Living in Limbo

Robin Savinar
History
UC Davis

This research examines how the precariousness of temporary legal status affects the lives of skilled migrants in California hailing from countries experiencing political violence. I look at the informalization of labor in the professional sphere, and at what recourse skilled migrants have when their rights are violated. In reviewing if and how skilled workers can invoke and enforce their rights, my analysis interrogates the traditional notion of membership in which rights are protected by the nation-state and a universal model based on human rights as a global organizing principle. My project offers two innovations: 1) I examine how the construction and deployment of categories like “refugee” affect the lives of skilled migrants from politically tumultuous countries; 2) My focus on skilled workers increases critical human rights scholarship as applied to middle-class people, a group whose comparatively high human and social capital has drawn less attention from scholars.