Editor’s Note:
Transnational Lives: Expatriates in Indonesia was first published in 2007 and is based on research conducted among Jakarta’s expatriate community in the early 2000s. While the expatriate population in Indonesia has changed considerably since then—with more diverse nationalities, digital communication, remote work, and evolving lifestyles—it remains one of the most respected academic studies of expatriate life in Indonesia. Readers should view it as a sociological and anthropological study rather than a practical guide to living in Indonesia today.
Privileged migrants, such as expatriates living abroad, are often associated with lives of luxury in exotic locations. This fascinating and in-depth study reveals a far more complex reality. By focusing on corporate expatriates, the author provides one of the first book-length studies examining what has been described as “transnationalism from above.”
The book draws on the author’s extensive research among the expatriate community in Jakarta, Indonesia. Although the research was conducted over two decades ago, many of the broader themes relating to identity, community, mobility, privilege, and cultural boundaries remain relevant to expatriate communities around the world.
While acknowledging the potentially empowering impact of transnationalism, the author challenges conventional assumptions by arguing that elite migration does not necessarily create fluid identities. Instead, expatriate communities often maintain distinct social boundaries related to nationality, race, gender, and social status.
Drawing on rich ethnographic research, the book adds an important dimension to studies of migration and transnationalism. Written in an engaging and accessible style, it continues to be recommended for academics, students, and readers interested in anthropology, migration studies, sociology, human geography, and international mobility.
“This beautifully evocative text, based on rich ethnographic material, relocates the privileged, white, migrant within the mainstream of global migration studies. With an emphasis on their embodied and gendered experiences of everyday life, it makes an important, sensitive and timely contribution to contemporary debates around the intersection of the global and the local, mobility and boundaries, and the stratification of migration.”— Karen O’Reilly, University of Loughborough, UK
The book is available through major booksellers, including Amazon, as well as directly from the publisher in both paperback and eBook editions.
Author: Anne-Meike Fechter
Original publication: 2007
Current publisher: Routledge
About the Author
Anne-Meike Fechter is an anthropologist whose research focuses on migration, transnational mobility, expatriate communities, humanitarianism, and Southeast Asia. Her work has been widely published and continues to contribute to the study of international mobility and global migration.
Table of Contents
- Chapter 1: Expatriates: Who Are They?
- Chapter 2: Transnational Lives and Their Boundaries
- Chapter 3: Expatriate Wives
- Chapter 4: Space, Embodiment and the Gaze
- Chapter 5: Boundaries of the Body
- Chapter 6: Performing Expatriate Identities
- Chapter 7: Young Expatriates, Alternative Lifestyles?
- Chapter 8: A Peculiar Tribe
