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P125


Living in the borderlands: displacement experiences 
Convenors:
Cristina Santinho (ISCTE)
Sónia Ramalho (CRIA)
Start time:
18 April, 2011 at
Time zone: Europe/Lisbon
Session slots:
2

Short Abstract:

This panel aims to examine and discuss the experiences of migrants, exiled and displaced populations "living in the borderlands", through three different and yet complementary approaches presented in the following sequence: Belonging and meanings of home, exile and memories, invisibility and public discourses on migrant families.

Long Abstract:

Migration processes, in particular those that result from displacement experiences and involuntary population movements - such as those originated by wars and conflicts or by radical political and ideological changes - often suggest a rupture with people's contexts of origin. There are dramatic changes in adapting to new social contexts.

Nonetheless, the politics of visibility and invisibility adopted by governments to deal with certain historic constructions and with contemporary social problems emerge in ideological discourses that need to be deconstructed.

In this sense, different ethnographic and methodological approaches have contributed to the uprise of personal narratives related to memories of loss and suffering, of the ways these transform family dynamics and affect, particularly, the younger generations. Perceptions of being "in-between" or of being seen as an "outsider" are challenged by processes of reconstructing identities, by personal identification of new meanings of home and by feelings of belonging in the host country.

Accepted papers:

Session 1