In this article I discuss the relocation of skilled employees from the peripheral operating regions of transnational corporations to their operating centres. I examine employees who migrated from regional offices in East and Southeast Asian countries to the headquarters of two athletic footwear companies based in the northwestern United States. Drawing on 12 in‐depth interviews and six months of ethnographic fieldwork, I contextualize corporate migration within the global athletic footwear commodity chain and argue that the layers of asymmetrical power within the industry construct a specific identity profile of the ‘Asian technical expert’ based on employees' embodiment of technical capital, geographical origin, and corporate rank. This identity profile gives regional office employees opportunities for mobility, while creating both empowerment and constraints that structure post‐migration experiences. In this study, by examining migrants from countries that are fairly low down in the global commodity chain hierarchy, I hope to expand both the theoretical framework available to corporate migration scholars and the range of migration considered.

中文翻译：

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亚洲技术专家：全球商品链中的熟练企业迁移

在本文中，我讨论了将熟练员工从跨国公司的外围运营区域迁移到其运营中心的问题。我考察了从东亚和东南亚国家地区办事处迁移到美国西北部两家运动鞋类公司总部的员工。通过12次深入访谈和六个月的民族志田野调查，我将企业运动鞋在全球运动鞋商品链中的背​​景情况进行了背景分析，并认为该行业中不对称力量的层次构成了“亚洲技术专家”基于以下方面的特定身份特征：员工对技术资本，地域和公司等级的体现。该身份资料为区域办公室员工提供了流动的机会，同时创建授权和约束，以构成迁移后的经验。在这项研究中，我希望通过考察来自全球商品链层次结构中相对较低的国家的移民，我希望扩大企业移民学者可以使用的理论框架以及所考虑的移民范围。