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- Convenor:
-
Yaatsil Guevara Gonzalez
(Heidelberg University)
- Stream:
- Migration/Borders
- Location:
- D2
- Sessions:
- Wednesday 24 June, -, -
Time zone: Europe/Zagreb
Short Abstract:
This panel discusses diverse contexts in which migrants' experiences, memories, utopias and imaginaries are developed. It aims also to analyze the processes that are created around migratory transition.
Long Abstract:
A current reality is that forced migration, displacement and migration are processes that navigate between violent, volatile and diffuse spaces. This panel discusses migrant's experiences during their transit, asylum seekers and diasporic movements from an ethnographical approach. To migrate and "being on the move" involves many complexities and multiple dynamics of social interaction with various actors and agents. Not only going from origin to destination, but also living the in between. In these spaces "in between" (Bhabha, 1994), more complex processes are conceived. Migrants have to cross borderlands and countries but also symbolic and immaterial boundaries which are mostly, full of violence and transgressions. It is also important to analyze how spaces unstable, volatile and insecure environments could build solidarity or commonality and even emotional ties or materials links often reflected in the idealization of the place of origin or destination.
This panel addresses issues related to what are the structural and personal conditions behind transitory stages of migration and the meanings of such stages within migration processes; as well as presenting examples about migrants' living experiences following of forced displacement, utopias around migration, everyday life of asylum seekers and the limbic time /space of migration and their intersections.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Wednesday 24 June, 2015, -Paper short abstract:
The paper explores three utopian narratives of Tibet as a land without borders, and how they have come to define Tibet’s reality and destiny. How are these visions manifested in policy, and what have been their impacts on the lives of Tibetans? How do utopian and hegemonic narratives intersect?
Paper long abstract:
Where is Tibet? While ideas about the geographical boundaries of Tibet are contested and varied, the Tibet of the imagination far exceeds any geographically defined area. A better question may be, What is Tibet? Tibet, the idea, is a land without borders. This paper explores three modern narratives of Tibet and how they have come to define Tibet's reality and destiny from the mid-20th century to the present. It examines how the Tibet of the Western imagination, the Tibet of Tibetan exiles, and the Tibet of the People's Republic of China, as utopian visions, have intersected, conflicted, and ultimately, have framed Tibetan lives and experiences. Utopian visions produce their own kind of borders. What kinds of utopias are represented in these narratives, how are these visions manifested in policy, and what have been their impacts on the lived experiences of Tibetans? What is the intersection of utopian and hegemonic narratives? Who is served by these utopian visions of Tibet and when do utopian visions become liabilities? The paper examines the concept of utopia in the sense of Mannheim's idea of a set of ideas that "transcend the present and is oriented towards the future," asking the question, "whose future"? It also explores the dangers of utopian imaginaries, building on Michael Ignatieff's connection between utopian visions as "a world without enemies" and genocide, with genocide being "a crime in service of a utopia."
Paper short abstract:
The study analyzes how young Ukrainian migrants used new media to redefine their cultural identities during the Ukrainian crisis (2013-2014). Digital media were employed to share cultural imaginaries, forge diasporic networks, overcome distance to the homeland and participate in politics from afar.
Paper long abstract:
This study analyzes how young Ukrainians living in Western Europe used new media to express their cultural identities in the context of the Ukrainian political crisis of 2013-2014. It is based on in-depth interviews focusing on the participants' lived experiences with media appropriation and cultural belonging in a time of turmoil in the homeland. The study demonstrates that the Ukrainian crisis instigated a pivotal period in which the participants experienced a heightened sense of belonging to the homeland and others in the diaspora.
Digital media stood central to the construction and expression of this intensification. Firstly, digital media offered the possibility to stay continuously updated on the events in Ukraine, hereby invoking a sense of closeness to the homeland. Secondly, social media networks enabled the sharing of political opinions and cultural narratives regardless of territorial boundaries, giving way to the strengthening of diasporic ties through digital means. Thirdly, the participants used digital media for direct political action directed both at the homeland and host societies, for example, by mobilizing people for demonstrations and fundraisers.
Overall, the study illustrates how migrants utilize digital media for cultural and political participation in times of homeland upheaval. They are actively employed in forging diasporic networks of belonging, overcoming geographical distance to the homeland and the participation in homeland politics from afar.
Paper short abstract:
My study is aming to explore the question of history and identity for members of Kurdish diaspora in London.
Paper long abstract:
My research question is twofold: dealing with Kurdish displacement history and their diaspora identity in London. I aim to explore a historical argument about the Kurds as "powerless victims of the First World War". I will look critically at the history of the modern nation state in the Middle East as a context for explaining and for gaining a better understanding of the systematic marginalization and displacement of the Kurds since 1920s.
The second part of this study is to evaluate the integration experience of the Kurdish diaspora in London. I will attempt to understand the shifting position of the Kurds from "victims" in the region to "active citizens" in London or Kurdish Londoners, including looking at the place and perspectives of the young and second generation Kurds who were born in Britain. This part will discuss the notion of "identity" and the idea of "home" and "belonging" in the light of contemporary theories of Refugee and Diaspora Studies and where necessary challenge them. Furthermore, I also aim to uncover the gaps in the existing literature and critically highlight the dominance of policy and politics driven research and thereby justifying the need for a new approach. This will include looking at the living experience of members of the Kurdish diaspora communities in London; a critical analysis of history and identity, considering the perspectives of both groups and individuals.
Paper short abstract:
With this panel I would like to discuss and analyze what are the implications of “being in transit” for Central American migrants who enter Mexico in order to stay somewhere in the country or to continue their journey to USA.
Paper long abstract:
During the weeks, months or even years of the entire trajectory, these transit migrants will experience values, new forms of social interaction, different symbolic dimensions, new manners of negotiation and positioning. Transit migrants have to cross borderlands and countries but also symbolic and immaterial boundaries which are mostly full of violence and transgressions. In some transit spaces and localities transit migrants are symbolized and embodied as non-grata persons - delinquents or gangsters - what could be read as the use of symbolic power (Bourdieu, 1992, p.170).The commonly violent experiences and interactions will guide transit migrants to improve strategies of invisibility, for example using mimicry (Bhabha, 1994). It may also cause a diversion of original plans of migration in many occasions and ways.
Base on this, it is my interest to discuss the interactions and the symbolic violence lived intrinsically in their transit experiences, and the impact of it in their decisions and strategies, as well as in their migratory trajectories' outcomes. Some questions to be discussed would be: What are the social relations of domination behind Central American transit migration processes within local spaces? What are the visible and invisible boundaries that transit migrants face? What visible or invisible strategies do they use? Which strategies do transit migrants use to navigate (Vigh, 2007) through Mexico in order to secure their safety? What tensions, negotiations and contradictions embrace the process of transit migration? What are the structural and individual conditions behind this transitory stage and what is the role of such stage in migration plans?