Migrant literature - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Migrant literature, that is, writing

Writing

Writing is the representation of language in a textual medium through the use of a set of signs or symbols . It is distinguished from illustration, such as cave drawing and painting, and non-symbolic preservation of language via non-textual media, such as magnetic tape audio.Writing most likely...

s by and to a lesser extent about migrants, is a topic which has commanded growing interest within literary studies since the 1980s. Migrants are defined here as people who have left their homes to settle in countries or cultural communities which are initially strange to them.

Settings of migrant literature

Although any experience of migration would qualify an author to be classed under migrant literature, the main focus of recent research has been on the principal channels of mass-migration in the twentieth century. These include: European migration to North America or Australia; migration from former colonies to Europe (Black British literature, British-Asian literature, French Beur literature); literature in the context of guest worker programs (Turks, Italians or Greeks in Germany and Holland); exile literature, such as that of exiled German dissidents during the Nazi period.

Themes in migrant literature

Migrant literature often focuses on the social contexts in the migrants' country of origin which prompt them to leave, on the experience of migration itself, on the mixed reception which they may receive in the country of arrival, on experiences of racism

Racism

Racism is the belief that inherent different traits in human racial groups justify discrimination. In the modern English language, the term "racism" is used predominantly as a pejorative epithet. It is applied especially to the practice or advocacy of racial discrimination of a pernicious nature...

and hostility, and on the sense of rootlessness and the search for identity which can result from displacement and cultural diversity.

Relationship to post-colonial literature

Colonialism often creates a setting which results in the migration of large numbers of people, either within the colonies or from them to the "imperial centre" (Britain, France etc.). Consequently, migrant literature and postcolonial literature show some considerable overlap. However, not all migration takes place in a colonial setting, and not all postcolonial literature deals with migration. A question of current debate is the extent to which postcolonial theory also speaks to migration literature of non-colonial settings. The presence in central Europe of Gastarbeiter

Gastarbeiter

Gastarbeiter is German for "guest worker." It refers to migrant workers who had moved to West Germany mainly in the 1960s and 70s, seeking work as part of a formal guest worker programme...

communities, for example, is not a result of colonialism, yet their literature does have much in common with, say, British-Asian literature.

Categories in migrant literature

A number of categories have been developed for discussing migrant literature. Some of these are the standard categories of post-colonial theory, while others have been worked out precisely to cope with non-colonial settings.

Displacement

Displacement is a key term in post-colonial theory which applies to all migrant situations. It refers both to physical displacement and a sense of being socially or culturally "out of place".

Guest and host communities

Picking up on the term Gastarbeiter and using it affirmatively, Rafik Schami

Rafik Schami

Rafik Schami is a Syrian-German author, storyteller and critic.-Biography:Born in Damascus, Syria in 1946, Schami is the son of a baker from an Syriac-Christian family. His schooling and university studies took place in Damascus. From 1965, Schami wrote stories in Arabic...

has used the terminology of guest and host to express some of the dynamics of migrant situations.

Emigrant versus immigrant perspectives

It is possible to distinguish the "emigrant perspective" of the migrant whose main focus is backwards to the country of origin from the "immigrant perspective" of the migrant who is reconciled with the prospect of permanent residence in the country of arrival.

Primary and secondary migration

In contexts of work migration, it is common for one member of a family, typically the father, to travel in search of work, the rest of the family following later. "Secondary migration" is the emigration of relatives to join the primary migrant.

First and second generation migrants

First generation migrants are those who, as adults, themselves made the move from one country to another. Second generation migrants are the children of migrants, who were either very young at the time of migration or were born in the country of arrival. The perspectives across the generations can differ enormously. Some critics have even used the term "third generation migrants", though it is highly questionable whether this is meaningful: if a third generation is still culturally distinct it is probably more useful to speak of an established ethnic minority.

Between cultures

In literature of second generation migrants, a location "between" two cultures is often mentioned as a way of expressing a sense of belonging in neither the guest nor the host community. Those whose experience has been more positive may reject the notion of "between" and feel that they live, rather, in the cultural overlap, not a void but a place of particular richness.

Hybridity

Hybridity refers in its most basic sense to mixture. The term originates from biology and was subsequently employed in linguistics and in racial theory in the nineteenth century. Its contemporary uses are scattered across numerous academic disciplines and is salient in popular culture...

is another catch-phrase from post-colonial theory which applies also in many non-colonial migrant situations. It refers to the migrant's culturally mixed identity as the opposed forces of assimilation and the search for roots force a middle way.
(In post-colonial theory, the term hybridity is also used in non-migrant situations to refer to the impact of the culture of the colonisers on the culture of the colonised.)

Bilingual theory

Bilingualism

Multilingualism

Multilingualism is the act of using, or promoting the use of, multiple languages, either by an individual speaker or by a community of speakers. Multilingual speakers outnumber monolingual speakers in the world's population. Multilingualism is becoming a social phenomenon governed by the needs of...

is an essential component of hybridity. Results of socio-linguistic research are therefore of importance to work on migrant literature.