ABSTRACT This article examines how kinning practices shape relationships between migrant domestic workers and employers in live-in care arrangements in Türkiye, and how these practices differ across eldercare and childcare. Drawing on interviews with 78 workers and 14 employers, it analyzes how intimacy, professional boundaries, and power are negotiated within private households. The findings show that kinning is not an inevitable outcome of paid care work but a negotiated process shaped by care type, cohabitation, employers’ moral evaluations, and workers’ migration and employment statuses. By developing a typology that distinguishes eldercare and childcare as relationally distinct domains, the article demonstrates that kinning is more likely to emerge in eldercare, where continuity and sustained interaction foster quasi-familial bonds, while in childcare it remains more variable, fragile, and employer-mediated. Across both domains, kin-like inclusion may provide support and a sense of belonging, yet also produces precarious belonging dependent on employer goodwill.

ABSTRACT As European regions gain importance in development planning, regional identities have become increasingly significant for territorial governance and legitimacy. In centralized unitary states, however, their formation and mobilization remain poorly understood. This study examines how regional identities are framed in Northern Portugal, a planning region in Portugal – one of the most centralized countries in the European Union. Through geo-historical analysis and narrative examination of interviews and strategic documents, we found that regional identities can emerge and persist independently of formal regional structures through two mechanisms: maintaining unofficial territorial references in social consciousness and embedding historical regional elements into current official narratives. However, the effectiveness of regional identities as tools for development and decision-making legitimacy is highly dependent on the institutional framework.

ABSTRACT This article analyzes how Belgian Dutch and French-speaking newspapers (2013–2022) use emotional storytelling techniques to shape news stories about convert men to Islam in the conflict-zone Syria/Iraq. Scholarly literature discerns two main depictions of convert men as naïve, disillusioned and redeemable, and as traitors, radical and in high-ranking positions. Through a critical discourse analysis and abductive approach, this article moves beyond this victim-threat dichotomy, unpacking more complex media portrayals of convert departee men and their de-Othering. The analysis concludes that whitening processes are intertwined with four interrelated dynamics: relational bonds, externalizing blame, societal engagement, and cultural bonds.

ABSTRACT This paper explores how Balkan migrants, operating small gastronomy businesses in Vienna, construct their identity as migrant entrepreneurs. Drawing on the concept of narrative identity and using qualitative interviews, the analysis investigates how narrative resources – such as a transformation plot, the development of agency as self-empowerment, and positioning within dominant societal discourses – are employed to construct identity. The empirical findings reveal a specific narrative pattern that characterizes the identity construction of migrant entrepreneurs. This pattern blends entrepreneurial themes of hard work and autonomy with migrant experiences of vulnerability and engagement with migration discourses in the host society. By focusing on narratives of self-empowerment, the study shows how narrators strategically utilize discursive resources to render their stories intelligible and legitimate within broader societal frameworks. Entrepreneurship emerges as a means of reclaiming agency and achieving recognition, which in turn suggests that institutional practices should value initiative and autonomy rather than emphasizing needs.

ABSTRACT This qualitative, hermeneutical phenomenological study examined the role identity of expatriate teachers employed in Chinese internationalized schools. Understanding how these teachers experience their role is critical, as the international school industry is marked by high teacher turnover and significant adjustment challenges. A diverse sample of 16 expatriate teachers contributed insights through individual interviews, written protocols, and focus groups. Four themes captured participants’ experiences: motivations to assume the role, understanding the role, navigating the role, and motivations to persevere in the role. The study adds to existing research by identifying specific ways expatriate teachers respond to role conflict: staying true to their beliefs and standards, showing initiative, constantly adjusting, and assuming the attitude of silent quitting. A theoretical contribution lies in extending two expatriate typologies to a novel context.

No abstract available.

ABSTRACT Despite its omnipresence in Western history, it is only recently, that the intersection of religion and race has caught again the attention of scholarship, especially with the rise of populist debates about the place of Islam in the West. This article is the introduction of a themed section on ‘Intersections of Religion and Race’, in which we shed light on this neglected intertwinement. We propose and argue for approaching the relationship between religion and race through the lens of intersectionality. The analytical and political project of intersectionality allows us to critically centre the power relations at play as well as the resulting forms of oppression, marginalization, and discrimination at the intersection of White and (secular) Christian supremacy. Moreover, we use the concept to connect a growing body of work on the race-religion-nexus across different disciplines to core concerns of intersectional analysis.

ABSTRACT This study investigates the complex identities of border-crossing facilitators. Through semi-structured interviews, it examines how two facilitators construct and negotiate their identities in response to master narratives that portray them as economically motivated criminals or privileged, irresponsible do-gooders. By employing the framework of symbolic boundaries, the research reveals the multifaceted nature of their self-perception and motivations. The facilitators articulate three primary identities: the ‘Robin Hood’ figure, the ‘Normal Person who is Good and Courageous’, and the ‘Organized Gooder’. These identities not only help maintain a positive self-image but also emphasize the strategic planning and deep moral conviction behind their actions. The study highlights the ethical and strategic dimensions of their roles, challenging the notion that altruistic acts are impulsive and unorganized and provides a nuanced understanding of the value-laden, communicative, and relational aspects of border-crossing facilitation.