Migrancy Culture Identity

In Migrancy, Culture, Identity, Iain Chambers unravels how our sense of place and identity is realised as we move through myriad languages, worlds and histories. The author explores the uncharted impact of cultural diversity on today's world, from the 'realistic' eye of the painter to the 'scientific' approach of the cultural anthropologist or the critical distance of the historian; from the computer screen to the Walkman and 'World Music'. Migrancy, Culture and Identity takes us on a journey into the disturbance and dislocation of culture and identity that faces all of us to explore how migration, marginality and homelessness have disrupted the West's faith in linear progress and rational thinking, undermining our knowledge, history and cultural identity.

In Migrancy, Culture, Identity, Iain Chambers unravels how our sense of place and identity is realised as we move through myriad languages, worlds and histories. The author explores the uncharted impact of cultural diversity on today's world, from the 'realistic' eye of the painter to the 'scientific' approach of the cultural anthropologist or the critical distance of the historian; from the computer screen to the Walkman and 'World Music'. Migrancy, Culture and Identity takes us on a journey into the disturbance and dislocation of culture and identity that faces all of us to explore how migration, marginality and homelessness have disrupted the West's faith in linear progress and rational thinking, undermining our knowledge, history and cultural identity.

This book explores the ways in which migrants’ experience in today’s multilingual and multicultural society informs language use and processing, behavioural patterns, and perceptions of self-identity. Drawing on survey data from hundreds of Italian migrants living in English- speaking countries, in conjunction with more focused interviews, this volume unpacks reciprocal influences between linguistic, cultural, and psychological variables to shed light on how migrants emotionally engage with the local and heritage dimensions across public and private spaces. Visualising the impact of a constant shifting of linguistic and cultural practices can enhance our understanding of migration experiences, foreign language acquisition, language processing and socialisation, inclusion, integration, social dynamics, acculturation tendencies, and cross-cultural communication patterns. Overall, this book appeals to students and scholars interested in gaining nuanced insights into the linguistic, cultural, and psychological underpinnings of migration experiences in such disciplines as sociolinguistics, cultural studies, and social psychology.

Work, Culture, and Identity offers a compelling narrative of the day-to-day life of migrant laborers in Mozambique and South Africa.

Through an interdisciplinary analysis of literary, musical, and visual works, this book proposes a cultural and historical reconfiguration of the Mediterranean.

The Alevis are a significant minority in Turkey, and now also in the countries of Western Europe. Over the past century, many of them have migrated from rural enclaves on the Anatolian plateau to the great cities of Istanbul and Ankara, and from there to the countries of the European Union. This book asks who are they? How do they construct their identities – now and in the past; in Turkey and in Europe? A range of scholars, writing from sociological, historical, socio-psychological and political perspectives, present analysis and research that shows the Alevi communities grouping and regrouping, defining and redefining – sometimes as an ethnic minority, sometimes as religious groups, sometimes around a political philosophy - contingently responding to circumstances of the Turkish Republic’s political position and to the immigration policies of Western Europe. Contributors consider Alevi roots and cultural practices in their villages of origin; the changes in identity following the migration to the gecekondu shanty towns surrounding the cities of Turkey; the changes consequent on their second diaspora to Germany, the UK, Sweden and other European countries; and the implications of European citizenship for their identity. This collection offers a new and significant contribution to the study of migration and minorities in the wider European context.

Are minor languages the lifeblood of cherished local identities or just passports with restricted validity, serving no purpose in today’s transnational, global world? Italy’s north-eastern region of Friuli is a case in point: in this area, around half a million people speak Friulian, a Romance language of the Rhaeto-Romance family, which is attested to in written texts since 1150 and acquired official minority language status in 1999. Geographically and politically off-centre, Friuli remained isolated for a long part of its history and developed a unique language that sustained a distinctive identity and culture. Starting from the nineteenth century, large-scale migration towards Northern Europe and the Americas brought Friulian into contact with other languages and contexts of use. The Friulian Language: Identity, Migration, Culture is the first comprehensive study in English of this little-known language to consider its history and the variety of its cultural manifestations from antiquity to the present day. The volume gathers together the work of ten contributors who are specialists in the fields of history (Fulvio Salimbeni), law (William Cisilino), linguistics (Paola Benincà, Franco Finco, Fabiana Fusco and Carla Marcato), literary studies (Rosa Mucignat and Rienzo Pellegrini), and migration (Javier P. Grossutti and Olga Zorzi Pugliese). The focus of the book is on Friulian, its varieties, its linguistic characteristics and its use in literature from fourteenth-century ballads to Pier Paolo Pasolini, and more recent poetry by Novella Cantarutti and others. Equal attention is given to the Friulians themselves, the social and political transformations of the region, and the experience of migration, in particular the case of high-skilled mosaic craftsmen from the Alpine foothills. Thanks to its multidisciplinary approach, the book sheds light on the questions of why Friulian has developed the way it has, what its significance as a minor language is, and how it can negotiate its relationship to other languages on a global scale.

This book presents articles resulting from joint research on the representations of migration conducted in connection with the Erasmus Intensive Programme entitled -Migration and Narration- taught to groups of international students over three consecutive summers from 2010 to 2012. The articles focus on various aspects of the migrant experience and try to answer questions about migrant identity and its representations in literature and the media. The book closes with an original play by Carlos Morton, the Chicano playwright working in the United States."