Diaspora and transnationalism Research Papers (original) (raw)

This article explores the role of remittances in Eritrea’s transnational authoritarian system. The government exercises a policy of active control over Eritrean citizens living abroad, and the country’s economy relies heavily on private remittances to ensure the subsistence of the population. This stands in stark contrast to the official doctrine of economic self-reliance, which has been hampered by an open-ended national service that can last for decades and deprives Eritrean citizens in productive age from making a living. The government also puts extreme restraints on the private sector. As a result, the livelihoods of Eritreans depend mostly on diaspora remittances. The authors take a historically contextualised approach based on empirical fieldwork in Eritrea from the 1990s to 2010 and among Eritrean diaspora communities in Europe between 2013 and 2019. We demonstrate how the government’s self-reliance approach has shifted from developing Eritrea’s human capital to securing financial support through transnational diaspora control. We conclude that in the case of Eritrea, the process of diasporisation has not triggered development and political transformation but has cemented a political and economic status quo that forces ever-growing parts of the population to leave.

- by and +1
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- African Diaspora Studies, Eritrea, Diaspora and transnationalism, Remittances

Ideological divides and a lack of collaboration have characterized diasporic Coptic activism over the last five decades. Fragmentation among Coptic organizations with competing narratives and strategies has hindered alliance-building, grassroots mobilization, fundraising, and policy impact. Despite these challenges, the so-called Aqbāt al-mahjar remain attuned to and invested in Egyptian concerns, offering a compelling counter-narrative to dominant representations inside Egypt that paint them as traitors to the national cause and party to foreign intervention.

- by Michael Akladios and +1
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- Middle East Studies, Human Rights, Coptic Studies, Diaspora and transnationalism

The dislocated, deterritorialized discourse produced by repatriates from formerly European colonies has remained overlooked in academic scholarship. One such group is the Eurasian “Indo” community that has its roots in the former Dutch East Indies, today’s Indonesia. This article focuses on Tjalie Robinson, the intellectual leader of this community from the 1950s to the mid-1970s. The son of a Dutch father and a British-Javanese mother, Robinson became the leading voice of the diasporic Indo community in the Netherlands and later also in the United States. His engagement resulted in the foundation of the Indo magazine Tong Tong and the annual Pasar Malam Besar, what was to become the world’s biggest Eurasian festival. Robinson played an essential role in the cultural awareness and self-pride of the eventually global Indo community through his elaboration of a hybrid and transnational identity concept. By placing his focus “tussen twee werelden” (in-between two worlds) and identifying “mixties-schap” (mestizaje) as the essential characteristic of Indo identity, Robinson anticipated debates on hybridity, transnationalism, and creolism that only much later would draw attention from scholars in the field of postcolonial studies. This article highlights Robinson’s pioneering role in framing a deterritorialized hybrid alternative to nationalist essentialism in the postcolonial era.

- by Jeroen Dewulf
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- Cultural Studies, Cultural Sociology, Self and Identity, Southeast Asian Studies
- by Thomas Tweed
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- Religion, Comparative Religion, Cultural Geography, Latino/A Studies

El presente trabajo llena el vacío sobre la literatura cubanoamericana que se evidencia en el abarcador Cuban Studies Since the Revolution (1992). Poco antes de esta fecha empezaron a aparecer textos que se distanciaban, por su sensibilidad, de la literatura de exilio y que respondían a otras inquietudes. Más allá de contemplar esta laguna, este ensayo gira en torno a la naturaleza intersticial de la literatura cubanoamericana en el sentido de que responde y se asocia a más de un ámbito, incluido el cubano de la Isla. Pese a dicha conexión, se señala la carencia de publicaciones, traducciones y crítica acerca de este corpus literario en Cuba, falta que habría que subsanar.

- by Iraida H. López
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- Cultural Studies, Latino/A Studies, Cuban Studies, Diaspora and transnationalism

Scholarship on Gulf Cooperative Council (GCC) states, which have the highest proportions of migrants in the world, usually explores how they are unique in their patterns of non-citizen exclusion. However, state discourses, geographies, and the heterogeneity of migration to the Gulf share similar traits with contemporary nations and states. Non-citizens are, as they are everywhere, active participants in Gulf state- and nation-building projects. Aiming to advance scholarship on belonging in the GCC states, in this paper, we propose a shift in focus from exclusion to inclusion in the way research questions are asked about Gulf societies and the people who reside in them. Doing so, we suggest, requires unpacking two hegemonic concepts in the regional studies scholarship: ‘ethnocracy’ and kafala. In their current usage, both terms have become ‘black boxed’, or reified, such that scholars have largely come to accept and reproduce the exceptionalism of the Gulf and refrain from asking a number of critical questions about the region, which might highlight the GCC states' fundamental normalcy. Through a reflexive approach that draws from our own previous and current research in the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, we suggest ways that we might move beyond the rigidity of exclusion-centred narratives about the Gulf and instead consider the various ways that Gulf nationalisms themselves hail the non-citizen presence, and how non-citizens participate in discourses and practices of nationalism as well as statecraft in ways that cannot be reduced to nationality, class, race, or religion.

- by Neha Vora and +1
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- Diasporas, Immigration, Immigration Studies, Nationalism
- by Ionut Biliuta
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- Systematic Theology, Fascism, Diaspora and transnationalism, History of Communism

Focusing on the COVID-19 pandemic, this article explores the Algerian diaspora’s impressive outpouring of collective solidarity in the UK and seeks to discover why and how a migrant community previously known for collective mistrust developed such forms of activism. It draws on concepts of diaspora philanthropy, activism and citizenship to understand, firstly, how diasporas might be enabled or hindered, in supporting their communities and then the wider impacts of their crisis responses on processes of social change. Drawing on participant observation, interviews and social media from charitable organisations and leading influencers from the Algerian community in the UK, it explores a wide range of remarkable initiatives to support vulnerable communities, predominantly in London during the pandemic. Motivations and facilitating factors of this solidarity included emerging trust in local elites and leaders, Islamic faith, effective engagement in online spaces and pride in a transnational Algerian identity. Seemingly apolitical towards the homeland, this activism is contributing to social transformation within this diasporic group, rebuilding fractured communities and creating new social identities, feelings of belonging and citizenship.

- by Latefa Abid and +2
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- Migration Studies, Diaspora and transnationalism, Algerian context, COVID-19 PANDEMIC

Pragmatizem in anacionalno pojmovanje domovine pri mlajših generacijah slovenskih izseljencev Članek raziskuje subjektivno percepcijo lastnega migrantstva, razloge za odselitev in pogoje za vrnitev ter pojmovanje domovine pri nedavnih izseljencih iz Slovenije. Zlasti od gospodarske krize 2008-2015 beležimo močan neto izselitveni tok in beg možganov. S polstrukturiranimi intervjuji z nedavnimi izseljenci smo ugotovili, da pri njih prevladujejo ekonomski razlogi za migriranje in pragmatično stališče do lokacije bivanja ter da je v njihovi subjektivni konstrukciji domovina večinoma skrčena na najožji socialni krog in svet vsakdanjega življenja, le manjši del pa se jih identificira s Slovenijo kot organiziranim kulturnim in političnim prostorom. V razmerah prostega pretoka delovne sile v EU in polperifernosti slovenskega gospodarstva lahko zato pričakujemo nadaljnje valove neto izseljevanja, ki bodo intenzivnejši v obdobjih gospodarskih kriz.

- by Louis Yako
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- Women's Studies, Cancer, Palestine, Exile

This is the brochure for the April 2018 conference “Corporeal Restrictions, Embodied Freedoms: Italian Interventions on the Body” organized by the John D. Calandra Italian American Institute, Queens College, City University of New York.... more

- by Joseph Sciorra
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- Gender Studies, Art History, Italian Studies, Diasporas
- by Mara de Gennaro
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- Poetry, African Diaspora Studies, Caribbean Literature, Caribbean Studies

This chapter examines the contribution of the diasporic economy, trade and entrepreneurship to the Caribbean region with a focus on the economic impact of remittances as well as diaspora savings and income. The study then goes beyond a focus on the remitters and recipients to look at the role of intermediaries such as money transfer operators (MTOs). The goal is to examine the trade in services and the role of Caribbean-owned MTOs in the remittance market.

In this article, through a case study of transnational Islamic charity, we explore the intersection between migrant development engagements and religious practices. While migrant engagement in development is well known, the intersections of these with everyday religious practices are less so. We use the prism of 'everyday rituals', understood as human actions that connect ideals with practices. Everyday rituals not only express but also reinforce ideals, in this case those of Islamic charity in a context of sustained migrant transnationalism. The article draws on 35 interviews about Islamic charity, transnationalism and development with practising Muslims of Pakistani origin in Oslo, Norway. We argue that everyday rituals are a useful tool for exploring the role of religion in motivating migrant development engagements. This is because they include transcendental perspectives, bridge ideals and practices that connect the contemporary to the hereafter, encompass transnational perspectives, and are attentive to the 'here' and 'there' spatially in migrants' lives. On a shelf in Aisha's 1 living room, there is a small, discreet collection box. If she happens to have spare change when she is passing the box, Aisha will drop a few coins into it. She does not keep track of how often or how much. It is something she just does in passing, usually on a daily basis – sometimes when reminded of all she has to be grateful for, at other times when she learns of the pain and suffering of those less fortunate than herself. The latter are often people in the village where her mother still lives and about whom she gets updates whenever she and her mother speak on the phone. She always uses the money in the box to help other people. Sometimes she donates it to a development organization or initiative collecting money at the mosque, at others she sends it to Pakistan for her mother to pass on to those in need of assistance, or to victims of natural disasters or conflicts.

- by Kaja Borchgrevink and +1
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- Development Studies, Migration, Development and Religion(s), Islam

In this article we want to evoke two characters that each suggest different points of departure for thinking about Kolkata as a queer kind of space. By this we want to evoke something of the sexual geography and life-ways of the city, but to go beyond this standpoint too, to question ways in which ethnographic characters might be evoked in respect of any context, Kolkata or elsewhere. In one sense this is to open out a perception of Kolkata as a scene of many sexual life-worlds, inviting a plural kind of analysis suggestive of a multiplicity of perspectives; persons/subjects each with a unique viewpoint to be captured. The two characters we explore here each draw attention to issues of belonging and migration,
of both wanting to move to and away from Kolkata; creating new lifeworlds via the city amidst its shifting sexual geographies, class and caste divisions, and wider diasporic connections and fault-lines. Kolkata itself emerges as an attribute of the characterisations to hand: sometimes as distinct mise-en-scene, at others a kind of sensibility or resonance field for understanding self and others.

- by Rohit K Dasgupta
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- Area Studies, Queer Studies, Anthropology, Communication

The popular Samoan adage 'o le ala i le pule o le tautua' (the pathway to leadership is through service) is commonly understood by Samoans around the world as an important life value. Writings about tautua (service) have chronicled traditional understandings of the term (Tavale 2009, Tavale 2013) and more recently with personal experiences of tautua in Samoa (Filisi, 2018) and transnational matai in their communities (Falaniko 2020, Fetui 2020). Being able to trace the links between these understandings of tautua leads to considering ways in which tautua is enacted and enabled in Samoa and transnational societies. Tavale's four stages of tautua (Tavale, 2013) and his collection of proverbial expressions that focus on tautua (Tavale, 2009) form a natural foundation for its application in Samoa and internationally. Through the eyes of matai with Samoan language fluency, we use our multiple service roles with the intent of privileging interdisciplinary Pasifika research. We introduce the three intergenerational spheres of service-tautua ia tautua (serve to serve), tautua ia pule (serve to lead) and pule ia tautua (lead to serve)-that show what tautua looks like in a lifecycle. Samoan indigenous knowledge pertaining to service foregrounds the shared experiences of tautua by the authors. The oscillation of the spheres speaks directly to service, positioning our own individual experiences as matai, as Pasifika tertiary students (Pilisi, 2020) and how we negotiate our journey of tautua within our collective contexts through the conceptualisation of the "tautua lifecycle" model-to explore the pathway to leadership through service.

- by Elena Fiddian-Qasmiyeh
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- Diasporas, Resistance (Social), Diaspora Studies, Stateless Peoples

Global Heartland is the account of diverse, dispossessed, and displaced people brought together in a former sundown town in Illinois. Recruited to work in the local meat-processing plant, African Americans, Mexicans, and West Africans recreate the town in unexpected ways. Drawing on ethnographic research conducted in the US, Mexico, and Togo, Faranak Miraftab shows how this workforce is produced for the global labor market; how the displaced workers' transnational lives help them stay in these jobs; and how they negotiate their relationships with each other across the lines of ethnicity, race, language, and nationality as they make a new home. Beardstown is not an exception but an example of local-global connections that make for local development. Focusing on a locality in a non-metropolitan region, this work contributes to urban scholarship on globalization by offering a fresh perspective on politics and materialities of placemaking.

Although the first world, as seen through the lens of academia, seems to be prospering, and the third world has found its own place in the postcolonial intellectual order, the post-cold war world of semi-peripheries in East and Central Europe (ECE) has largely disappeared from the discourse of Comparative Literature. It sometimes appears as a convenient intellectual counterpoint or is included in postmodernist or postcolonial narratives; in both cases, however, it doesn’t convey regional specificity or allow local voices to speak. Both strategies – core and postcolonial – expropriate the semi-peripheral realm of second-world non-places.

- by Adam F. Kola
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- Philology, Intellectual History, World Literatures, Comparative Literature

This article examines the representation of home among members of the Lebanese diaspora in New York, Montreal and Paris. Lebanese immigrants view home as both a concrete reality that is achieved physically or in relation with others and a... more

- by Dalia Abdelhady
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- Cultural Studies, Diasporas, Social and Cultural Anthropology, Immigration

Written Here, Published There offers a new perspective on the role of underground literature in the Cold War and challenges us to recognize gaps in the Iron Curtain. The book identifies a transnational undertaking that reinforced détente, dialogue, and cultural transfer, and thus counterbalanced the persistent belief in Europe’s irreversible division. It analyzes a cultural practice that attracted extensive attention during the Cold War but has largely been ignored in recent scholarship: tamizdat, or the unauthorized migration of underground literature across the Iron Curtain. Investigating the transfer of underground literature from the ‘Other Europe’ to Western Europe, the United States, and back illuminates the intertwined fabrics of Cold War literary cultures. Perceiving tamizdat as both a literary and a social phenomenon, the book focuses on how individuals participated in this border-crossing activity and used secretive channels to guarantee the free flow of literature. The image that emerges of this largely unknown cultural encounter transcends continuing perceptions of the artificial East-West divide, revealing that tamizdat contributed to the recreation of a transnational literary community.

- by Friederike Kind-Kovács
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- Cultural Studies, Eastern European Studies, Literature, Cold War

The various strategies of reaching out to the diaspora throughout the 20th century and of eventually including it in the building of a nation-state was embedded in transnational relations and ties between Croatian communities and individuals sustained over generations. The paper brings an overview of the history of this relationship as well as it questions the current situation and pose questions for the future development. The authors conclude that the transterritorial definition of the nation, on which the relationship between Croatia and its diaspora has been based from early on, was an inherent element of state-building in the 1990s and has likewise shaped the diaspora strategy applied today.

- by Ivan Hrstic
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- Migration, Croatian History, Modern Croatian History, International Migration

Bu kitabın temel araştırma konusu, diaspora seçim bölgesi düzenlemesi olan ülkelerin tecrübelerinin incelenmesidir. Bu araştırmada aydınlığa kavuşturmayı düşündüğümüz sorular genel hatlarıyla şu şekildedir: Yurt dışında yaşayan vatandaşların seçtiği temsilciler (milletvekili ve/veya senatör) anavatanın diaspora politikasına etki edebilmekte midir? Diaspora temsili ile diaspora arasında siyasal iletişim nasıl kurulmaktadır? Diaspora temsiline ilişkin karşılaşılan zorluklar nelerdir? Yurt dışı göç ve diasporanın oluşum süreci diaspora seçim sisteminin kurumsallaşmasına nasıl yansımaktadır? Yurt dışı seçmen sayısı ve oy kullanma oranı nasıl olmaktadır ve yurt dışı seçmenlerinin siyasal tercihi anavatan seçmenleriyle mukayese edilmesi mümkün müdür? Bu ve buna benzer soruların araştırıldığı bu çalışma yurt dışı seçim bölgesi sistemini uygulayan Fransa, İtalya, Portekiz, Hırvatistan, Tunus ve Kolombiya’yı kapsayan bir saha çalışmasıyla derinleştirilmiştir.

These poems, composed in Somali and in English, provide a poetic reflection of the recently emerged debate on the theme of Caddaan Studies which means "White Studies". The criticism and counter-criticism contained in the debate dug so deep into life nerve of Somali Studies that over a thousand people participated. The poems, under the title "Inaugurating Caddaan Studies" were composed with a critical observation of the debate.

- by Mohamed A Eno
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- Critical Theory, American Literature, African Studies, World Literatures
- by S. N. Sridhar
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- American Literature, World Literatures, Translation Studies, Indian Philosophy

This paper argues that the diasporic writings deal with the paradox of separation and connection with the homeland. While the diasporic connection with ‘past-home’ is revived by audio, visual, and verbal memories through photographs, albums, letters, videos, audios, and recordings, the connection with the ‘present-home’ is retained by a global communication network. Thus, modern communication and technology seem to bring diaspora nearer to home because of which they can retain their connections with the homeland in the host-land. However, it can be seen that modern technology and communication itself allure individuals in envisioning the idea of “would-be-homeland” resulting in their diasporic psychology. Consequently, the diasporic narrative can be divided into parts: In the first part, it is the ‘would-be host-land’ which becomes a place of attraction as it is represented in various media like television, cinema, magazines, internet, books, and anecdotes. An image of prosperity is created of “would-be-host land” which is filled with hope and opportunities for progress. The protagonist is thus already inclined to make a move to this new ‘host-land.’ The second half of the narrative deals with the experience of ‘the moved body.’ The person who migrates to a new place finds it difficult to adjust to a new identity and fails to assimilate in a new environment resulting in a nostalgia for the lost place. This paper attempts to deconstruct the causal aspect of media and means of communication.

California is home to approximately one-third of the Cambodian American population, many of whom came to the United States as refugees. In a chapter from her book, Southeast Asian Migration: People on the Move in Search of Work, Refuge and Belonging, BIMI-affiliate and Associate Professor of Ethnic Studies Khatharya Um, explores how Cambodian American youth participate in artistic expression and political engagement to navigate the burdens of transgenerational trauma and forced migration. Drawing on Prof. Um’s research, this policy brief makes recommendations for activists, educators, policy makers, and service providers to support the empowerment of young Cambodian Americans and other refugee communities.

- by Douglas J Epps
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- Refugee Studies, Genocide Studies, Migration, Cambodia

The terms 'return migration' or 're-emigration' deal with the return of the diaspora to the country of origin and are therefore full of nationalistic perspective. These terms can be useful in the case of a diasporic return to the country of origin, however, the use of the term 'ethnic return migra-tion' should be clarified as well becaus migration of diasporic descendants (to the country of origin of their ancestors) by strategic, rational and pragmatic use of their ethnic disposition (i.e. passports of their ancestors with written nationality) should also be looked into. Indeed, term ethnic return migration expresses that in the case of some diasporic descendants their ethnic origin might be lost and the diasporic identification questioned hence their migration to the country of origin of their ancestors could be analysed as mobility for material or economic benefit. In this article I will analyse the migration of diasporic descendants from West Ukraine and South Moldova to find out whether they incline more to return migration/ re-emigration or to ethnic return migration. Acknowledgment Rád bych na tomto místě poděkoval třem anonymním recenzentům i šéf-redaktorce Českého lidu Janě Noskové, jejichž věcná kritika přispěla ke zkvalitnění článku.

- by Luděk Jirka
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- Ethnic Studies, Ethnic and Racial Studies, Ethnic Identity, Diaspora Studies

The valley of Hadhramaut stretches over 370 miles, which has helped preserve a unique local Hadrami identity for centuries. Establishment of two influential Kingdoms Qu'ayti and Kathiri was the result of Hadhrami diaspora in India, and they dominated Hadrami politics until the early 1960s. Hadhramis limited their activities almost exclusively to the Indian ocean, rather than developing a global diaspora on Gujarati or Cantonese lines. This contrasted with other Yemenis, who went as labourers to Europe and North America. Hadhramaut is one of the largest governorates in Yemen in terms of area. Within this vast region, Hadhramis were active since centuries, because of migratory nature they travelled far lands in Indian ocean mainly in Indonesia, Malaysia, southwestern India and the Deccan, both shores of the Red Sea, and the Gulf of Aden, and the East African Littoral and islands down to Comoros. This immigration has profoundly affected the host countries as well as Hadhramaut itself. The editor of the book Noel Brehony is one of the acclaimed authors and experts of the middle east region, notably Yemen, which offers deep insight and analysis from diverse perspectives. He works extensively on Hadhrami and Yemeni history and diaspora. The book is divided into three parts, Part I, sheds light on Hadhramis in Yemen and its politics since the 1960s, concerning Hadhrami Exceptionalism, Hadhramaut's social structure, agriculture, and migration. In the first Chapter, Saadaldeen Talib and Brehony discuss Hadhramaut in South Arabia in the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen (PDRY) and later in Yemen Arab Republic (YAR). They also shed light on the rise of marginalized groups like Houthis in the north, Al-Hirak in the south, and Al Qaeda in several parts of Yemen. Other important areas highlighted are Yemeni Arab spring of 2011, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) deal and its failure, war and its impact on Hadhramaut, and the future of Hadhramaut. The chapter offers three exciting and possible options viz Hadhramaut in a federal Yemen, in independent south, and an independent Hadhramaut. In Chapter 2, Thanos Petouris discusses the socio-political changes that took place in the region during the middle of the twentieth century. This chapter is an attempt to answer the question

- by Imtiaz Ahmed
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- Diasporas, Diaspora Studies, Diaspora and transnationalism

The book offers a comparative study of resettlement and integration of former Soviet Jewish immigrants in Israel, USA, Canada, and Germany over the last 20 years. Based on both survey data and ethnographic materials collected by the author, this is a rare account of the major immigration saga of the post-communist period and a seminal event in contemporary Jewish history.

Transoceanic passage brought nearly 189,000 immigrants from Japan to Brazil between 1908 and 1941. They were often geographically isolated in Japanese “colonies” as coffee plantation workers and thus able to maintain their Japanese linguistic and cultural identity. A new imagined community coalesced in the several Japanese-language immigrant newspapers that also published locally produced serial fiction. This paper reads two representative works by Sugi Takeo, pen name of Takei Makoto (1909-2011), who was a prolific contributor of original content to the Burajiru Jihô newspaper. In the short stories, “Kafé-en o uru” (Selling the coffee plantation, 1933) and “Tera Roshya” (Terra rossa, 1937), it is the moonshine sellers who see steady profits from every race and type of immigrant laborer while the Japanese newcomers who naively dream of riches by bringing coffee to market reap only a bitter brew of poverty for their efforts.

Many of the studies on Palestinian Diaspora are connected to the Nakbah and to the refugee question. The fact that Christmas Lutheran Church is located in Bethlehem, and thus in the 1967 occupied Palestinian Land, gives us a different angle on the issue of Palestinian Diaspora. What this study shows is that the Migration of Palestinians in general and the Palestinian Christian in particular is connected to recurring empires and powers controlling and occupying Palestine and had mainly political reasons: Drafting of Christians to the military by the young Turks; The Nakbah and the loss of land and livelihood, the de-development of the West Bank under Jordanian rule, and the continued Israeli occupation of the West Bank. While economic factors played an important drive for immigration, they were often a result of the political developments. Devastating is the fact that Palestinian migration is not a onetime thing but an ongoing open wound that is still bleeding with no end in sight. Thus, this study shows that Christmas Lutheran Church provides a microcosm of Palestinian society and a mirror of the Palestinian history in the last 150 years. And last but not least this research shows that the diasporic experience of the Palestinian Christians is part and parcel of the larger Palestinian diasporic experience though there is uniqueness to the Christian experience.

- by Mitri Raheb
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- Diasporas, Israel/Palestine, International Migration, Forced Migration
- by Amarnath Amarasingam
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- Religion, Sociology, Social Movements, Sociology of Religion

In this article I take up the phenomenon of ethnic Czech communities abroad and the concept of the “expatriates” which appeared as part of a complex system of efforts by Czechoslovak foreign policy during the interwar period (1918-1939) to “save” the descendants of emigrant settlers from the Czech lands from assimilation in the host country. I will also introduce another category, that of cross-border nationalism, which I would like to introduce as a useful analytical term. In order to get a handle on this problem, I will analyze this phenomenon through the example of the Czech diaspora in the village of Veliko Središte in Vojvodina. Here still live the last descendants of Protestant migrants who came from Moravia, part of the Czech lands, in the 19th century. The aim of this study is to show that the communication network of the national state (interwar Czechoslovakia) and emigration from the country was based on the evangelizing mission. Besides their already existing religious, territorial and linguistic identification, the communities involved also accepted another aspect of their collective identity – identification with a shared past.

- by Michal Pavlasek
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- Transnationalism, Nationalism, National Identity, Transnational migration

The perception of Romani people in “western” European states has been predominantly linked with forms of migration that emerged from post-communist countries, especially since the two latest EU enlargements. Still, these migrations are not unidirectional and homogeneous at all, but contain multi-layered and diverse forms of movement. In this book we present some outcomes of a recent research project which we carried out in analysing movements from members of Romani communities in southern Slovakia to the Austrian province of Styria. These discussed communities are neither linguistically separated nor in terms of housing strictly segregated from their mostly Hungarian surrounding. Nevertheless, the migrations – initially for the purpose of begging – and especially their effects foster differentiation and even an increase of segregation tendencies. In particular, the projects of NGOs in the region and the depiction of Romani people in Austrian media has shaped the othering of these Hungarian Slovakian citizens of Romani belonging.
In an introductive overview on the character of these migrations, we argue that these movements are transnational, not only because they are circular (instead of once-and-forever), but also because they question the notion of seemingly traditional migratory patterns. One of the effects of the migrations has been the emergence of a relatively strong connection between the regions involved, highly visible in the symbolical relationship between the village of Medovce-Metete and Graz. Not only have development projects by Austrian NGOs and official support from local governments in Austria changed the situation in this village, but the presence of begging Romani people has shaped political debates and self-perceptions in Graz. These effects and relationships can most adequately be described as a transnational network that allows the movement of people, goods, money, knowledge etc.
This book is based on material from our field researches in South-central Slovakia (called the Gemer/Gömör region), and Graz, deriving first and foremost from interviews with migrants, NGO-activists, officials and non-migrating people, which we carried out from September 2010 until February 2011. The second basis for this book are images and texts from coverage in different forms of media, such as newspapers and magazines, but also graffiti in public space, bulk mail, etc., from 1989 to 2011. We set these sources in dialogue with one other and thus map a space across the borders between language and action as well as the borders of nations/regions. In doing so, it becomes visible that there are huge intersections and interdependences between perceptions of these migrations, the circumstances in which they happen and the consequences they have (like development aid).

- by Stefan Benedik and +1
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- Gender Studies, Sex and Gender, Women's Studies, Migration

Whereas it is necessary for every state to have an immigrant policy that serves its economic and political interests, the current strongly anti-immigrant sentiments in Europe appear to be going against the long history of human migration. Diasporas exhibit two seemingly contradictory behaviours: they move away from and, at the same time, seek to remain in touch their homelands. Internet-based media seem especially suited to fulfill the diasporic desire to communicate as their structures are able to support communication within groups that are widely scattered across countries and continents. Integration is necessary for migrants to succeed socially and economically in their respective countries of settlement. However, this is difficult to achieve without simultaneously nurturing their attachment to the new country and recognising the significant resources they bring by virtue of their cosmopolitanism. Governments seem to be faced with the choice of succumbing to the emotionalism of isolationist groups or developing more intelligent policies to address both the cosmopolitanism of migrants and their integration into receiving societies.

- by Karim H Karim
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- European Studies, Media and Cultural Studies, Digital Media, Diasporas

What is the term "Black Europe" and how have scholars employed it? What type of intellectual currency does this particular category hold and what does it yield conceptually and methodologically for both the study of histories of Europe and simultaneously the Black Diaspora? This essay considers some of the ways that thinking with Black Europe as a unit of analysis and as an epistemological approach can transform how we understand the shifting historical contours of Europe and ideas about Blackness.

- by Kira Thurman and +1
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- History, European History, Cultural Studies, Black Studies Or African American Studies

Monuments have afterlives. Monuments have been re-modelled, re-used, re-sited, re-made, cast aside, destroyed or abandoned to accommodate changing political and social climates; they have survive through re-invention and transformation. The diverse ways in which monuments survive, it is argued, depends on definitions and listings of monuments, practices of monument-making past and present and recent debates over history and memory. The concept is proposed to capture afterlives that co-exist as well as those occur sequentially, and to suggest a model of greater complexity and plurality than a linear or quasi-biographical trajectory. Conflicts over monuments especially over their survival, it is suggested, are as much concerned with projections of a future, as with reconstructions of the past or mnemonic recollection. Monuments — ancient, modern and contemporary — have taken centre stage as different and competing South-Asian communities claim a stake in the making of national, religious, cultural and local histories and identities. In their varied afterlives, monuments emerge as extraordinarily mobile, marked by material change, put to new uses and interpretations, and travelling through image-banks, archives, collections and exhibitions. Their afterlives, like monuments themselves, are multi-media.

- by Deborah Cherry
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- Postcolonial Studies, Contemporary Art, South Asian Studies, South Asian History