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Acts of Refusal: Gendered quests for safety and viable futures for Americans in Spain

London, Katherine Ivey LU (2025) SANM05 20251
Social Anthropology
Abstract
This thesis explores the migration experiences of privileged American women who have relocated to Spain, not as economic refugees or global elites, but as people navigating complex landscapes of physical, emotional, and existential insecurity. Drawing on feminist ethnography, emotional geographies, and theories of postnational belonging, the project analyzes how gender, autonomy, care, and political disillusionment shape the motivations and lived realities of migration. Based on five months of fieldwork in Madrid and over thirty interviews, the study reveals that many participants view migration as an act of refusal, of the American state, of neoliberal burnout, and of a national identity that no longer feels livable.
Rather than... (More)
This thesis explores the migration experiences of privileged American women who have relocated to Spain, not as economic refugees or global elites, but as people navigating complex landscapes of physical, emotional, and existential insecurity. Drawing on feminist ethnography, emotional geographies, and theories of postnational belonging, the project analyzes how gender, autonomy, care, and political disillusionment shape the motivations and lived realities of migration. Based on five months of fieldwork in Madrid and over thirty interviews, the study reveals that many participants view migration as an act of refusal, of the American state, of neoliberal burnout, and of a national identity that no longer feels livable.
Rather than idealizing Spain, the thesis situates it as a contested but comparatively viable context, one where public healthcare, family leave, and cultural support for rest and relational life offer a sense of dignity increasingly absent in the United States. Participants sought more than lifestyle change; they sought safety, coherence, and a future that felt ethically and emotionally sustainable.
This research challenges dominant narratives of privileged migration as apolitical or indulgent by showing how even mobility born of privilege is often marked by grief, resistance, and a search for belonging beyond borders. It contributes to broader debates in migration studies by reframing mobility as a gendered, emotional, and political practice, one that reflects not only where people move, but what they refuse, what they imagine, and what they hope to rebuild. (Less)
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author
London, Katherine Ivey LU
supervisor
organization
course
SANM05 20251
year
type
H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
subject
keywords
Social anthropology, Privileged migration, Gendered migration, Emotional geographies, Postnational belonging, Safety and autonomy, Feminist ethnography, Existential mobility, American migrants in Spain
language
English
id
9194199
date added to LUP
2025-06-11 14:25:28
date last changed
2025-06-11 14:25:28
@misc{9194199,
  abstract     = {{This thesis explores the migration experiences of privileged American women who have relocated to Spain, not as economic refugees or global elites, but as people navigating complex landscapes of physical, emotional, and existential insecurity. Drawing on feminist ethnography, emotional geographies, and theories of postnational belonging, the project analyzes how gender, autonomy, care, and political disillusionment shape the motivations and lived realities of migration. Based on five months of fieldwork in Madrid and over thirty interviews, the study reveals that many participants view migration as an act of refusal, of the American state, of neoliberal burnout, and of a national identity that no longer feels livable.
Rather than idealizing Spain, the thesis situates it as a contested but comparatively viable context, one where public healthcare, family leave, and cultural support for rest and relational life offer a sense of dignity increasingly absent in the United States. Participants sought more than lifestyle change; they sought safety, coherence, and a future that felt ethically and emotionally sustainable.
This research challenges dominant narratives of privileged migration as apolitical or indulgent by showing how even mobility born of privilege is often marked by grief, resistance, and a search for belonging beyond borders. It contributes to broader debates in migration studies by reframing mobility as a gendered, emotional, and political practice, one that reflects not only where people move, but what they refuse, what they imagine, and what they hope to rebuild.}},
  author       = {{London, Katherine Ivey}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Acts of Refusal: Gendered quests for safety and viable futures for Americans in Spain}},
  year         = {{2025}},
}