‘Global talent’ or ‘labour migrant’?—Discursive noise and the strategic organization of difference in the competition state

Abstract This article explores how migrant categorizations are (re)produced across distinct discursive terrains in public spheres and in the academic fields of migration studies and management and organization studies. It illustrates state-economy entanglements through the emergence of novel migrant labels, such as ‘global talent’, within the empirical context of Copenhagen, Denmark, and at a European scale. The findings suggest that the use and enactment of distinct categorizations in public discourse organizes social difference strategically: performative speech acts ascribe symbolic capital and status to foreign newcomers who are of economic value to the nation state, while not granting this privilege to others. Thereby, the ideological and discursive infusion of a human capital rationale into the state’s migration regime and at supra-national instances supports not only processes of Othering, but produces ontological effects. The use of certain designations in specific situations, such as ‘global talent’ in a mayor’s welcome address or ‘expat’ in housing adverts, seems inappropriate and unsettling. To grasp the fragmentation, accumulation and disturbing repetition of labels across distinct discursive spheres, the author introduces the concept of ‘discursive noise’. The denser the discursive assemblage becomes, and the more congruent categorizations across distinct spheres seem to be, the less perceptible underlying ambiguities are. The idea of discursive noise upholds that the repetition and circulation of consistent, yet conceptually incoherent migrant designations across commercial and political spheres is deliberate and strategically intended. Discursive noise conceals ideological underpinnings of migrant triage whilst backing politico-economic goals of the competition state.