The Dispersal of Postcolonial Refugees: The creation of a global Ugandan Asian diaspora (1967-1976) (original) (raw)
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Decolonising the diaspora: neo‐colonial performances of Indian history in East Africa
Transactions of the Institute of British …, 2012
Governments are increasingly engaging with their diasporas as a means of managing their national economies. Nevertheless, analyses of government diaspora strategies have not adequately accounted for the complexities of diasporic affiliations and identities, especially those not easily brought into the purview of economic governance. Drawing on performative understandings of how national polities are realised, this paper argues that incorporating diasporic populations entails more than managing material flows: it also involves an engagement with the histories that tie diasporas to particular nations. Using a discourse analysis of the textual narratives of the Indian Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs (MOIA), I examine their representations of East African Asians' history of migration and settlement. Though the MOIA 'decolonises' their historical associations with the ambiguous space of the Indo-Pakistan subcontinent, it also ironically deploys colonial modes of thought in rewriting their history as Indian. This analysis suggests there is a need to re-examine how diasporas are valued by governments to take account of their multiple historical and contemporary significances.
Displacement, integration and identity in the post-colonial world
Defining the relationship between displaced populations and the nation-state is a fraught historical process. The Partition of India in 1947 provides a powerful example. However markedly little attention has been paid to the refugee communities produced (Ansari, 2005). Using the case of the displaced ‘Urdu-speaking minority’ in Bangladesh this article considers what contemporary discourses of identity and integration reveal about the nature and boundaries of the nation-state. It reveals that the language of ‘integration’ is embedded in colonial narratives of ‘population’ versus ‘people-nation’ which structure exclusion not only through language and ethnicity, but poverty and social space. It also shows how colonial and postcolonial registers transect and overlap as colonial constructions of ‘modernity’ and ‘progress’ fold into religious discourses of ‘pollution’ and ‘purity’. The voices of minorities navigating claims to belonging through these discourses shed light on a ‘nation-in-formation’: the shifting landscape of national belonging and the complicated accommodations required.
The Postcolonial Migration State
European Journal of International Relations, 2021
The evolution of migration policymaking across the Global South is of growing interest to International Relations. Yet, the impact of colonial and imperial legacies on states’ migration management regimes outside Europe and North America remains under-theorised. How does postcolonial state formation shape policies of cross-border mobility management in the Global South? By bringing James F. Hollifield’s framework of the contemporary ‘migration state’ in conversation with critical scholarship on postcolonialism, we identify the existence of a ‘postcolonial paradox,’ namely two sets of tensions faced by newly independent states of the Global South: first, the need to construct a modern sovereign nation-state with a well-defined national identity contrasts with weak institutional capacity to do so; second, territorial realities of sovereignty conflict with the imperatives of nation-building seeking to establish exclusive citizenship norms towards populations residing both inside and outside the boundaries of the postcolonial state. We argue that the use of cross-border mobility control policies to reconcile such tensions transforms the ‘postcolonial state’ into the ‘postcolonial migration state,’ which shows distinct continuities with pre-independence practices. In fact, postcolonial migration states reproduce colonial-era tropes via the surveillance and control of segmented migration streams that redistribute labour for the global economy. We demonstrate this via a comparative study of post-independence migration management in India and Egypt, which also aims to merge a problematic regional divide between scholarship on the Middle East and South Asia. We urge further critical interventions on the international politics of migration that prioritise interregional perspectives from the broader Global South.
African Currents, 2021
There exists a pressing need for an alternative view to the existing humanitarian narrative on protracted displacement situations in the global south. This paper broadens the discourse by examining the exilic condition of Tibetan Refugee Community in India and the post-refugee experiences of Residual Liberian Refugees in Nigeria without legal status and international protection. The rationale behind this comparative exposition is borne out of the similarity in their condition and time in exile. This paper is comparative in form in order to establish the connections of historic refugee populations with the past and present. Findings show that the exilic narratives of both refugee communities shape their identity and intersect with the agency deployed to transcend their location of dispossession within a shared space of marginality with their hosts. These findings have policy impact in the area of place making, transformative agency, and diaspora nationalism in exile.
Understanding migration in a globalized era: How postcolonialism views diaspora
Satwika : Kajian Ilmu Budaya Dan Perubahan Sosial, 2021
This article is a critical reading on postcolonial scholarship, ranging from tenets in the field to more current theories, that has allowed literary and cultural studies scholars to understand the term diaspora. Diaspora here encompasses the various mobilities caused by colonization and globalization, and diaspora literature as those produced through people’s movement across borders. This article aims to reflect on the development of postcolonial studies on how this field of study has come to address the migrant’s lived experience and conceptualize the term diaspora. The method applied by this article is literary analysis, as the paper provides an extensive literature review of scholarships in postcolonial studies. By doing so, the article identifies the ways in which postcolonialism has engaged with the term diaspora and is working to reconfigure the term to address modern era migration, that can be both voluntary and involuntary, as well as permanent and temporary. The article ruminates on how diaspora continues to be a contested term and is made relevant to current context, providing ways for communities of the Global South, including Indonesia, to seek agency in their experience as migrants and global mobile citizens.
Colonialism's Impact on Current Refugees in the post-colonial Europe
This paper investigates the enduring influence of colonialism on the current refugee situation in post-colonial Europe. It delves into Europe's colonial past, examining how historical colonization has shaped socioeconomic and political landscapes in former colonies, leading to regional conflicts and displacement. The study explores the connection between these conflicts and the resulting refugee flows towards Europe, highlighting the colonial legacy that continues to impact both regions. Additionally, it scrutinizes whether Europe provides a safe and welcoming environment for refugees, considering the persistence of colonial attitudes and policies towards third countries and their refugees who are heading to Europe. Critical theory is employed to deconstruct the power dynamics and ideological constructs that shape modern migration policies and international relations. This theoretical approach allows for a critique of systemic injustices and dominant narratives that often misrepresent refugees, focusing instead on the historical and geopolitical forces that have contributed to their displacement. By challenging these narratives, the study emphasizes the need for more equitable and historically informed responses from European states. Additionally, it scrutinizes whether Europe provides a safe and welcoming environment for refugees, considering the persistence of colonial attitudes and policies in contemporary asylum practices. Through a multidisciplinary approach that includes historical analysis, examination of regional wars, and evaluation of current ties with the former colonies this paper aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of how colonialism's legacy affects today's refugee crises.
Distinctive Citizenship: Refugees, Subjects and Post-colonial State in India's Partition
Cultural and Social History, 2009
The refugee, in India's Partition history, appears as an enigmatic construct -part pitiful, part heroic, though mostly shorn of agency -representing the surface of the human tragedy of Partition. Yet this archetype masks the undercurrent of social distinctions that produced hierarchies of post-colonial citizenship within the mass of refugees. The core principle of the official resettlement policy was self-rehabilitation, that is, the ability to become a productive citizen of the new nation state without state intervention. Thus, the onus of performing a successful transition -from refugee to citizen -lay on the resourcefulness of the refugees rather than the state. This article traces the differing historical trajectories followed by 'state-dependent' and 'self-reliant' refugees in the making of modern citizenry in post-colonial India.
Offshoring Refugees: Colonial Echoes of the UK-Rwanda Migration and Economic Development Partnership, 2023
British proposals to forcibly deport asylum seekers to Rwanda have raised fierce opposition from across the political spectrum in the UK and internationally. These proposals differ from official practices of deportation as they have developed in liberal democracies since the 1970s. There are certainly some international parallels, such as Australia's 'Pacific Solution' of 'offshoring' asylum, which is often cited as an inspiration. Yet a much clearer precedent involving the forcible movement of people to countries where they have no personal or legal connection existed for many years in the British Empire. Colonial policies of forcible removal, relocation, displacement, and dispersal around the Empire are well established. We draw attention to these longer histories before investigating more recent cases of the dispersal of refugees within the British Empire in the twentieth century. In many cases, such forced dispersal concerned those who had been recognised as refugees who were interned and subsequently moved elsewhere in the Empire. Such policies were designed to prevent the arrival of refugees in the UK. These policies have provided inspiration for asylum practices in some postcolonial states-Israel is reported to have reached an agreement with Uganda and Rwanda to deport asylum seekers from Sudan and Eritrea, although these are not public. In this paper, we highlight how these colonial practices of forcible displacement of individuals inform the current agreement between the UK and Rwanda.
Diaspora Studies, 2014
In this paper, I argue that despite the general belief to the contrary, there is a great deal of continuity in the history of the colonial and post-colonial practice of citizenship in the Indian Ocean region. This debate is usually described from the perspective of the state and its representatives. Indeed, more often than not, the position of the migrants themselves is not discussed. This paper aims to fill this gap. In the case of the South Asians in East Africa, I will demonstrate that migrants were able to negotiate their own space for identity formation and accepting and changing formal citizenship options. Indeed, they were also able to negotiate with colonial officials and, after the 1960s, Britain, Canada, India and even the United Nations about defending their rights as citizens or agreeing new regulations for international migration and citizenship. The debate on citizenship and belonging has become the centre of academic and public debate since the 1990s in Europe and the US. However, historical cases in colonial contexts might shed some light on long-term continuity in such discussions. The South Asian Gujarati Muslim Abdulla Karimjee married Kianga Ranniger, the daughter of German settlers, in Tanganyika (East Africa) on 5th October 1933. Abdulla Karimjee was born in 1899 in Zanzibar, like his father and grandfather before him, while Kianga was born in 1910 in Handeni, in the Tanga region. The Rannigers were German settlers who were convinced that they would never return to Germany, as demonstrated by the fact that they named their daughter Kianga, which means 'rainbow' in Kiswahili. Nevertheless, in 1919, Kianga and her family were deported as German nationals, but returned and resettled in the area in 1926 where, as planters, they rented a farm owned by the Karimjees. 1 The marriage between Abdulla and Kianga raises interesting questions about migration, citizenship and belonging in a colonial, British-dominated context. Accordingly, in this paper, I would like to focus on the issue of citizenship, particularly that of the South Asian migrants and their descendants in East Africa. Citizenship here refers to the condition or status of an individual, with all of its incumbent rights and responsibilities. It is clear that the conventional model of the nation-state, in which it is believed that subjects share, more or the less, the same history, language, culture and identity, does not apply to colonial societies. This is firstly because colonial societies more often than not consist of multiple ethnic (natives; in this instance, various African groups) migrant groups, including in the case of East Africa South Asians, Arabs and the dominant whites. In other words, there is no 'nation.' Secondly, colonial societies were not equal societies; it was the white outsiders who imposed colonial rule, colonial legislation and new ideas of 'state' in the territory.