Temporariness management by elite migrant-artists

Abstract

ABSTRACT The article addresses the temporariness of high-skill migrants who purposefully structure their lives around it. Today, many young people pursue the career of an opera singer abroad. Short-term contracts have become a norm in their transnational employment. However, little is known about their experiences of temporariness. To explore how they manage their temporariness, I have conducted narrative-biographic interviews with sixty opera singers from seven former Soviet republics who now work in Italy and other countries. I look into main characteristics of their temporariness and meanings they assign to it. I also examine strategies they use for managing their temporary contracts. This multi-case narrative-biographic study shows that the desired type of temporariness relates to my informants’ desired social status and becomes synonymous to elite career. However, the achievement of this temporariness is a difficult process. The study shows that my informants borrow resources for managing their temporariness from various migratory spaces. These strategies work most successfully when in interaction and have different gender effects.