Immigration and Identity in Britain

This article explores responses to modernity and the challenge it poses to identity in Japan through the works of the poet Hagiwara Sakutaro?. It concludes by arguing that, inspired by Sakutaro?'s call to ‘return to Japan’, the Japanese Romantics transformed Japan into a spiritual project of overcoming the modern and the West – thus being superior – through the nostalgic construction of a cultural essence.     

Borders of home: Roma migrant mothers negotiating boundaries in home encounters

The borders of Europe do not only operate at territorial limits. This article argues for those identified as Roma, UK immigration control has shifted from gate-keeping at the territorial border to gate-keeping access to services through child welfare. Three factors have interrelated to foreground boundary-making in home encounters: European Union expansion, development of a post-welfare state and governmentalisation of vulnerable children. First this article examines how these three processes converge to activate the border through assessments of mothering in the home. Due to mothers’ particular migrant status, they are confronted with a choice between loss of motherhood or movement from the national territory. Second it illustrates how mothers engage in strategies of self-representation to negotiate bordering processes, requiring intensive work with a variety of actors. These actors are themselves located within racialised and gendered hierarchies. This article illustrates through ethnographic vignettes how the home is recast as a site of negotiating access to state forms where judgements of ‘good motherhood’ produce bordering effects. This represents a governing logic applied both to mothers and frontline workers resulting in stratified reproduction based on hierarchies of values.     

The microfoundations of diaspora politics: unpacking the state and disaggregating the diaspora

ABSTRACT

Recognising the need to unpack ?the ‘state’ and? ?problematise? the term? ‘diaspora’, in this special issue we examine the various actors within (and beyond) the state that participate in the design and implementation of diaspora policies, as well as the mechanisms through which ???diasporas?? are constructed by governments, political parties, diaspora entrepreneurs, or international organisations?. Ex??tant theories are often hard-pressed to capture the empirical variation and often end up identifying ‘exceptions’. We?? theorise these ‘exceptions’ through three interrelated? conceptual moves: First, ??we focus on? ??underst?udie?d? aspects of the relationships between states as well as organised non-state actors and their citizens or co-ethnics? abroad (??or at home – in cases of return migration).? Second, ??we? ??examine dyads of ?origin states and specific diasporic communities differentiated by time of emigration, place of residence, socio-economic status, migratory status, generation, or skills. T?hird??,? ?we ?consider? migration in its multiple spatial and temporal phases (emigration, immigration, transit, return??)? and ?how the???y?? inter?sect to?? constitute diasporic identities?? and policies. ??These? conceptual moves contribute to comparative research in the field and allow us to identify the mechanisms? connect?ing structural variable??s with ? specific policies by states ?(and other actors?) as well as responses? by the relevant ?diasporic ?communi?ties??.     

Oestrogen Rising 2016: Ireland’s stained and bloodied cloths

A weaver, seamstress, laundress and artist, in this essay I shall spin a yarn, tangle a web, and construct a text(ile) of the inter-weave of narrative and identity that I define as my intellectual, textual, somatic and material/visual practice obsessions. My work explores ‘the places in-between’ in the entanglements of Irish and Northern Irish gender and identity, and in the abject fabrics of death and of desire. As an Irish feminist, sense-making of the complexities, conundrums, challenges and contradictions of my land, my cloth, my body and my culture owes much to Irish women before me who fought for female suffrage, and Irish women now – north and south of the border that divides the island of Ireland – who still struggle for equality of citizenship, social justice, human rights, and full reproductive autonomy. My contention is that when we accept that Ireland herself is a many-layered cloth, a stained and bloodied cloth, a cloth marked irreversibly by history, conflict, denial and abuse, stained by its own repression, marked through denial of all its people’s rights and needs, and bloodied by its greatest export, the haemorrhage of its people, then – polemical, didactic or reflective, with more compassion, empathy, humility and heart – we just might make peace with our past.     

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?     

He Named Me Malala: connecting the historical,the local,and the global

My essay highlights how this (otherwise excellent) documentary film He Named Me Malala suffers from a historical amnesia in failing to connect the historical, local, and global/Western factors that have set the political-social context within which occurred the Malala incident in 2012. This is because the documentary – exposing the voice of a Pakistani female activist as a postcolonial/global agent – does not look into the historical-colonial, Cold War, or the post-Cold War dynamics that have set the ‘context’ within which the theme of the documentary unfolded. My essay addresses these issues of historical amnesia, arguing that to better comprehend the Malala incident (and broadly the issue of gender violence in Pakistan’s socio-cultural context) it remains imperative to connect how factors of power, politics, and vested interests have intersected at historical, local, and global levels to explain the 2012 Malala incident.     

‘They were constantly on the losing side of things’: the pedagogical power of an African-American teacher candidate bearing witness in teacher education

The stories of students and teacher candidates of Color (Just as singular racial/ethnic identities are capitalized (i.e. African-American, Asian, Latina, Native American etc.), I capitalize Color to honor the various identities that many ‘non-white’ people hold near and dear. I recognize the nuances in doing so- such as the reality that the term ‘people of Color’ actually erases identity while the term also highlights a shared experience (though also nuanced) of being ‘non-white’ in a white supremacist society.) hold powerful lessons and insights for teacher education programs and educational reform efforts. Yet, rarely do educators and policy-makers solicit or critically engage the educational narratives of these stakeholders. In particular, research confirms that we know little about how students’ of Color educational experiences are impacted by race(ism) and culture and how those experiences subsequently inform their ideas about teaching. This study, framed by critical race theory (CRT), examines an African-American (African-American is used intentionally here as this is how Ariel identifies racially.) teacher candidate’s racialized K-12 and postsecondary school experiences to more fully understand the connection between lived experience and developing teacher identity. Ariel’s story reflects her own school experiences; her focus on her peers’ school experiences when asked about her own; and how those experiences, informed by race and culture, contribute to her development of pedagogy. Analytical considerations illustrate that memory and remembrance, witnessing and bearing witness, and testimony are deliberate and powerful acts in the development of pedagogy and should be central to teacher education curriculum.     

What's anger got to do with it? Towards a post-indignation pedagogy for communities in conflict

We argue that anger tends to be naturalized and normalized in social and educational theory and our goal is to problematize the too easy justification of indignation as an emotional resource in political and pedagogical work. Instead we wish to propose the broad contours of a post-indignation pedagogy as a frame for rethinking racism and redefining antiracist and dialogic pedagogy. In the first part of the paper, we offer a genealogy of anger in conflict communities; in particular, our analysis explores the emotionally saturated discourses of anger in our home countries (Australia and Cyprus). In our second move, we draw on figures such as Seneca, Buddhism and Judith Butler for reframings of anger. The reframe we are proposing interrogates two extremes – resignation to anger and resignation from anger – and proposes a ‘middle way’ between these two. Thirdly, in rejecting these two extremes, the paper speculates on possibility of pedagogies of ‘conviviality’, borrowing from Gilroy.     

Through laughter and through tears: emotional narratives to antiracist pedagogy

If as a collective society we desire to challenge oppression as it exists, we must individually commit to learning about race, in all its facets, and racism as an institution at an emotional level. Although there are many ways to accomplish these ends, antiracist pedagogy – as antioppressive education – is an effective method to do so through its focus on the intersections of race. This study shares how participants in a higher education classroom emotionally experienced studying race and racism. Using a narrative inquiry hybrid, results of this inquiry include how emotions are at the core of such learning, particularly because they can be racially segregated and relationally complex. The lack of research about the relationship between racism and emotions is felt acutely in higher education classrooms, so this study contributes to our understandings of antioppressive pedagogy in such classrooms. Since the overall goal of antiracist pedagogy is antiracist change and classroom emotions are an impending result, the dilemma of focusing on emotions persists. Subsequent implications for antiracist pedagogy specifically, and antioppressive pedagogies broadly, include explicitly addressing the emotionality of antiracism as an ongoing praxis.     

Labour migration brokerage and Dalit politics in Andhra Pradesh: a Dalit fabric of labour circulation

ABSTRACT

Why and how do labour migrant brokers engage with henchmen of bosses, small-time criminals and violent politicians? What significance do labour brokers’ political relations have in the fabric of labour circulation? This article argues for migration brokerage to be examined along a broad continuum of brokerage to explore the local fabric of labour circulation in the Indian construction sector. Considering migration brokerage as part of a broader landscape of brokerage firstly allows look at how migration brokers concretely navigate the worlds of labour and politics to pursue their activities and to further their own agendas. It secondly offers insight into how the everyday relations between migrant brokers and henchmen of bosses shape the lives of migrant labourers in the urban construction sector. Based on a detailed ethnography of the relation between a Dalit labour maistri and a Dalit henchman of a boss in a context of violent criminal political economy, this article explores the roles of Dalit politics in shaping the Dalit fabric of labour circulation and labour broker’s trajectories in South India. It further looks at the ambivalent production and mobilisation of Dalit identities in the making of an ideal Dalit migrant labourer.     

Foreign policy priorities and ethnic return migration policies: group-level variation in Greece and Serbia

ABSTRACT

Why do ethnoculturally defined states pursue favourable policies to integrate some returnees from their historical diasporas while neglecting or excluding others? We study this question by looking at members of two historical diasporas that, in the 1990s, returned to their respective ethnic homelands, Greece and Serbia, but were not treated uniformly by their respective governments. Utilising a wide range of primary sources, we consider evidence for a number of plausible explanations for such policy variation, including the economic profile of an ethnic returnee group, its status in internal ethnic hierarchies, its lobbying power, and dynamics of party politics. We find, instead, that the observed variation is best explained by the role that each particular group played in the ruling elites’ ex ante foreign policy objectives. Elites discouraged the repatriation of co-ethnics from parts of the world they still had claims over, by pursuing unfavourable repatriation policies. Conversely, absent a revisionist claim, states adopted favourable repatriation policies to encourage their repatriation and facilitate their integration upon return. Methodologically, the article illustrates the importance of focused comparisons across dyads of states and particular sub-diaspora groups.     

Competing for the diaspora's influence at home: party structure and transnational campaign activity in El Salvador

ABSTRACT

How do parties in migrant-sending countries engage with the diaspora? Migrants exercise an increasingly important voice in electoral politics in their home countries, though they often either cannot legally vote or vote in very low numbers, yet parties attempt to leverage the influence they believe migrants have over voters at home. However the degree and manner by which parties reach out to diaspora citizens varies widely. A case study of El Salvador points to party organisation as a determinant of variation among parties in diaspora campaigning, based on interviews with Salvadoran party elites in the U.S. and El Salvador, party documents, and historical comparison of campaign activities of El Salvador's two major parties, ARENA and FMLN, over three presidential elections and one mayoral election. FMLN, with a hierarchical model and base committee structure, more effectively mobilizes diaspora support while ARENA, with a horizontal model and sectoral structure, exhibits difficulties in party-diaspora coordination and largely makes indirect and symbolic references to diaspora issues.     

Differential citizenship: questioning the dalit claim to equal citizenship through a projection of difference

Citizenship for dalits has been historically defined with relation to the demand for equality. However, this demand has witnessed a change in the last few decades where the agency of the dalits has manifested itself in the demand for a differential citizenship, where differentiation, and not homogeneity, has become the basis for the demand for equality. The study with the help of the textual analysis of Aravind Malagatti’s Government Brahmana and Omprakash Valmiki’s Joothan argues that the demand for equal citizenship through the recognition of difference has created a paradoxical situation where the recognition of difference has not led to an equal treatment, but has opened up newer avenues for discrimination instead. The study proposes to accomplish this by providing an insight into the manner in which differential citizenship has become the reason for denial of performative citizenship to the dalits in rural and urban public spaces. Some of the key questions that the study addresses are: How is the performativity of differential citizenship in the public spaces foregrounded by the dalits? Why does this foregrounding evoke violent retribution from the upper caste? And does the continued violation of the imposition of dalit citizenship point to the dysfunctionality of the differential citizenship status accorded to the dalits?     

Home and belonging: a comparative study of 1.5 and second-generation Egyptian ‘expatriates’ in Qatar and ‘immigrants’ in the U.S.

This article compares how two different migration models – legal permanence and legal temporary settlement – shape 1.5 and second-generation Egyptians’ feelings of belonging towards the host countries of the U.S. and Qatar. Relying on formal semi-structured interviews, I argue that the inability of Egyptians in Qatar to obtain Qatari citizenship contributes greatly to their lack of sense of belonging to Qatar. However, a central paradox appears when Egyptians in Qatar simultaneously discuss other factors, such as family and/or friends’ networks, comfort, safety, and country familiarity, which make them feel Qatar is home. Conversely, while Egyptian-Americans appear to be more confident with their host country relationship because of their experience in a country of immigrants, factors such as post-9/11 discrimination and U.S. foreign policy towards the Middle East complicate their relationship with the U.S. Both groups reflect simultaneous feelings of home, belonging, discrimination, and/or exclusion in their respective ‘host’ countries but in different ways. These case studies demonstrate that different migration models do not necessarily lead to predicted understandings of home and belonging. This article thus argues for the need to reassess the assumptions we have of the relationship between citizenship and belonging.     

Navigating the migration industry: migrants moving through an African-European web of facilitation/control

ABSTRACT

This paper approaches the African-European migration industry as a complex web of relations in which different actors liaise, objectives oppose each other, and roles overlap. Starting from this notion, the question emerges: How do migrants navigate this fuzzy web of migration facilitation/control? To answer this question, this paper uses a ‘trajectory ethnography’ that follows the im/mobility processes of migrants from West – and Central Africa to, and inside, Europe. In so doing, it particularly focuses on two practices that are related to the concept of social navigation. First, it concerns débrouillardise, a term that points to the power of improvisation, creativity and hustling. Second, it regards social negotiation, a term referring to the process of how migrants ‘massage’ their relations with important actors in the field. The findings stress the relational dimension of the migration industry in the sense that the functioning of one actor depends so much on the intentions and efforts of others. I conclude that we could enhance our knowledge on migration industries with studies that constantly shift between the perspective of the migrant, the social network, the facilitator and controller. Such a dynamic approach unpacks further the multiple efforts that produce migrant im/mobility.     

The (em)bodiment of blackness in a visceral anti-black racism and ableism context

Over the years, many scholarly publications have extensively discussed disability ‘diagnoses’ and placement practices in special education programs in the United States and the United Kingdom. These publications argue that racism and classism rather than clinically predetermined factors appear to influence the disability diagnosis and placement practices in special education. The present essay is contributing to the debate by critically exploring the relationship(s) between race, class, and disability ‘diagnoses’ and placement practices in special education programs in Toronto, Canada. The core ideas noted in the essay are drawn from a personal story of an African-Canadian parent – a story of a daughter with a diagnosed disability and her mother’s struggle to resist the disability ‘diagnosis’ as well as her battle rejecting her daughter’s placement in the special education program in a Toronto public school. Using this personal account, other literature, and anti-black racism theory, I argue that special education programming in Toronto, Canada helps white middle/upper class Canadians achieve a de facto race/class-based segregation in the Toronto public school system. Whereas the Supreme Courts’ rulings on Brown vs. the Board of Education in the United States and Washington vs. the Trustees of Charlottesville in Canada have insisted that whites and non-whites attend the same school, special education identification practices ensure that whites and non-whites do not have to belong to the same classroom. I conclude that when educational practices move into spaces of pathologization, blacks and working-class students are continually at risk of facing exclusionary practices. One thing is clear: the significance of skin color in the mind of the racist cannot easily be dismissed.     

Poetry after Guantanamo: M.I.A.

The recent work of the Sri-Lankan-British musician and sonic ‘curator’ known as M.I.A. (real name: Mathangi Arulpragasam) is considered as a commentary on atrocity and read alongside the well known essay ‘The Storyteller’ by Walter Benjamin and comments on Auschwitz by Theodor Adorno. The storytelling here is updated for a contemporary context where global war impacts us all, more or less visibly, more, or less, acknowledged. It is argued that the controversy over M.I.A.'s Romain Gavras video Born Free is exemplary of the predicament of art in the face of violence, crisis and terror – with this track, and video, M.I.A.'s work faced a storm of criticism which I want to critique in turn, in an attempt, at least, to learn to make or discern more analytic distinctions amongst concurrent determinations of art. A careful reading of Adorno can in the end teach us to see Born Free anew.     

The Local Life of Nationhood

What characterises many studies that invoke the local can be described as a logic of transcendence. This logic of transcendence does not reject nor disregard the local. Rather, it affirms the centrality of the local. At the same time, the focus is on how the local is historically transcended into higher levels of generality and abstraction; the argument is that only through attention to these higher levels that the meanings of the local become clear. In contrast, the other local which we refer to in this essay is a set of practices which emerges in intimate relationship to nationalism, which in some ways even sustains nationalism, even though the places it produces cannot be understood within the same logic of transcendence. At times, this other local refers to the political and conceptual practices that emerged at the limits of the abstract time and space that constituted nationalism. At other times, this local refers to the marginal in order to represent nationhood anew. Nationhood does not exhaust, sublate or transcend this local; rather, this local continues to live, in the era of nationhood, not so much outside the national, but beyond and alongside it. This other local is explored in this essay by discussing the cases of Germany and India.     

Surrogate selves: notes on anti-trafficking and anti-blackness

This essay explores the discursive production of black captivity across the African diaspora in the afterlife of slavery. I take as my objects of analysis the contemporary anti-trafficking and anti-slavery movements, features of the increasing hegemony of human rights discourse for formulating problems of social justice and their remedies. I argue that configuring black captivity – in this case, the experiences of Nigerian women migrants to Western Europe – through these hegemonic discourses extend, rather than ameliorate, the global structural antagonism of anti-blackness.     

Adulteration of pure native blood by aliens? mixed race kapya in colonial and post-Colonial Myanmar

ABSTRACT

Colonization may be viewed not only as loss of sovereignty and territory but also of ‘purity’ of a native race to an alien power. After the British colonized Burma in the late nineteenth century, they brought in Chinese and Indians to the sparsely populated colony as labour for new administrative and economic activities. Intermarriage, mainly between native Burmese women and men of alien races – British, European, Chinese and Indian – was thus inevitable. Mixed-race peoples – kapya in Burmese – were then born out of these relationships, and their identities became a key political issue in colonial Burma. Importantly, all natives, foreigners, and kapya were British subjects at that time. Independent Burma from 1948 through 1962 was not expressly anti-foreigner/kapya; working to naturalize those who had overstayed or remained. However, the Ne Win government from 1962 through 1988 was openly against ex-foreigner and kapya citizens, passing a new citizenship act in 1982 to downgrade their citizenship to a second class tier. The Myanmar Citizenship Law (1982), which remains in force, has downgraded the legal, political and social stature of ex-foreigner and kapya citizens. A more problematic and racist term thway-nhaw or ‘adulterated’ race has come to the fore, being used in official law-like language in recent years and highlighting the racist roots of the Myanmar Citizenship Law.