ABSTRACTThis article explores, on the basis of interviews with migrants from Ukraine and Lebanon, the role that the linguistic pluralism of Ukraine and the religious pluralism of Lebanon could play in the migrants’ discursive challenges to the norms of cultural homogeneity in Italy, as a country of destination. I define such pluralisms as symbolic and rhetorical resources. The ‘Ukrainophone’ and ‘Russophone’ subnational identities were used by some interviewees to affirm a positive self-image in light of a declassing migratory experience, but (...) the same interviewees were reluctant to advance cultural claims in relation to the Italian context. Similarly, Lebanese interviewees preferred to depict their country as ‘Western’ and to use ‘Italian’ discourses to refer to homogeneity norms. I argue that ‘diasporic’ policies, the context of residence and the migratory experience are among the aspects that influence the use of such discursive resources. (shrink)

ABSTRACTThe ‘City of David’ in Silwan is on the original site of Jerusalem. Located in Israeli-occupied East Jerusalem, it is both an illegal Israeli settlement in a Palestinian neighbourhood and a popular international tourist destination. This article examines how the site is narrated by tour operators and tourists through fieldwork, interviews and analysis of tourist comments on the TripAdvisor site. It argues that Israeli settlers have successfully harnessed tourist discourse in order to present their vision of a Jewish Jerusalem in (...) which Palestinian existence is ignored or treated as a threat. The site allows tourists to connect to and experience a mythical biblical past, something which answers to tourist desires to have an authentic encounter with the destination culture. In the site’s narratives, the presence of Palestinians in the area is elided over through spatial and linguistic separation and by denying their legitimate presence. This indicates how the congruence between Zionist and tourist discourses discursively legitimises Israeli colonisation of Silwan. (shrink)

ABSTRACTThis article analyses how Kurdish diaspora engage in de-Turkification, that is correcting, interrupting and shedding the intense Turkification and assimilation which Kurds have been recipients of in Turkey. As ‘everyday critical discourse analysts’ Kurdish mobilized actors identify, challenge and ideologically unpack the Turkishness manifest in their interlocutors’ discourses via three means: inclusion, exclusion and repositioning. The article also identifies that self-definition amongst Kurds in London is shifting as previously self-identified ‘Turkish economic migrants’ over time become ‘Kurdish diaspora’. Rather than examining (...) the often-discussed belonging ties of diasporas, it traces the critical interruptions and corrections Kurdish actors undertake in order to de-Turkify. The focus is on how an identity is being shed, rather than gained. In so doing, the article contributes to an understanding of the process of removal of asymmetric discourses rather than attempting to demonstrate their production or reproduction which have tended to dominate the critical discourse analysis literature. (shrink)

Once an alternative approach to the mainstream, transnationalism has gained increasing currency and salience in migration studies. What is left of its theoretical import, however, after establishing that proper transnational activities, aside from remittances, are relatively infrequent; and that such practices are not incompatible with – and are even facilitated by – successful integration overseas? This article contends that the theoretical toolkit of transnationalism can still be helpful in studying migrant life trajectories, with particular respect to their everyday life sphere. (...) Theoretical progress should be made, however, in three regards: (1) a stronger connection with globalization studies; (2) further elaboration on the reference points of transnational ties; and (3) a deeper reflection on the relevance of identifications and senses of belonging to migrant connectedness with their homeland. Along these lines, an understanding of transnational ties and relationships is outlined, in terms of potential and selective attributes of day-to-day interactions between migrants and their non-migrant counterparts. (shrink)

ABSTRACTThe article examines the construction of transnational migrant agency in the media of the sending country, starting from the contestation and reinterpretation in the Romanian press of a British documentary about Romanian migrants in the UK. It proposes an analytical framework that allows insights into the ways in which the national mainstream media engage in transnational dynamics. The findings show that Romanian journalists construct a European field of power relations where Romania is in a disadvantageous position, followed by a symbolic (...) appropriation of the migrants’ identities, as a means of rearticulating the country’s position in this field. This is coupled with the emergence of a self-reflexive discourse that informs a stance of collective responsibility and provides well-grounded reasons for a debate about ‘us’. The Romanian media produce a politics of belonging, legitimising particular migrant–non-migrant relationships as well as policies, and position themselves and their publics towards the issue of intra-EU migration. (shrink)

ABSTRACTThis article asks how the EU is imagined and deployed in different justifications for national restrictions on the free movement of European citizens. It does this by analysing press coverage in the UK, where concerns about the issues of immigration and European integration contributed to a victory for ‘Brexit’ in the 2016 referendum. It develops a novel technique for analysing the political dimension of media debates offering a conceptual map to navigate the confusing fusion of Euroscepticism and anti-immigrationism. Through reference (...) to political theories on immigration controls, and ideas about European integration from EU studies a series of hypothetical roles and functions for the EU are developed. These are then used as a framework to analyse coverage in the UK national media in two crucial time-periods: 2006 and 2013. The article’s findings challenge conventional wisdom that Euroscepticism and anti-immigrationism are closely correlated and map neatly onto existing left-right political preferences. The results show that the left-right dimension was less salient in 2013 than in 2006, the space within which discussions of the EU take place narrowed, and the economic and political aspects of regional integration were increasingly overshadowed by the image of the EU as supranational entity. (shrink)

The past two decades have witnessed a sea change in migration scholarship. Most scholars now recognize that many contemporary migrants and their predecessors maintain various kinds of ties to their homelands at the same time that they are incorporated into the countries that receive them. Increasingly, social life takes place across borders, even as the political and cultural salience of nation-state boundaries remains strong. Transnational migration studies has emerged as an inherently interdisciplinary field, made up of scholars around the world, (...) seeking to describe and analyze these dynamics and invent new methodological tools with which to do so. In this review, we offer a short history of theoretical developments, outlining the different ways in which scholars have defined and approached transnational migration. We then summarize what is known about migrant transnationalism in different arenas - economics, politics, the social, the cultural, and the religious. Finally, we discuss methodological implications for the study of international migration, present promising new scholarship, and highlight future research directions. (shrink)