The new ‘twice migrants’: motivations,experiences and disillusionments of Italian-Bangladeshis relocating to London

Taking our cue from an earlier study of East African Asians who ‘onward-migrated’ to the UK in the 1960s and 1970s, this paper looks at the more recent phenomenon of Bangladeshi immigrants in Italy who are onward-migrating to London. We seek to answer three questions. First, why does this migration occur? Second, how does the ethnic group we call ‘Italian-Bangladeshis’ narrate their working lives in London and to what extent do they feel ‘at home’ there? Third, what are the gaps between their expectations held before the move and the actual social and economic conditions they encounter in London? Empirical evidence comes from 40 in-depth interviews with Italian-Bangladeshis who have already onward-migrated or plan to. Most Italian-Bangladeshis move to London to escape socially limiting factory work in Italy, to invest in the educational future of their children, and to join the largest Bangladeshi community outside of their home country. In London, they describe feeling more ‘at home’ than in Italy, due to the size and multiple facilities of the Bangladeshi community, their lack of ‘visibility’ and of racialisation, and the greater sense of religious freedom. But their onward-migration experience has its more negative sides: the inability to access more than low-paid casual work in London’s service economy, the cost of housing, and the difficulty of making social contacts beyond their ethnic community, especially with those they regard as ‘natives’, i.e. ‘white’ British.     

Navigating the city: internal migration of Oaxacan indigenous women

The relationship between migration and gender roles has received increased attention in recent decades but most of the literature has focused on transnational migration while the relationships between transnational and internal migration, and gender roles and internal migration have not been widely studied. In this paper, I analyse internal migration as a ‘transborder experience’. I argue that indigenous women from Zegache who engage in internal migration to Mexico City pose greater challenges to ‘traditional’ gender roles in their community because their experience as single young women navigating Mexico’s capital and their reliance on female social networks allow them to obtain social legitimation by claiming migration experience and courageousness. I contrast migration to Mexico City with transnational migration. Although transnational migration challenges, to some extent, existing gender roles, women from Zegache who migrate transnationally often do so as part of couples and within gendered social networks.     

Exile,gender and identity: the short stories of Afghanistani author Maryam Mahboob

The last two decades of the twentieth century witnessed the largest migration of the Afghanistani population in modern history. More than six million people migrated to neighbouring countries, and to North America, Europe and Australia. Among them were almost all of Afghanistan's female authors; some eventually returned, but others chose to remain in diaspora. Some stopped writing, while others have continued. Maryam Mahboob was the first Afghanistani female author to leave Afghanistan (in 1981). Her major works since then have dealt chiefly with the issues of women living in ‘Outlandia’. Having been treated as second-class citizens in Afghanistan, how do Afghanistani migrant women perceive their social status in a new environment? How has migration affected the lives of Afghanistani women of different generations? Have they assimilated with the new culture and adopted new identities, or have they retained their cultural identities and stayed in closed communities? How do these women perceive their ‘new home’ vis-à-vis the ‘old home-land’. What does it mean to be a female author from a Third World Islamic society living and writing in the First World? Why does Mahboob still write overwhelmingly about themes from her place of origin and in her native language, after so much time abroad?     

Marketing an imagined Muslim woman: Muslim Girl magazine and the politics of race,gender and representation

This article examines the magazine Muslim Girl (started publication 2007) and explores how the representations on the magazine's pages construct a particular type of identity for Muslim women: an ‘idealized’ Muslim woman who is both North American/Western and Muslim. Such a woman is portrayed as liberal, educated, fashionable, a ‘can-do’ woman, who is also committed to her faith. This ‘ideal’ woman is situated squarely as a neo-liberal subject in an increasingly consumerist world: she is ‘marketable’ (and marketed) as the ‘good Muslim’ (Mamdani, 2004) and is positioned as the ‘familiar stranger’ (Ahmed, 2000) in North America. This so-called ‘modern’ Muslim (read: ‘good Muslim’) is juxtaposed both against the ‘fundamentalist’ Muslim (read: ‘bad Muslim’) and the ‘normalized’ white North American subject. Against the discourse of post 9/11 nationalism and within the context of (gendered) Orientalism, this article argues that such idealized representations present easily recognizable tropes, which serve important political, ideological and cultural purposes within North American society. An analysis of these representations – and the purposes which they serve – provides an important window into the nuances of the structured discourses that seek to control and discipline the gendered Muslim body. On the one hand, the representations in Muslim Girl focus on the so-called ‘integrated North American Muslim’ – a ‘modern’ or ‘good’ Muslim – within the context of the multicultural, neo-liberal and post 9/11 nation-state. On the other hand, these representations also highlight examples of Muslim women, who seemingly remain committed to their faith and community. Such representations of hybridized North American Muslims speak powerfully to the forces – ideological, cultural, political and social – that are at play in the post 9/11 world. In analyzing the representations found in Muslim Girl, this paper provides an insight into some of these forces and their implications.     

贵州彝族传统情歌（曲谷）的音乐特色

Being one of the most ancient eth-nic groups in China, the ‘Yi’ have a long history and an abundant culture. Yi folk songs, which are widely sung in many regions of China, have vari-ous forms and styles. These folk songs reflect the lengthy history of the Yi society; indeed they ex-press the happiness and misery, the dreams and desires of the Yi people. Within this context, this article focuses on‘Qugu’ which is a unique type of music belonging to the Yi people. In fact most Yi people of Guizhou live in the Wumeng Mountains. In their quest for survival, over time the Yi had developed a series of natural worship rites which became one of the sources of their traditional mu-sic. In addition, Yi people formed a unique way to express their love: in times past they developed a tradition of singing in the mountains and forests as to convey their love to their beloved;the‘Qugu’ is one of these Yi’ s traditional love song genres.‘Qugu’ means ‘singing’ and this genre has its own social functioning. According to traditional Yi culture and habits, a ‘Qugu ’ should not be sung in front of parents, brothers, or other rela-tives;instead it should only be sung in a place sur-rounded by mountains and forests and on certain singing sites, called ‘Guji’(in Yi language). In most of the Yi settlements, such ‘singing sites ’ were placed far away from the villages, sometimes on flat areas and sometimes in the remote wilder-ness, in forests or caves. The singing activities on those special sites took place according to specific rules and calen-dars. During the so-called ‘singing festival’ peri-od ( from the 1 st to the 15 th day of the 1 st lunar month and on the 5th day of the 5th lunar month), the singing performances were particularly magnifi-cent. People of all ages, young and old, would gather together from all directions and would sing without interruption for several days. Moreover , the singing festival also had certain traditional rites ( ceremonies ) . For example, at the very beginning, certain clan elders or prestig-ious singers would offer wine and water to the‘heavens and earth ’ . After this offering, ‘the soul of the song’ was invited. The Yi people tradi-tionally worship nature and believe in animism, so indeed a ‘Qugu’ also has its own ‘soul’ . There-fore, when the singing festival would commence, they would invite the ‘soul of the song’ to come;this custom is called ‘Guyexi’ in the Yi language. The nextritual would be the ‘Guyidai ’ ( in Yi) , which means‘the settling down of the soul of the song’ at the particular singing site. There are lyrics like:‘If there is no settling down of the soul of the song, then when the next spring comes the sil-ver flowers will sever their roots, the golden flowers will sever their roots, and the singing sites cannot be set up ’ . After the settling down of the soul of the song, the next ceremony would be the ‘Gukoupu’ ( in Yi) or ‘opening of the mouth of the song ’:this basically means the ‘opening of the door of love’ and also indicates the formal beginning of‘Qugu’ activity. All of this shows indeed that the rite of‘Qugu’ is not as solemn as other rites, as in fact the lyrics of ‘Qugu ’ are mostly about love af-fairs and romance. When the‘Gukoupu’ ends, the young people can start to freely sing. There are indeed lyrics like: ‘Three young chaps brought three axes and went into three directions of the universe; they chopped three pine trees, sawed off three boards, made three chairs, and placed these facing three di-rections. They invited girls to take a seat; the girls sat down and sang. The girls invited the chaps to take a seat;the chaps sat down and sang’ . When this‘free singing’ begins, an ‘antiph-onal group singing’ starts at the singing site (‘Gu-ji ’ ); males and females take part in this and stand/sit separately as they all sing in antiphonal style. In the middle there is a ‘go-between ’ in charge of coordination, judging, and passing on information. The males and females sing and ob-serve back and forth. During this process, affec-tions may emerge between a certain male and fe-male. If indeed a guy or young lady takes a fancy to another person, he or she will ask the go-be-tween for help. If the counterpart gives a positive response, then the two will leave the group and go elsewhere to talk and sing. During this ‘antiphonal group-singing’ , each group can allow a certain ‘representative ’ to sing solo;this solo should not be a repeat of some song performed by someone from another group. The young males and females thus can each show off their voices by singing songs with free rhyme, sweet melodies, and serious or deep topics. It is easy to see that this ‘antiphonal group singing ’ provided a major means of romantic communication between young Yi men and women. In fact, the number of songs they could sing as well as the technique used in singing these significantly deter-mined one’ s ability to attract the opposite sex. As a consequence, both males and females were strongly committed to learn to sing, trying their best to master more and better songs. Through learning from their predecessors, they made an ef-fort to improve their singing abilities. As said, traditionally at the beginning of the singing festival, ‘the soul of the song’ would be invited; well, likewise at the end of the festival‘the soul of the song’ should be sent away again. The Yi people believed that if they would not send the soul of the song away, the young would be ob-sessed by affections all the time and even lose their minds. Finally, Guizhou Yi ’ s folk music-generally speaking-has a great variety in content, perform-ance locations, forms, and genres. Moreover, due to the regional differences music styles also vary geographically. All of this makes the multi-colored Yi music even more delightful and appealing. Unfortunately, the entire tradition ( ceremo-nies) of the‘Qugu’ as described above, no longer exists today. The singers who still know these pro-cedures are getting old and eventually will forget these rites. This is a big loss for the living tradition of the Yi culture, and it is a source of grief for those who study Yi culture, in China and abroad.     

Variations of identities among the leaders of a minority group of immigrants

This paper discusses the complex identity of Kessoch immigrants in Israel. One group of Kessoch is regarded as ‘young’ and the other as ‘old’. These are two ‘invisible’ groups, which cope in their own way with their social and cultural marginality. They are delegitimized within both Israeli society and the religious establishment. Among the older Kessoch, the authors differentiated between those who have found new meaning for their life in Israel, while attempting to preserve significant ‘scraps of identity’, and those who are disconnected from their present-day life materials and find little meaning in them. In contrast, the younger Kessoch, 1.5-generation immigrants, express varied behaviour patterns of daily resistance to the host society. Their personalities and leadership patterns also indicate selective adoption of significant bits of reality that suit them. Their intelligent use of ‘scraps of identity’ serves their social integration processes.     

Beauty as violence: ‘beautiful’ hair and the cultural violence of identity erasure

Curious observations of hair and hairstyles worn by many women of Black African descent reveal the triumph of a Eurocentric dominant ideology of beauty. I assert in this study that the process of attaining the hegemonic ideology of ‘beautiful’ hair, often defined as a European and Asian texture and style of hair, is a violent journey. This study draws largely from Johan Galtung's seminal theoretical works on violence, particularly his articulation of cultural violence as a creation of ideology through psychological process of indoctrination and brainwashing, and the internalization of this process. From this theoretical framing, and a demythologization of the multiplicity and flexibility narrative of postmodern self and identity, this study examines the attitudes of young Black South African women toward their natural hair and their perception of ‘beautiful’ hair. Through a survey of 159 Black female students in a rural South African university with a predominantly Black student population, and face-to-face conversations with five female students, the study asserts that many Black African women's relationship with their hair is shaped by violence. The physical and cultural violence perpetuated in the quest for ‘beautiful’ hair is consequently creating a generational cycle of identity erasure.     

Migrancy,Gender and Social Class in Domestic Labour and Social Care in Italy: An Intersectional Analysis of Demand

Since the 1980s, welfare provision in Italy has been dramatically transformed, due to demographic changes, changes in gender orders and, most importantly, the increased employment of migrants for domestic and care work. Drawing first on statistical data, I explore how the intersections of ‘migrancy’ and gender configure in the domestic-work and social-care sector in Italy. I conclude that, even though gender remains the most important stratifying factor in this field, migrancy is almost as important. I then explore the demand for domestic work and the different forms of care work through in-depth interviews with Neapolitan employers in Naples. I posit that the demand for housekeepers is a class-specific phenomenon related to a particular life-style, including the traditional gendered division of labour and a symbolic hierarchy of household tasks according to which certain jobs are deemed too ‘dirty’ for the ‘madams’, or female employers. The demand for childcarers, on the other hand, is more connected to Italian women's increasing labour participation and men's absence from caring responsibilities. However, here, too, social class is not irrelevant. It affects the demand for elderly care in a slightly different way: the availability of an inexpensive migrant labour force, combined with state subventions, has made it possible for families from lower social strata to employ home carers.     

Complexity of identity and tactics of resistance among religious leaders of immigrants

This article discusses a unique groups of young ‘1.5 generation’ Jewish immigrant religious priests (kessoch) who were born in Ethiopia and immigrated to Israel, who cope with marginality and absence of legitimization by the religious establishment and by society. The article demonstrates that a complex cultural identity and behaviour pattern of syncretism is created among the religious priests, through selectively choosing aspects of identity which are meaningful for them. Their educated use of ‘fragments of identity’ and different tactics of resistance expresses a way for leaders of a minority group to cope with the reality they experience, and to find their place in the absorbing society.     

Between separation and integration: the case of educated Bedouin women in the Negev

In this qualitative paper, I have examined how women from a conservative minority group handle their encounter with the values of the majority group as they acquire academic education. This examination was undertaken in the general context of the research tradition that addresses the sociological and anthropological attributes of conservative societies when in confrontation with the processes of moderation, and is based on the acculturation model formulated by Berry. The source materials for this qualitative study are based on in-depth semi-structured interviews with 30 Bedouin students. The fact that Bedouin women who wish to study strive to maintain traditional values, such as their manner of dress, indicates their understanding that it is necessary to create change and acquire an academic education in order to earn a suitable salary and aid their communities, while at the same time upholding the boundaries and conventions set by the community. Tradition is thus maintained, and traditional and even religious values continue to exist within the boundaries of the minority group, alongside the stretching of those boundaries and the integration of values from ‘outside’ with those ‘inside.’     

Italy: the ‘illegality factory’? Theory and practice of refugees’ reception in Sicily

ABSTRACT

The recent surge of migrants crossing the Mediterranean in search of protection has presented a major challenge for the whole European Union. What has been labelled as a ‘refugee crisis’ is first and foremost a crisis of international politics and the result of inadequate response mechanisms at local level. This paper focuses on the case of Sicily, the second main area of arrival, after Greece, when migration to the Mediterranean reached its peak. With a long history of immigration, since 2015 the Italian island has seen the implementation of a new approach based on ‘hotspots’: designated areas for the separation of those deemed as economic migrants from ‘genuine asylum seekers’. In the view of some, this has made Italy into a model of migration management, as opposed to the chaotic situation of the Greek islands. The hotspot approach, however, has been also criticised for being engrained on practices that many deem unlawful, actively producing discrimination and condemning many migrants to an illegal status on the Italian soil. Informed by findings from an international research project (EVI-MED), this paper examines this complex scenario, exploring the social, legal and human implications of the refugees’ reception system in Italy.     

Fabulachia: urban,black female experiences and higher education in Appalachia

Abstract

This article draws on focus group conversations with black female college students attending a small, liberal arts institution in Kentucky. Based primarily on group interviews and discussions, as well as observations and analysis – a theoretical domain (referred to throughout the article as ‘Fabulachia’) emerged as a site-specific outcome of events and ideas regarding race, gender and identity experienced by the research participants. Specifically, ‘Fabulachia’ functions as a theoretical hybrid space in which urban (e.g. ‘ghetto fabulous’) black college student-voices find a sense of empowerment as they construct their own narratives of leaving ‘the hood’ to attend college in rural Appalachia. This project revises and updates previous research on race and rural identity/ies in order to situate the urban black female experience into an Appalachian context. Drawing on hip hop feminism and urban education based theoretical paradigms, the Fabulachia study seeks to give voice to black females in contemporary Appalachia, with attention to their self-proclaimed ‘ghetto fabulous’ identities honed in and through their urban upbringings. The unique experiences of (Fabulachian) black females are an important and largely absent part of larger conversations of the growing body of Urban education research that seeks to situate the black student/black youth and schooling experience in the US. In the Fabulachia study, a group of black female students shared personal narratives (part-oral history and part direct response) to prompts and queries about the role of hip hop culture, race and gender identity in their lives. They also discussed and debated what it means to be a black female in contemporary (often racist) Appalachia, and about how their families and urban surroundings influenced their processes of being and becoming in the context of higher educational achievement.     

‘God,patria and home’: ‘Reproductive politics’ and nationalist (Re)definitions of women in East/Central Europe

Abstract

I argue that through complex processes of social construction of gender, women in East/Central European societies are seen primarily as reproducers of the nation. One effect of such definitions is the enforcement of reproductive policies which amount to the nationalization of female bodies.

After a brief assessment of reproductive policies during the state‐socialist period, an overview of the contemporary debate within the post‐communist universe of discourse, and of the policies enacted by the new East/Central European regimes, I argue that within the framework of the emerging masculinist cultures in East/Central Europe, masculinity becomes increasingly identified with the public domain; in contrast, women are progressively confined within the ‘private’ sphere, identified with holding the primary responsibility for the family. Definitions of femininity along these lines have been influenced by the emergence of a particular form of ‘reproductive politics’ supported by post‐state‐socialist movements stressing the right of the nation to mobilize all of its resources, and thus, to subjugate women for the ‘national good’.     

An intergenerational conceptualisation of Italian-Australian ethnic identity through Bourdieu and Heidegger

ABSTRACT

This paper provides a phenomenological reconceptualisation of ethnic identity. Drawing upon a case study of a family originating in Calabria, Italy, and living in Adelaide, South Australia, I consider the way in which the three generations perceive their ‘being ethnic’ across time and space. The first-generation participants were born in Italy and migrated to Australia during the 1950s; the second generation are their children; and the third generation are the children of the second generation. The findings show a widespread intergenerational identification of ethnicity as ‘being Italian’, which, however, has different meanings across the three generations. This depends on the participants’ phenomenological perceptions of being thrown into the world [Heidegger, M. (1962). Being and time. (J. Macquarie & E. Robinson, Trans.). New York, NY: Harper]. Some 40 years after Huber’s [(1977). From pasta to Pavlova: A comparative study of Italian settlers in Sydney and Griffith. St Lucia: University of Queensland Press] study about the assimilation of Italian-Australians published in her book From Pasta to Pavlova, the present paper shows a movement from pavlova to pasta, especially by the third-generation participants, who experience a sense of ethnic revival. Essential in such a shift of ethnic identity is what I refer to as institutional positionality; that is, one’s perceptions of the position of one’s ‘ethnic being in the world’. This is investigated by combining with the sociology of migration, including the Bourdieusian conceptual apparatus of capital [Bourdieu, P. (1986). The forms of capital. In J. Richardson (Ed.), Handbook of theory and research in the sociology of education (pp. 241–258). New York, NY: Greenwood Press], a Heideggerian existential theory [Heidegger, 1962]. Such a juxtaposition provides further reflexivity through a reconceptualisation that considers the role of ontology in the sociology of migration.     

Flexible ethnic identity,adaptation, survival,resistance: The Garifuna in the world-system

In this paper we examine flexible ethnic identity formation as a mechanism of accommodation and resistance deployed by a particular social group with origins in the periphery as they respond to changing political and economic forces in the world-system. This paper addresses criticisms that world-system analyses are ‘too macro’ or ‘structurally deterministic’ by examining on the ground action and responses by a local oppositional movement within its broad political and economic context. Its focus is an historical case study of a particular group of people whose origins lie in European colonial expansion into the Caribbean in the seventeenth century. The paper begins by recounting ethnographic reports of Garifuna origin myths, then sketches this group's forced incorporation in a colonial world-system (and their responses), discusses their assignment to ‘minority group’ status within newly independent Belize at about the same time they are establishing transnational communities via migration to the United States, and concludes with some thoughts on the emerging ‘virtual communities’ of Garifuna and indigenous peoples around the world that are emerging on the worldwide web today. We explore what the notion of ethnic identity means in this particular case, and how and why it changes over time. We also try to understand if this flexible identity, and the social movements that arise as it is redefined, can be understood as a form of ‘resistance’. Finally, we ask if diasporic identity movements of indigenous people, like the Garifuna, actually or potentially can contribute to rising challenges against the forces of contemporary ‘globalization’.     

History lessons: inequality,diversity and the national curriculum

This article explores the continued importance of teaching a diverse curriculum at a time when issues of racial and ethnic equality and diversity have been increasingly sidelined in the political discussion around ‘British’ values and identities, and how these should be taught in schools. The 2014 History National curriculum, in particular, provoked widespread controversy around what British history is, who gets included in this story and how best to engage young people in increasingly diverse classrooms with the subject. The new curriculum provides both opportunities for, and constraints on, addressing issues of racial and ethnic equality and diversity, but how these are put into practice in an increasingly fragmented school system remains less clear. Drawing on the findings of two research projects in schools across England and Wales, this article examines the challenges and opportunities facing teachers and young people in the classroom in the teaching and learning of diverse British histories. We argue that it is not only the content of what children and young people are taught in schools that is at issue, but how teachers are supported to teach diverse curricula effectively and confidently.     

Perceptions about Skin Colour and Heritage: The Experience of Anglo-Indian Women in Western Australia

Anglo-Indian women have been described as ‘mixed-race’ and ‘hybrid’. This paper explores the identity of 26 Anglo-Indian women in Western Australia. The process of immigration to and settlement in Australia provides a major focus. Two components of identity that emerged were perceptions about skin colour and Indian heritage. 22 women who participated in this study emigrated from India between 1947 and 1996. Four other women were Australian-born. This qualitative study involved in-depth, semi-structured interviews with the participants who expressed varying levels of identification with Anglo-Indian identity. Realisations about prejudice and discrimination came to the fore during the interview process. This paper picks up on these realisations, investigates the social environments within which they developed and their implications for the identities of Anglo-Indian women.     

‘They don’t look like children’: child asylum-seekers,the Dubs amendment and the politics of childhood

In October 2016, following a campaign led by Labour Peer Lord Alfred Dubs, the first child asylum-seekers allowed entry to the UK under new legislation (the ‘Dubs amendment’) arrived in England. Their arrival was captured by a heavy media presence, and very quickly doubts were raised by right-wing tabloids and politicians about their age. In this article, I explore the arguments underpinning the Dubs campaign and the media coverage of the children’s arrival as a starting point for interrogating representational practices around children who seek asylum. I illustrate how the campaign was premised on a universal politics of childhood that inadvertently laid down the terms on which these children would be given protection, namely their innocence. The universality of childhood fuels public sympathy for child asylum-seekers, underlies the ‘child first, migrant second’ approach advocated by humanitarian organisations, and it was a key argument in the ‘Dubs amendment’. Yet the campaign highlights how representations of child asylum-seekers rely on codes that operate to identify ‘unchildlike’ children. As I show, in the context of the criminalisation of undocumented migrants‘, childhood is no longer a stable category which guarantees protection, but is subject to scrutiny and suspicion and can, ultimately, be disproved.     

Teaching while Black: racial dynamics,evaluations, and the role of White females in the Canadian academy in carrying the racism torch

For racialized academics, life in the academy can be marred by racial violence that leaves them caught between their commitment to their craft, desire for educational attainment and development, and the mental anguish that can dominate their existence. Drawing from experiences of the author and other Black faculty members in Canadian tertiary academic institutions, I provide a theoretical exposition recognizing the role of narratives as an act of counter-storytelling. I draw upon Black feminist epistemology, critical race theory, and critical theory to examine how the experiences of Black academics remain under-theorized, marginalized, and often erased within ‘strong/angry Black woman/man’ caricatures. I highlight how racial evaluation filters reinforce racism and affects the careers of Black academics. I also discuss the role that White women, who are charged with decision-making power, have come to play in carrying the ‘racism torch’ in the academy while adhering to the tropes of innocence.