Mobile Nationalism: Parenting and Articulations of Belonging among Globally Mobile Professionals

This article examines whether and how globally mobile middle-class professional families engage in practices of nationalism through forging connections with a ‘home nation’ despite continuous relocations for work. Drawing on the concept of boundary objects which are used to facilitate frequent boundary crossings, we identify the promotion of language acquisition and cultural or national rituals and traditions as two central family practices that maintain strong connections to a form of national belonging despite being physically de-territorialised. We coin the term ‘mobile nationalism’ to make sense of the ways these globally mobile professional parents cultivate a sense of identity, coherence and the necessary resources for future mobility. We argue that these articulations of nationalism continue to be critical as we seek to understand subjecthood formation in the face of the imperatives of globalisation.