Paper short abstract:

Based on a generational approach among Egyptians residing in Austria, this paper shows how elements of difference are affectively and/or strategically mobilized in various socio-political contexts. "Difference" hence, is not a characteristic but a mobilizeable notion according to context

Paper long abstract:

The 2010s in Austria saw the return of neo-nationalist and islamophobic societal discourses that created an internal overtly estranged "other" in its residing Muslims, especially in those of Turkish and Arab descent. These discourses prompted affective and/or strategic responses by those whom they mainly targeted. While some developed techniques to elope these effects of othering-politics, others embraced elements of difference and moved toward a strategic essentialism (Spivak 1987). Many, however, found themselves neither nor. Despite the currently particularly harsh context, elements delineating difference had been mobilised for various contextual and affective reasons also before the 2010, as a generational approach can show.

Based on ethnographic fieldwork (2018 - 2020), this paper investigates how Egyptians of different generations residing in Vienna mobilised shifting elements of difference according to socio-historical and political contexts in Austria within the past 50 years. These contexts where not only shaped by developments in Austria but also by those in Egypt and created affective points of identification or distance, subjectivities and prioritisations. Through the concept of "encounter" (Schiocchet 2019) these shifting notions of differences become visible, which allows us to understand how social actors locate them in their respective contexts.

This presentation will show how notions of difference are never set in stone, even when hardened through power asymmetries. They change and are mobilised around various fault lines that can be seen as significant in various settings. Hence, these findings challenge socio-political reifications of "difference" by avoiding an over-simplistic "ethnic lens" (Glick Schiller & Caglar 2006).