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In 1920, the American Library in Paris (ALP) was incorporated, with the desire to 'be a somewhat adequate representation of American life and thought' in the city. This paper will argue that the ALP - an institution established for overseas soldiers in 1918, which became its own entity in 1920 and celebrated a century of service in 2020 - would do more than represent America in the interwar period: it would play a role in shaping American identity as well. Through archival materials, this paper explores the ALP's representation in the three periodicals most imbricated with its interwar existence: the Paris editions of the Chicago Tribune and the New York Herald, and the little magazine, Ex Libris. I argue that the ALP - in both its physical and psychic forms - was an important site for the formation of transnational American identity in the interwar period, and that it strived to weigh in on conversations about emerging literary movements, including modernism and the Harlem Renaissance. American identity, as the Library represented it, combined national exceptionalism with a true desire for transnational cooperation. It was firmly at home on international soil, and well-versed in the era's literary debates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Research into skilled migrant communities tends to emphasize the grounding of identities through transnationalism and mobility. Less research has been conducted into how skilled migrants actually ground their identities within the city through everyday social networks. The paper addresses this imbalance by examining the changing significance of British voluntary and community organisations (VCOs) in Paris, France. Combining qualitative and quantitative data, findings show local migrant networks to be important focal points for the British even though migrants’ lives may increasingly be transnational in orientation. The research also shows that in situ social networks are evolving. Specifically, traditional forms of elite expatriate communality are not as omnipotent as they once were, with the popularity of some high-profile British VCOs in Paris declining over recent decades. The paper argues that the link between social dynamism and communal morphology helps explain this shift: as British middle-class lifestyles have fragmented, and as the British migrant population in Paris has grown in scale and scope, so the range of VCOs and associated informal networks has grown. Whilst some skilled migrants still embed within traditional expatriate organisations, Britishness is increasingly grounded elsewhere; both within the city through alternative social networks, and located beyond the city through transnational ties. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Since the late 1980s, international skill mobility has become a topic of academic enquiry, examined from a variety of disciplinary perspectives. Economic theorisation has centred on the elite professional migrant moving within corporate spheres of influence concentrated on ‘world cities’ such as London, New York and Paris. Whilst accepting the value of this work—particularly in terms of its contribution to the broader re-theorisation of migration studies—this paper is critical of the focus on a privileged economic form of career-based mobility. I argue that skilled international migration, although still practised by a relatively small number of people, has nonetheless become a ‘normal’ middle-class activity rather than something exclusively confined to an economic elite. This implies complexity with regard to the skilled migrant communities that form within the contemporary world city, complexity that has hitherto been overlooked. This omission is addressed through a six-faceted lifestyle typology derived from 36 interviews with skilled British residents in Paris. The typology underpins the main argument of the paper: namely that skilled migration has developed an increasingly diverse ‘human face’ since studies of the phenomenon began in the late 1980s, and that traditional notions of the economic ‘expatriate’ need to be placed within a much broader contextual and conceptual framework. In the final part of the paper, reasons for the development of this complexity are briefly explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]