The migrant is often thought of as a non-westerner in search for a better future in Europe or the US. From a multi-sited ethnography with Swedish migrant women in the US, Singapore and Spain, this book explores the intersections of racial and class privilege and gender vulnerabilities in contemporary feminized migration from or within ‘the West’.

Through an analysis of ‘white migration’, Catrin Lundström develops theoretical tools to understand the dynamics that shape the women’s lives as wealthy housewives, expatriate wives and lifestyle migrants. By shifting the gaze towards privileged migrants, Lundström illustrates how race shapes contemporary transnational migration and how white privilege is reproduced through family formation, expatriate geographies or ‘international communities’ in response to the shifting boundaries of whiteness in different national and regional settings.

Looking at how whiteness migrates through a transnational lens the book fills a gap in literature on race and migration, presenting some of the complexities of the current global power relations and the contextual variations that surround these.

Books and articles

The research project has resulted in the following publications:

Lundström, Catrin (2019) Creating ‘International Communities’ in Southern Spain: Self-segregation and ‘Institutional Whiteness’ in Swedish Lifestyle Migration, European Journal of Cultural Studies, 22(5-6): 799-816.

Lundström, Catrin (2017) Embodying exoticism: Gendered Nuances of Hyper-Whiteness in the US, Scandinavian Studies, 89(2): 179-199

Lundström, Catrin (2014) White migrations: Gender, Whiteness and Privilege in Transnational Migration. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

Lundström, Catrin (2013) Swedish Whiteness in Southern Spain, in France Winddance Twine and Bradley Gardener (eds), Geographies of Privilege. Routledge, pp. 191-203

Lundström, Catrin (2013) ”Maid” sökes. Live-in maids’ och skillnadsskapande praktiker i svenska migranthem i Singapore, i Gavanas, Anna och Catharina Calleman (red), Rena hem på smutsiga villkor? Göteborg: Makadam, pp. 107-126.

Joseph, Cynthia & Lundström, Catrin (2013) Introduction: Researching ‘transnational’ women, Women’s Studies International Forum, 36(1): 1-4.

Lundström, Catrin (2013) ‘Mistresses’ and ‘maids’ in transnational ‘contact zones’: Expatriate wives and the intersection of difference and intimacy in Swedish domestic spaces in Singapore, Women’s Studies International Forum, 36(1): 44-53.

Lundström, Catrin & France Winddance Twine (2011) White migrations. Swedish women, racial privileges and gender vulnerabilities. The European Journal of Women’s Studies,18(1): 67-86.

Lundström, Catrin (2010). White Ethnography. (Un)comfortable Conveniences and Shared Privileges in Fieldwork with Swedish Migrant Women. NORA, Nordic Journal of Feminist and Gender Research. 18(2): 70–86.

Lundström, Catrin (2010) Transnationell vithet: Svenska migrantkvinnor i USA och Singapore. TGV. Tidskrift för genusvetenskap, Tema: Vithet, nr. 1–2: 23–45.

Lundström, Catrin (2010) Women with Class. Swedish migrant women’s class positions in the USA, Journal of Intercultural Studies, 31(1): 49-63.

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