The community morphology of skilled migration: the changing role of voluntary and community organisations (VCOs) in the grounding of British migrant identities in Paris (France)

Research into skilled migrant communities tends to emphasize the grounding of identities through transnationalism and mobility. Less research has been conducted into how skilled migrants actually ground their identities within the city through everyday social networks. The paper addresses this imbalance by examining the changing significance of British voluntary and community organisations (VCOs) in Paris, France. Combining qualitative and quantitative data, findings show local migrant networks to be important focal points for the British even though migrants’ lives may increasingly be transnational in orientation. The research also shows that in situ social networks are evolving. Specifically, traditional forms of elite expatriate communality are not as omnipotent as they once were, with the popularity of some high-profile British VCOs in Paris declining over recent decades. The paper argues that the link between social dynamism and communal morphology helps explain this shift: as British middle-class lifestyles have fragmented, and as the British migrant population in Paris has grown in scale and scope, so the range of VCOs and associated informal networks has grown. Whilst some skilled migrants still embed within traditional expatriate organisations, Britishness is increasingly grounded elsewhere; both within the city through alternative social networks, and located beyond the city through transnational ties.