Description:
This book examines the relationship between migration and socioeconomic status. In particular, it charts a set of middle-class aspirations that lead people to move to a nearby nation that is similar in wealth and social indicators - a type of horizontal relocation that it terms "sideways migration."
Review Quotes:
"...the exploration of the 'French Emigration Apparatus' (Chapter 4) is insightful...Engagingly written by an experienced anthropologist the book deploys concepts and methodologies that are valuable to fieldwork researchers...it is acknowledged that change is a constant in this type of research -- an apt observation at the moment when the political weather changes again for UK-French and European co-operation."
- Debra Kelly, French Studies: A Quarterly Review, vol. 79 no. 4 (2025)
"Reed-Danahay ...captures the elusive "je ne sais quoi" of French middle-class migration in London while opening up new perspectives to account for diversity within diversity, one of the key challenges of contemporary migration studies...Particularly innovative is Reed-Danahay's engagement with French imaginaries about London life as represented through arts and cultural artifacts.... demonstrat(ing) how cultural representations shape place-based expectations in ways that extend beyond individual narratives."
- Benedicte Brahic, International Migration Review (2025)