This research seeks to address the issue of media consumption and the formation of diaspora identity within second and third generation British-born residents of Pakistani origin. In recent years there has been much debate centred on this group within the context of domestic and wider international geopolitics of winning hearts and minds, the ‘war on terror’ and the rise of the internet and social media as unrestricted spaces of self-expression. This has had a profound impact on the sense of belonging that transcends national boundaries and becomes a more transnational experience creating new communities of interest. The role of the media and other forms of communication may be a key or important determinant in how these groups, represented by the Pukhtoon and Punjabi in this study, not only see themselves but view representation of their identify and sense of self to a wider public arena. The perceived relationship between Islam and the ‘war on terror’ as formed by the media has had a profound impact on perceptions and mindsets of many of the diaspora. New technology has created a new smartphone generation able to reassess and reaffirm their emerging hybridity set within a new discourse of equal rights and respect for cultural and religious values within a transnational context.

Diferentes organizações sociais no interior dos Estados-nação modernos, confrontadas com o aprofundamento e a diversificação dos processos de globalização contemporâneos, buscaram redefinir seus papéis, modos de atuação e percepções sobre a pertença à nação. Esta tese investiga processos de construção identitária ligados a migrações internacionais e, mais especificamente, a relações transnacionais entre organizações nacionalistas e emigrantes. Apresenta-se como objetivo a análise do discurso nacionalista hindu contemporâneo sobre a emigração, elaborado a partir da sociedade de origem, a Índia, concentrando-se no modo como processos nacionais influenciam a construção de identidades transnacionais. Para tanto, examina-se o processo de (re)construção da identidade hindu como uma identidade transnacional, por uma organização nacionalista específica: o Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (Organização Nacional de Voluntários, RSS), atuante na Índia e em sociedades com quantidades significativas de migrantes indianos. Concentrou-se na análise do discurso oficial da Organização Nacional de Voluntários, ou seja, no exame de livros e panfletos publicados pelo grupo nacionalista hindu em questão. A pesquisa documental foi realizada durante o período de trabalho de campo na Índia (entre dezembro de 2010 e maio de 2011), principalmente em arquivos mantidos pela Organização, em Nova Déli. Os documentos nacionalistas hindus selecionados para análise podem ser divididos em duas categorias: narrativas sobre a nação hindu que tratam parcialmente do tema da emigração e discursos sobre a emigração propriamente dita. Em ambas as categorias de textos, verifica-se a ocorrência de: (i) reelaboração de percepções sobre a emigração (de modo mais específico, a construção de imagens positivas da emigração e dos emigrantes); ii) (re)construção de vínculos simbólicos com os emigrantes (ou seja, a reformulação da noção de pertença à comunidade nacional, com vistas à incorporação do emigrante nas narrativas sobre a nação). O exame dos processos de construção identitária empreendidos pela organização nacionalista em questão revela-se crucial para a análise da própria criação de canais institucionais que pretendem efetivar os vínculos simbólicos entre sociedade de emigração e emigrantes, uma vez que a formação de filiais ultramarinas, pela Organização Nacional de Voluntários, foi legitimada e estimulada pelo discurso nacionalista hindu sobre a emigração. Ademais, a análise realizada evidencia que a (re)construção de vínculos transnacionais entre a pátria e seus emigrantes, por organizações não estatais na sociedade de origem, promove a transnacionalização dos próprios ideários nacionalistas formulado por tais organizações. A representação da identidade hindu como uma identidade transnacional, a vincular indianos residentes na Índia ou no exterior a uma unidade sociocultural ampliada, o Grande Hindustão, implica, nesse sentido: i) a afirmação da predominância da noção de pertença à pátria hindu sobre outras identificações possíveis, entre os emigrantes; ii) a tentativa de reterritorialização das relações transnacionais entre as partes, isto é, a caracterização da sociedade indiana como o centro de redes transnacionais construídas ao longo de processos de emigração. / Distinct social organizations within modern nation-states seek to redefine their roles, strategies and perceptions of nationhood as contemporary globalization processes deepen. This thesis examines the construction of cultural identities in contexts significantly affected by international migrations. More precisely, we investigate transnational relations between nationalist organizations and emigrants. Since our objective is analyzing contemporary Hindu nationalist discourse on emigration, which is elaborated within the sending-society, India, we focus on the influence of national processes over the construction of transnational identities. In this connection, we examine the process of (re)construction of Hindu identity as a transnational identity by a particular nationalist organization: Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (National Volunteer Organization, RSS), active in India and in receiving-societies with significant amounts of Indian migrants. We concentrate on the analysis of the official discourse of National Volunteers Organization, that is, on the exam of books and pamphlets published by such Hindu nationalist organization. Documentary research was done in India, from December, 2010 to May, 2011. Hindu nationalist documents selected for analysis can be divided in two categories: narratives on Hindu nation only partially related to emigration matters, and discourses on emigration properly speaking. Both categories highlight: (i) the reinterpretation of perceptions of emigration (more precisely, the construction of positive images of emigrants and emigration); ii) the (re)construction of symbolic linkages with emigrants (i.e. the reformulation of the idea of national belongingness, in order to include the emigrant in national narratives). The investigation of processes of identity construction, undertaken by the RSS, is crucial to the analysis of the very creation of institutional channels that intend to realize the symbolic linkages between sending-society and emigrants, once the foundation of Hindu nationalist overseas branches was legitimated and encouraged by the organizations discourse on emigration. Moreover, the analysis presented in this thesis reveals that the (re)construction of linkages with emigrants, from the homeland, furthers the transnationalization of nationalist ideologies. Thus, the representation of Hindu identity as a transnational identity, linking resident and non-resident Indians to a broad sociocultural entity, the Great Hindusthan, implies: i) the assertion of prevalence of the belongingness to the Hindu nation over alternative identifications constructed by the emigrants; ii) the attempt of reterritorialization of transnational relations between the parts, that is, the intention of depicting Indian society as the core of transnational networks formed during emigration processes.

This thesis analyses how South African former immigrants and refugees in Botswana have established transnational connections between their country of origin and their country of migration since 1957. The thesis develops across two main and overlapping strands: transnationalism and citizenship. Considering transnationalism, it argues that the migrants that have crossed the border from South Africa to Botswana (economic immigrants, refugees and freedom fighters) have established multi-layered transnational connections that stretch from their personal identity to the economic and political fields. These connections are contextualised within the broader labour migration movement in southern Africa and the anti-apartheid struggle. Furthermore, these links have allowed migrants to create a sense of community in solidarity with the struggle against white minority rule and to create spaces to set their survival strategies in order for them to decide, among a range of opportunities, what was most convenient to them. In this way, Botswana’s role as a transit corridor for refugees assumed different social meanings: a route to the northern territories of the continent, a temporary solution, a permanent settlement, a passage to return to South Africa for trained saboteurs. Considering citizenship, the thesis shows that South African migrants have conceptualised citizenship taking into account their transnational links but also Botswana’s processes of nation-building and citizenship construction. Migrants’ understanding of citizenship not always reflects Botswana’s official discourse. Because of this, migrants’ process of integration intertwined with their ways to cope with perceptions of discrimination and exclusion that have emerged in Botswana as a result of the nation-building process that privileges the eight Tswana tribes over minorities and naturalised citizens. This thesis is based on original research which drew on a number of methods including archival research and oral histories. It is also interdisciplinary in focus, drawing mostly on literature from sociology, history and migration studies, but also anthropology, geography and international relations. It thus contributes to debates on transnationalism, on citizenship in Botswana and on the country’s role in the South African liberation struggle.

A presente dissertação constitui um estudo etnomusicológico do musicar de artistas imigrantes haitianos no estado do Rio Grande do Sul. O trabalho etnográfico contemplou a observação-participante de eventos do grupo diaspórico haitiano, apresentações musicais, sessões de gravação, entrevistas e apresentações de programas de rádio feitas por e/ou com diversos artistas haitianos. A pesquisa foi fundamentada em trabalho colaborativo e participativo, no qual exerci uma função de mediação e tornei-me ator social dentro do próprio fenômeno, e incluiu trabalho netnográfico em redes sociais e de comunicação. Através de um olhar voltado à autonomia da migração, o objetivo do trabalho foi analisar na produção e atuação musical de artistas imigrantes haitianos as dimensões e fluxos transnacionais, as questões de cosmopolitismo inerentes à condição diaspórica de haitianos enquanto imigrantes negros no Brasil, a manutenção e reposicionamento de identidades socioculturais assim como tensões ligadas à religião e a processos de construção de alteridade racial. / The present thesis constitutes an ethnomusicological study of the musicking of Haitian immigrant artists in the state of Rio Grande do Sul. The ethnographic work consisted in participant-observation conducted in events of the Haitian diasporic group, musical performances, recording sessions, interviews and radio broadcasting, done with/by various Haitian artists. The research was based in a collaborative and participative work ethos, in which I exercised the role of mediator and social actor within the actual phenomenon studied, and included virtual fieldwork in social and communication networks. By means of an autonomy of migration gaze, the purpose of this work was to analyze, through the music of Haitian immigrant artists: transnational flows and dimensions, issues of cosmopolitanism inherent to the Haitian condition as black migrants in Brazil, the maintenance and repositioning of sociocultural identities, as well as anxieties regarding religion and processes of racial othering.

Depuis la révolution de 2011, la participation politique en Tunisie s’est caractérisée par un certain « néophytisme », impliquant les transnationaux dans ces nouvelles pratiques citoyennes. Dans la présente recherche, nous nous sommes intéressée à la politisation inédite des Tunisiens à l’Etranger, depuis le pays d’accueil. Notre intérêt a porté essentiellement sur la construction du transnationalisme politique tunisien, dans un nouveau contexte de démocratisation du pays d’origine. Notre travail théorique s’est basé sur l’interdisciplinarité, qui nécessite le recours à la pluri méthodologie au niveau de l’investigation empirique. Pour ce faire, nous avons fait un état des lieux de la recherche portant sur l’évolution du transnationalisme tant sur le plan scientifique qu’institutionnel. Au moyen du Questionnaire, nous avons exploré un échantillon de 300 électeurs à distance de trois agglomérations, de la région Rhône-Alpes, différant du point de vue de la taille (nombre d’habitants) et ce au niveau, essentiellement, des motivations au vote à distance. Nous avons eu recours au guide d’entretien semi-directif, pour être en mesure d’appréhender les représentations, attitudes et identifications d’un groupe d’interviewés (militants, candidats et députés de l’Etranger résidant en France), issus de la même population-mère (les transnationaux tunisiens). Cette recherche nous a permis de constater, entre autres, une forme de liminalité caractérisant la situation transitoire des transnationaux tunisiens, au niveau du passage du disempowred à l’empowerment individuel. Dans un contexte de changement politique du pays d’origine,le néophytisme électoral de bon nombre de transnationaux tunisiens dénoterait une politisation encore en gestation. / Ever since the 2011 Tunisian Revolution, participation in the political process amongst the citizens of Tunisia has been characterized by a high degree of neophytism. Included amongst these new participants partaking in these newly available political rights are high levels of internationally based Tunisian transnational’s. Our research is interested in the unprecedented politicization of Tunisians residing abroad away from Tunisia. Our interest focused on the construction of Tunisian political transnationalism, within a new contextual paradigm of the recent democratization of their country of origin. Our theoretical work as based upon the usage of various inter-disciplinary methods, which required the use of multi-methodological approaches for the necessary level of effective empirical investigation. To do this, we created an inventory of research on the evolution of transnationalism available both scientifically and institutionally. Utilizing the Questionnaire, we explored a sample of 300 voters from a distance of three agglomerations in the Rhône-Alpes region, differing in population size based upon the number of inhabitants residing within them. We were primarily interested in their motivations for participating in remote voting. We used the semi-directive interview method to be able to deeply understand the representations, attitudes and identities of a diverse group of interviewees. This included transnational activists, candidates, and deputies from abroad residing in France who originatedfrom the same mother country of Tunisia. This research has allowed us to notably observe, amongst other things, a form of liminality that is characteristic of the transitional situation experienced by Tunisian transnational’s politically. This is specifically seen with regards to their passage from being disempowered politically to being individually empowered. Within the context of rapid political change in their country of origin, the political and electoral neophytism of many Tunisian transnational’s isrepresentative of a politicization process still in the making.

No description available.

This dissertation analyzes how three female artists of Greater Mexico (the Mexican cabaret artist Astrid Hadad, the Mexican-American singer Lila Downs and the Chicana digital artist Alma López) construct and represent national, ethnic, and gender identity in their performances within a border and/or transnational context. I explore how their choice of art form facilitates the construction of their own identities. My theoretical methodology embraces a cultural-studies approach to dramatic, visual and performative texts. All of these play an important role in redefining female Chicana/Mexican- American/Mexicana identity as a site of cultural and political contestation and struggle. The interdisciplinary character of this project corresponds to the nature of performance itself and to the search for female identity formation within Greater Mexico. I use the term Performing Nation to focus on how these artists embody and enact specific regional and national identities through, among others, costume choice, vocal inflection, song choice and imagery. The Mexican cabaret singer Astrid Hadad ironically performs Mexico through cabaret. Her humorous critiques of Mexican gender norms encourage her audience to envision a more egalitarian future for Mexico. The Mexican- American pop singer Lila Downs performs Greater Mexico through folk culture. I discuss how her oscillation between the new and the "authentic" promotes the idea that folklore is malleable and willing to change. The Chicana visual media artist Alma López performs a queer Greater Mexico in cyberspace through digital art. I show how her play on female dualisms found in Mexican and Chicano culture helps open a space for the contemporary Lesbian Chicana. In their work these artists play with iconography from the Post-Mexican Revolution period. Astrid Hadad highlights female figures such as La Soldadera, La Muerte, Coatlicue, La Virgen de Guadalupe and Frida Kahlo that are important to Mexican culture. Downs incorporates imagery through myth and storytelling, both central to her performances. Alma López plays on indigenous and Chicano art in her digital prints. Through the absorption of symbolic, religious and popular iconography these artists construct mobile identities that extend the Mexican cultural sphere across the northern border into the U.S. The porous nature of the border enables these northern identities to circulate back to Mexico. By participating in this cross-border identity building process, Hadad, Downs and López situate themselves as public figures, as women artists, within the Greater Mexico that they are reshaping.

Cette thèse examine la façon dont les migrants soudanais aux Pays-Bas et au Royaume-Uni organisent leur protection sociale, pour eux et leurs familles au Soudan, localement et au-delà des frontières. Dans notre monde globalisé, de plus en plus de personnes vivent au-delà des frontières nationales, développant des attaches et des responsabilités dans plus d’un État-nation. Toutefois, les systèmes de protection sociale formels traditionnels ont été conçus pour répondre aux besoins de populations sédentaires liées à un seul pays. Dans ce contexte, cette thèse examine les stratégies que les migrants développent pour couvrir leurs propres besoins de protection sociale et/ou ceux de leurs familles, englobant une série d'éléments formels et informels provenant de différentes institutions (États, marchés, organisations du tiers secteur ou réseaux sociaux informels). En prenant la famille élargie comme unité analytique principale, cette thèse montre que même si certaines ressources formelles sont disponibles pour des individus migrants, elles peuvent ne pas correspondre aux choix privilégiés pour la protection sociale de leur famille. En prenant en considération le contexte soudanais, cette thèse souligne l’importance des normes socio-culturelles du pays d’origine sur la manière dont le soutien intra-familial, en particulier les soins, doit être fourni. Cette thèse est basée sur les données collectées durant 14 mois d'ethnographie multi-située conduite avec des migrants aux Pays-Bas et au Royaume-Uni, et leurs familles au Soudan. / This dissertation investigates how Sudanese migrants in the Netherlands and the UK, and their families back home navigate their social protection, locally and across borders. In our current globalised world, more and more people choose or are pushed to live across national borders, developing attachments and responsibilities in more than one nation-state. Yet, the traditional formal social protection systems have been envisaged to cater for sedentary populations, tied to one single country. Against this backdrop, this dissertation investigates the strategies that migrants develop to cover for their own and/or their families’ social protection needs, encompassing a series of formal and informal elements from different institutions (e.g. states, markets, third-sector organisations or informal social networks). By taking the extended family as the main analytical unit, this dissertation shows that even though certain formal resources are available for individual migrants, they might not be the preferred option for the family’s social protection. By including the Sudanese context, this dissertation points to the importance of the sending country’s sociocultural rules on how intra-familial support—especially care—should be provided. This dissertation is based on the data collected over 14 months of multi-sited and partly matched-sample ethnography across the Netherlands, the UK and Sudan where the migrants and their families live.

This doctoral dissertation examines the lived experiences of refuge in Denmark from the perspectives of Syrian refugees. Situated within feminist political geography, it moves beyond examining geopolitics merely from the perspective of the law, the state, and policy makers. Instead, it seeks to grasp the ways in which geopolitics are encountered, experienced, and negotiated on the ground – by the people who are most affected by state policies and practices. It draws on more than ten months of ethnographic fieldwork in Denmark with Syrian refugees, including semi-structured interviews, focus groups, and participant observations, as well as interviews with state and non-state actors providing assistance to Syrian refugees in Jordan. This dissertation brings insights from feminist political geography into conversation with those from critical refugee studies, border studies, geographies of law, and postcolonial studies in order to unsettle core ideas and terms of reference surrounding what refuge is and how it is practiced. This dissertation makes three distinct but closely related arguments. First, focusing on family reunification of refugees and how this form of protection became a target in the Danish state’s efforts to prevent refugee immigration, I argue that the geopolitics of refuge needs to be examined in a way that includes but also moves beyond the actual territorial border line as well as the legal border (i.e. the moment a person obtains protection and legal status). Second, through an examination of Syrian refugees’ everyday encounters with the Danish state, I draw attention to the disjunctures between idealized notions of refuge with its ostensible ‘humanitarian’ ethos and the practical articulations of refuge as manifested in the everyday lived experiences of refugees. This is what I term lived refuge. I argue, however, that the dissonances between idealized and actually existing refuge point to the persistent presence of governance within refuge, rather than a lack or an absence of ‘true’ humanitarianism - i.e. a promise of freedom, betterment, and prospect that did not fully materialize. Instead, the state practices, which refugees are subject to within refuge, are enabled and normalized through the asymmetrical relationships between the state and the refugee. Third, calling attention to how Syrian refugees experience, articulate and locate war, I trouble prevailing geographical imaginations of “Europe” and Denmark as spaces of peace, safety, and prosperity. Drawing on Syrians’ experiences of war, I argue that attending to everyday experiences of war in refuge prompts a re-articulation of where war is, what counts as war, and who decides.

This thesis examines Norma Cantú's Canícula and Jhumpa Lahiri's The Namesake from the framework of transnationalism characterized by migration, transculturation, and hybridity. With the application of postcolonial theories, related to identity and space, it identifies the space between different cultural and national borders, as liminal space in which the immigrant characters diverge and intersect, ultimately constituting a form of hybrid and transnational identities. While most immigrant writers still explore the themes of complexities of lifestyles, cultural dislocation, and the conflicts of assimilation, and portray their characters as torn between respecting their family traditions and an Americanized way of life, my reading of these two immigrant writers goes beyond this conventional wisdom about the alienated postcolonial subject. Through a comparative analysis of the major themes in Canícula and The Namesake that center on issues of cultural and national border crossing, this thesis contends that Cantú and Lahiri attempt to construct transnational identities for immigrants, while locating and stabilizing them in the United States. Given the nature of the mobility of people and their cultures across nations, both writers deterritorialize the definite national and cultural identities suggesting that individuals cannot confine themselves within the narrow concept of national and cultural boundaries in this globalized world. A comparison between the transnational identity of the 1950s in Canícula and that of the 1970s through the twenty-first century in The Namesake demonstrates that identities are becoming more transnational and global due to the development of technologies, transportation, and global connections between people. In this regard, this thesis attempts to offer a re-vision of the contemporary United States not as a static and insular territory but a participant in transnational relations.