migration and diaspora abstracts

8/13/2019 Migration and Diaspora Abstracts

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GLOCAL IMAGINARIES CONFERENCE

Migration and Diaspora stream

Group 1 - Diaspora, Identities and Migration

Maggie ONeill, Phil Hubbard and Misha Myers : Trans-nationalCommunities: Art, Politics and Policy

This paper builds upon our separate and collaborative performative artsbased research that seeks to better understand lived experiences of exileand belonging; rene methodologies; provide a space for stories to betold; and in turn for these stories to feed in to policy and praxis! A central

aspect of this ork is the importance of orking at the intersection ofethnography and arts practice"visual culture # ith artists and communityarts organisations$ through ethno-mimesis and conversive wayfinding toproduce ne kno ledge%s and counter hegemonic texts that challengeidentity thinking and foster a radical democratic imaginary! This paperfurthers this ork by focusing upon research e have undertaken ithrespectively: residents in Plymouth #&isha$ and residents in the 'ast&idlands and four community arts organisations #&aggie and Phil$! (ealso discuss the ork that e conducted together at the intersections of

art, politics and policy!

Kate Pahl, ndy Pollard and !ahir "a#i$% Translating )b*ects: &aterialCultural Practices in the +omes of the Pakistani Community in otherhamand in an 'xhibition

This presentation ill dra on a year-long study funded by the A+ C%siasporas .dentities and &igration programme! /ollo ing a series of

ethnographic intervie s ith families of Pakistani origin in otherham,01, the research team developed ith the families a museum exhibitionbased on ob*ects in their homes that instantiated narratives of migration!This exhibition as held at otherham art gallery in &arch 2334 and aebsite as developed by pro*ect team artist, 5ahir afi6! This ebsiteas then used to create a set of family learning resources called 7'veryob*ect tells a story%! 'merging from the coding of the intervie s and thecollection of the ob*ects as a focus on hat could be called 7dialogicob*ects%, that is, ob*ects that meant one thing in Pakistan, and another in

the 01! /or example, a thick cotton covering men ore in the Pashtunareas of Pakistan as clothing became used as duvets on beds in

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otherham! &eanings of things shifted across diasporas, and eredescribed using different linguistic terms! 'thnographic intervie suncovered key themes! These included a focus on gold, textiles, andhome decorating practices! The researchers% taken for granted

conceptions of material cultural practices ithin the 9ritish Asiancommunities ere unsettled through re-examining meanings aroundthese themes! The presentation ill include a reflection on the museumexhibition and ho that, in turn, reflected back the material culturalpractices and identity narratives of the Pakistani community inotherham!

Group & ' Mo(ing )ub*e+ts% Gender, Identity and Home

)hanthini Pillai and Gana umaran )ubramaniam : 9et een .magingand Poetic .magination: &alaysian .ndian iasporic (ritings

The narratives of diaspora are often rooted in folk memory and most

significantly in the stories inherited from family! Articulations of theexperience of the &alaysian .ndian diaspora are not very different in theorks of most riters hose creative imaginary is interlaced ith such aheritage! /or a very long hile, the literary representation of the&alaysian .ndian diaspora has rested in the creative grasp of 1 &aniam!+o ever, there are a couple of riters of &alaysian .ndian descent hohave recently emerged in the contemporary literary scene and they arenamely ani &anicka and Preeta amarasan! All three riters are linkedby a creative imaginary that focuses on the representation of the

&alaysian .ndian diasporic experience! This paper investigates thecharacteristics of the modes of creative imagination reflected in thenovels of the three riters, mainly The Return #&aniam: 8


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the distinctions that emerge are linked to issues of locations ofnationhood, of ho much &alaysia is home and ho much she ismemory!

)reele ha Nair : 'ngendering the ri =ankan Tamil iaspora in Paris

(omen migrants% contribution to the creation and continuance of avibrant cultural and ethnic ri =ankan Tamil diasporic group in and aroundParis is understated! Tamil diaspora is understood as gender-neutral andthe individual migrant as male! This is especially significant because ofthe background of ethnic conflict bet een Tamils and inhalese in ri=anka! .t is, therefore, important to engender the Tamil diaspora in order

to ackno ledge the presence of omen in them and recogni>e theircontribution to ards economic and cultural lives of the migrants!Conventional patrifocal values give very little acceptance of omen inpublic space among the Tamil community! This is despite the fact that theidentity of the Tamil diaspora is built around the cultural spaces that haveboth sacred and secular practices in families and +indu temples hereomen%s participation is essential!

Group - Ne. /on#igurations% "oots, Mobility and Mas$uerade

"enu a "a*aratnam% /rom oots To &obility: =ocating ?eConfigurations here Poetry meets Travel and &igration

The diaspora discourse, in general, ith a certain amount of irony hasbecome a valued repository of the contemporary global society !.t hasinformed and familiari>ed the orld ith values of diversity, tolerance andco-existence despite colliding effects of cross-culturalism! Thecontemporary times, post - "88, has produced an unprecedented large-scale migration hich is on the one hand utterly unsettling and on theother, is profoundly shaped by globali>ation, advanced technology oftravel and communication, resulting in an incredibly 7intensifiedcompression% # obertson 8 2:


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the orld characteri>ed by teeming multiplicity and da>>ling eclecticism!

The diaspora literature in the late 8 3s as predominantly a feature ofthe postcolonial mostly foregrounding issues of marginality, identity,

dispersal, displacement, exclusion and 6uest for roots! /ocussing on thesignificant shift ithin the diaspora from roots to mobility and by locatingthe transitional points of the change as demonstrated in the orkproduced by poets ranging from erek (alcott to Brace ?ichols, &oni>aAlvi to ackie 1ay and Patience Agbabi to =emn issay, the paper aims tostimulate a discussion on the ne attitudes, concepts, aesthetics andpolitics of diaspora and migration!

The paper on the hole ill consider ho migration has re- shaped 9ritain

as nation of devolved cultures highlighting the fluidity of identity,heterogeneity, and resistance to exclusivity and assimilation at the spaceshere poetry meets travel and migration!

Mauri+e 0ottomley : .n earch of ollo

ollo Ahmed is a mysterious figure, a Buyanese riter and occultist hoorked in 'ngland in the thirties and forties! +is book on magic DThe

9lack ArtD remains one of the most idely read introductions to thesub*ect! +o ever his novel . ise: The =ife tory of a ?egro #=ondon8 @4$ has vanished ithout trace, neither featuring in histories of (est.ndian literature nor in studies of 9ritish literature of the 8 @3s! .t is asemi-autobiographical tale of migration and features, among other things,fascinating descriptions of an idealistic (est .ndian and his reactions tothe small and impoverished black communities =iverpool and =ondon!

Ahmed has vanished even more thoroughly than the novel! Though an

associate of both Aleister Cro ley and ennis (heatley, biographicalinformation is, to say the least, sketchy! Ahmed mas6ueraded as an'gyptian and this in itself is interesting!

(hile . ant to focus on the novel, . also ant to place Ahmed in thefringe subculture of herbalists, magicians, racetrack tipsters and hustlersthat many African and (est .ndian migrants of the pre-(ar era foundthemselves obliged to *oin in order to make a living! &y interest is in boththe marginalised status of the people and their chosen DprofessionsD butalso the use of mas6uerade by such characters as Prince &onolulu, 'rnest

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&arke and ollo Ahmed! Ahmed himself mas6ueraded as an 'gyptian andis still regarded as such by the only circles in hich he is remembered!

This paper ill dra on the concept of the 9lack Atlantic and thetheorisation of masks and mas6uerades as developed by +ouston 9akerand other post-colonial theorists! .t ill ho ever be largely historical andanecdotal as prime aim is to rescue Ahmed and others like him fromobscurity!

oo 2ee Hyun : taging 7/ictive% 'thnicity: Contemporary cenes

The figure of Asia in contemporary 0! ! metropolitan spaces does notal ays signify in the ay conventional institutions of meaning intend!.mages of Asia and Asians before the 8 e ho young generations of Asian Americans enact self in theprocess of encountering Asian iasporas and the figures of Asia!Aisanness is something that Americans of Asian descent cannot fullyidentify ith, existing beyond the realm of the visible in ?orth Americanculture! Through the analysis of the ork of artists like ?ikki =ee,&argaret Cho, and Baye Chan, . contend that this sense of familiarstrangeness points to the potential of Asian American performance foraddressing the othering of Asianness in metropolitan spaces!


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Group 3 ' Migrations, Identity and 4or

2aurie /ohen, M N "a(ishan ar and o Duberley : )ld Careers and'merging 'conomies: .ndian esearch cientists% Pursuit of Career)pportunity and the Construction of iasporic .dentities

This paper focuses on .ndian scientists I a group for hom there is atradition of global mobility! 9ased on the career narratives of scientists inthe 01 and .ndia, e dra on careers, migration and diaspora literaturesto explore ho .ndian scientists account for their career development,and their experiences of migration in the pursuit of success! /ollo ingJertovec%s #8 4$ analysis of diaspora as social grouping, culturalproduction and identity e argue, first, that .ndian scientists ere ella are of a socially ratified career path that led them into internationalresearch! econd, scientists% continued links ith .ndia #both professionaland personal$ serve as an empirical criti6ue of and contribution to currentdebates on brain drain"circulation! Third, respondents% sense of .ndian-ness and global citi>enship, and the complex hybrids that resulted fromtheir interplay, ere at once seen as po erfully contributing to and

constituted by their patterns of career thinking and enactment!

0aris 5l er : /rom the 7Bastarbeiter% to the 7'thnic 'ntrepreneur%:.magining .mmigrants in 9erlin

pace is not an ontologically given entity; on the contrary as amesClifford #8 4$ argues, in reference to &ichel de Certeau, it is discursivelymapped and corporeally practiced! 9erlin has not been an exception ofthis formulation throughout its history! Considering this historicalbackground, the paper ill explore the particular conditions for theemergence of Fethnic entrepreneur #ship$G in 9erlin, relying on the historyof immigrants from Turkey since the beginning of 8 K3s!

At the beginning of 8 K3s, 9erlin elcomed its FBastarbeiterG fromTurkey! The foreigner as able to enter only by approving the conditionsthat the host had already concluded! As guests, ho ere not meant tostay, they ere seen as temporary, conditional and speechless! Accordingto the political rationality, their presence as a state of exception !Although the government issued the Auslnderstopp #the order banning

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all recruitment of foreign orkers from non-''C countries$ in ?ovember8 4@, the number of immigrants from Turkey increased during the 8 43sand 8 ing social and political costs and maximi>ing economic profits, had

turned into a category of social concern, fear and risk that needs to bedealt ith, cared for and integrated! At the core of these discussions,9erlin started to experience businesses run by immigrants andsimultaneously the political reasoning began to define a political value tothis particular image of an immigrant, i!e! Fethnic entrepreneur,G since themiddle of 8 e this trope of photography in the story andposit a relation bet een the desire to photograph and the diasporic

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condition! As a ar correspondent based in ome and sent on assignmentto outh America, Africa and the &iddle 'ast, 1aushik becomes the6uintessential translocated citi>en of the orld, occupying a number offractured spaces! +e practically severs all relations ith his originary

home #.ndia$ as ell as his diasporic home #the 0 $! +e does not returnto either place for years and feels no need to do so! FAs a photographerhis origins ere irrelevant,G 1aushik thinks! +e thus becomes a romanticho has no home outside of memory! . ish to argue that =ahiri%s use ofthe trope of photography belies 1aushik%s pride in his lack of rootedness!Photographs capture a fleeting moment and the transitoriness of themoment that is memoriali>ed in a photograph, creates a sense of thesacred! . argue that 1aushik%s vocation as a photographer counters theunrootedness of his diasporic condition! Although he lives a life of

temporariness, his bags al ays packed and his passport in his pocket, hisphotographs symbolically signify a search for origins and roots, a yearningfor stability, further heightened by his identity as a hyphenated secondgeneration immigrant!

ohn Gi(en% The +ere and There of Things: #h$ifting /ragments of a?arrative .dentity

F. have such admiration for people ho can recount their lives inautobiography, because the connections are so complicated! . ouldnever be able to straighten it outG # ohn Cassavetes$! This presentationill explore the fragmented and performative 6ualities of memory andidentity! Adopting a semi auto"biographical perspective and using multimedia materials the presentation ill invite the vie er to sift through and

7create% their o n interpretation of these autobiographical fragments! 9ycreating a series of discrete but related 7thumbnails% each ith its o nstoried hinterland the presentation attempts to dra the vie er into aseries of speculations about the relationship of these narrative fragmentsto the various lives that left these traces! 9ased on a series of familyphotographs together ith audio and video recordings the material isdigitally manipulated and interpreted through the use of poetry togetherith musical elements derived from voice and speech fragments!

"u sana Ma*id : Placing the Pakistani iaspora: iaspora pace in Ayub1han in%s East is East


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LM!both spatiality and location have to be reconceived once e considerthe departure from ithin, the dispossession that demands immobility!L#9utler N pivak, Who %ings the &ation-%tate' 2334$

This paper offers a critical re-evaluation of the politics and potentialities ofurban spaces in post- ar 9ritain! (ith a focus on the Pakistani diaspora, .consider early moments of outh Asian experience in 9ritain, and explorethe shifting debates surrounding migration, culture and identity hichemerged ith the reunification and settlement of Asian families during theearly 8 43s - a pattern of migration carrying a different resonance inpublic discourses than the earlier phase of predominantly male migration!

'mploying 9rahLs concept of Ldiaspora spaceL #8 K$ - defined as Lthepoint at hich boundaries of inclusion and exclusion, of belonging andotherness, of LusL and LthemL, are contestedL, and a model usefullyemphasising the entanglement of genealogies of dispersion ith those ofsettlement - the second part of this paper offers an analysis of Ayub 1haninLs play East is East #8 K$! et in 8 43s alford, both the play scriptand its later cinematic adaptation direct attention in particular to migrantspatial practices! At once inside and outside the 7nation%, the presence ofthe Pakistani im"migrant is sho n to both challenge and be challenged bysocial constructions of the LproperL ordering of space and spatial practices!. argue that this Ldeparture from ithinL of the Pakistani diasporachallenges norms about ho the cultural geographies of ?orthern citiesare framed and represented, and demonstrate ho the same geographicalspace can come to articulate different histories and meanings, ith anaim to opening up to 6uestion the means through hich space is sociallyproduced and contested!

Group 7 ' Multi-Mediated 8ngagements .ith Ne. Publi+s and/ommunities in Ireland 9Panel:

This panel foregrounds in and through the practice of media production#film, animation and photography$ an innovative series of cross-sectoralprint and broadcast media pro*ects bet een cultural theorists, mediapractitioners, migration ?B)s and racialised minorities in .reland!Through the presentation of multi-locale ork conducted under the aegisof the /orum on &igration and Communications #/)&AC ,

!fomacs!org$ ith migrant, refugee and asylum communities, thepanel contributions underscore contrasting methodologies honed in


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creative practice and ethnographic methods! /)&AC is a collaborativepublic media pro*ect comprising seven partners and extended net orksreaching and engaging diverse audiences through the production of film,photographic, digital storytelling, radio, animation and print stories on the

topic of immigration in .reland and beyond! =ed by the Centre forTranscultural esearch and &edia Practice # !dit!ie$, /)&AC partnerscomprise immigration and protection"asylum ?B) organi>ations, togetherith the multicultural print and media outlet, Metro Eireann( The paper byanthropologist and cultural theorist Blenn ordan presents the firstsystematic exploration of the ikh presence on the island of .reland,through the combined use of portraiture, life histories and ethnographicobservation of the lived experiences and narratives of people oftenperceived as 7)ther% by members of the general public I especially since

"88! ra ing on the adaptation of an ?B) archived case study, thedirector of /)&AC , Oine )%9rien, critically profiles an animated filmseries titled 7Abbi%s Circle and its accompanying print media primaryschool 7learning resource%, hich *ointly document, dramatise andcommunicate the complex 6uestion of immigrant 7family reunification%!

A))i*s +ircle renders audible and visible, hat oger ouse #2332$ callsthe 7transnational migrant circuit% I spaces linked through familial, socialand economic ties, comprising multiple yet interconnected net orks andaffiliations! esponding to the absence of ethnographic films engagingdirectly ith the labour conditions, civic"political participation, dailyrhythms and cultural practices of migrant sub*ects in .reland, AlanBrossman%s paper reflects on his t o co-directed feature-length filmsere To %tay #233K$ and ,romise and #nrest #233 $! The filmscomparatively narrate the stories of t o non-'0 /ilipino economicmigrants, their agential efforts at collective political mobilisation underthe aegis of migration advocacy groups and trade unions, furtheraddressing the translocalised expression of migratory aesthetic practices# urrant and =loyd 2334$, and the gendered"classed contingencies oflong-distance motherhood # ala>ar Parre as 2338$! The paper advocatesa critical and timely convergence bet een slo -paced, on the ground,longitudinal ethnographic in6uiry, allied to a politici>ed documentarypractice, informed by cultural studies methodologies, in response toaccelerated and unprecedented in-migration into .reland from Africa, Asiaand eastern 'urope during the past decade!

Glenn ordan;ine O0rien

lan Grossman

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migration and diaspora abstracts

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