and Disciplinary Silos
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: This commentary contends that prevailing migration theories struggle to explain the career-driven, recurrent mobility of highly skilled migrants (HSM). Bridging migration and organizational studies, the authors introduce ‘satellite migration’: HSM orbit among organizational–national “gravitational fields,” where the strength of embedding tightens or loosens orbits and misalignment triggers ‘escape velocity’ to new destinations. While sharing barriers and recognition needs with other migrants, HSM’s transferable capital and legal latitude produce distinctive post-mobility dynamics, motivating a cross-disciplinary reframing of high-skilled migration.
Authors: Gregor Schäfer, Claire Maxwell
Institutions: University of Bath, Deakin University
Language: English
Topic: Migration and Labor Dynamics
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W4416211764
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