Abstract
The war on corruption, Postcolonial studies argue, could largely be conceived as a war on the Other, i.e. on the non-mainstream way. Here, we focus on the 'softer side of corruption, i.e. the everyday relational social mechanisms – such as Brazilian Jeitinho – that while being common work habits, are often viewed by the North as softer cultural forms of corruption, hence unacceptable 'managerial problems for MNCs in the South. Here we focus on the reverse perspective of this intercultural challenge: what happens when the inflow of global mobility exports such divergent (often considered deviant) practices to the North? Building on an analysis of life stories from Brazilian expatriates in France, we discuss how this epistemic problematization of norms brings out political implications within MNCs.