Identity and exclusion - Migration and diaspora Flashcards
1
Q
Does it matter what race/gender one is?
A
- determines whether they are accepted into/excluded from society.
e.g., different immigration policies and responses to asylum seekers.
2
Q
History of migration:
A
migration crisis and boat crossings has made migration appear to be fairly recent.
- However the term pre-dates highly globalised society.
e.g., Pilgrims fleeing to N. America away from religious persecution and Irish migrants fleeing potato famine.
- changes in current trends - e.g., more female.
*2005 - UN reported nearly half of all migrants were female.
3
Q
Recent trends of migration:
A
- 2021 Afghanistan - 244,000 displaced rising power of the Taliban.
- 2014 - 1/6 of Syria’s population were refugees.
- applications for asylum doubled from 2014-2016. Main countries included Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan.
- 2016 - 65 million were displaced globally.
- 21.3 million refugees at the end of 2015.
4
Q
Difference between migrant and refugee?
A
- refugees are people fleeing armed conflict or persecution where their situations are often perilous and intolerable.
- dangerous for refugees to return to home country - need to find sanctuary elsewhere.
- migrants choose to move to further/better their employment/find work. Not due to direct threats - voluntary move.
5
Q
Diaspora:
A
- ‘scattered population’
- prominent historical links to international Jewish population.
- Armenia diaspora was oldest and largest globally until 2019.
Indian diaspora - 17.5 million (UN 2019). - refers to the idea of a community existing outside of a homeland country.
- idea has grown significantly since end of WW2 - due to independence of previously colonised countries. Political upheaval led to the expulsion and emigration of many groups.
- desire to return to their homeland - can be both physical or romantic notion.
- growing sense diasporic populations are integral to how a country operates - e.g., Greece and Ukraine.
6
Q
Spatio-temporal processes of migration:
A
- continual reshaping of place as people move between various origins and destinations.
- significant increase in means and quantities of migration over past 200 years.
- core area of geographical interest - fundamental links with development, poverty, human rights, social justices, conflict, national security, etc.
- Massey et al 1993 - migration as a consequence of the expansion of markets within the global political hierarchy.
7
Q
Geographies of P, I & C through migration:
A
- diaspora and migration flows create specific transnational connections (Cloke 2014).
- he argues concept helps us to conceptualise migration flows - due to transnational connections created and gives rise to specific geographies of P, I & C.
- help us to think about particular linkages and intersections between global and local.
- links to geographical work on mobilities and access to rights, citizenship, and emigration.
- before Brexit, UK passport was most valuable due to access to EU and Commonwealth countries.
- increased mobility leads to increased migration.
8
Q
Geographies of P, I & C through migration (Massey):
A
- migration can also be a process which is inherent to globalisation - places are becoming increasingly interconnected through transport links, new trade networks, new political agreements - e.g., the Schengen Agreement.
- Massey - talks about how this facilitates our ability to move and the extent of our mobility.
- however, she also highlights when these processes occur there are places that fall through the gaps.
9
Q
Geographies of P, I & C through migration (Blunt 2007):
A
- migration, diaspora, transnational citizenship are kinds of processes and conservations from an implicit critique of the notion that countries and nations are static entities.
- e,g., how do we measure a country’s border? What are the limits to a border? Does having a significant diaspora in another country complicate the idea of borders and barriers.
10
Q
Geographies of P, I & C through migration (Cloke 2014):
A
- ‘Transnational spaces’
- spaces and places that almost exist beyond neatly definable national boundaries.
11
Q
Socio-material geographies of migration:
A
- food and culture particularly tied together.
- issues of identity shaping migration - ‘the embodied politics of identity and difference that span gender, ‘race’, and ethnicity, class, sexuality, nationality, age and religion’
- Johnstone and Longhurst (2011) - explore the ‘Affective geographies of belonging and/or not belonging’ via practices of cooking, eating food and sharing stories with a group of migrant women.
- Exeter - international food stores on Sidwell street with more diverse populations.
12
Q
Studying migration and refugees:
A
- increased focus on giving voices to migrants - through ethnography, oral history, etc.
- Tolia Kelly (2004) - visual methods to explore experiences of migration - exploitation of imagery.
- mapping and technological methods - e,g., GIS becoming more common - map patterns of migration.
13
Q
Examples of migration stories:
A
- Ka Fue Lay
- Mihir
- I am a refugee: study’s purpose is sharing positive accounts of how migration can improve lives, but also for host countries.
14
Q
Migrant story - Ka Fue Lay:
A
- Originally from China but parents immigrated to Vietnam.
- Vietnamese refer to him as Chinese, the Chinese refer to him as Vietnamese.
- positive story - experienced feelings of warmth in the UK.
- quickly accepted in the UK - experiences were hospitable.
15
Q
Migrant story - Mihir:
A
- faced a lot of racism and physically threatened when moved to the UK.
- 1970s - people found his name hard to pronounce - referred to him as Richard instead.
- exclusion and prejudice - elements of identity were stripped away and he was subject to harassment and fear.
- cut off from old life.
- story highlights difficulties with the idea of transnational identities.
- dual nationality cannot be held in certain countries - to be British, he needed to relinquish his Indian nationality (political barriers).
