Avalappoq, setting sail and dancing : Student migration and the formation of dominant positions between Greenland and Denmark

• Main Author: Duc, Marine
• Other Authors: Université Michel de Montaigne - Bordeaux III, Béatrice Collignon
• Format: Doctoral or Postdoctoral Thesis
• Language: French
• Published: HAL CCSD 2022
• Subjects: Student migration; Trajectories; Race; Social class; Whiteness; Placements; Racial socialization; Coloniality; Greenland; Denmark; Social geography; Migrations étudiantes; Trajectoires; Classe; Blanchité; Socialisation raciale; Colonialité; Groenland; Danemark; Géographie sociale; [SHS.GEO]Humanities and Social Sciences/Geography; greenlandic
• Online Access: https://theses.hal.science/tel-03967384; https://theses.hal.science/tel-03967384/document; https://theses.hal.science/tel-03967384/file/These_Marine_DUC.pdf

This Ph.D. thesis deals with the construction of student trajectories unfolding in the postcolonial configuration between Greenland and Denmark. Based on a survey combining mainly participant observation and interviews, it traces the biographies of Greenlandic students through a school system forged by the power relations inherited from Danish colonization and built on the dispersion of the educational offer. The thesis shows that far from being dedicated to social sorting, this educational-migratory apparatus also constitutes a transforming apparatus of individuals, which works towards the upper regions of the transatlantic social space. Therefore, it unsettles the picture of student migration as a privilege around two axes. Considering the pre-migratory characteristics of individuals, it shows the heterogeneity of the social origins of those studying in Denmark and highlights the significance of social breakers on the routes of this migration. The material and moral support provided by the Greenlandic authorities explains this variety. Indeed, they see the technical function of the educational system in producing qualifications as a political strategy for achieving independence. The second axis reinscribes this migration in the global asymmetries of racial formations. It analyzes the role of student migration in making racial boundaries, associating Danishness and whiteness, on the one hand, and Greenlandicness and Inuitness, on the other hand, through everyday interactions with the majority population and in school placements. However, student migration also provides the conditions for destabilizing the minority position. It does alter not only the location in class relations but also the position in race relations. Analyzing how students are perceived and perceive themselves during the student migration journey, the thesis highlights the racially coded dimension of socially valued acquisitions specific to student migration (ways of behaving and perceiving the world, linguistic dispositions, or even some ...