In the era of globalisation, studies of migration focus on mobility, deterritorialised identities and diasporic forms of belonging across nation state boundaries. Indeed, uprootedness from the soil of home and place has resulted in a general condition of �homelessness� in late modernity, referred to as the diasporic condition. The search for an �absolute home� has become the Holy Grail for pilgrims in late modernity and forms the basis for this study, which explores the �migrant�s conundrum�: does home move where the migrant moves, or is it forever tied to the primordialism of place, soil and kinship? Through an examination of the construction of homeliness amongst an immigrant community of 500 households from the village of Hadchit, North Lebanon, who reside in Western Sydney, Australia it will be shown how their strategies of home-building depend upon the capacity to imagine themselves as being united by kinship, a shared village of origins and as part of the broader communal Maronite identity (Mwarne), which now transcends nation state boundaries. Patrilineage (bayt), village (day�aa) and sect (ta�eefa) have historically defined Lebanese sectarian identities and now, as this study shows, are deployed as a strategy of home-building and community construction in diaspora. However, capitalist social relations of production in Sydney have transformed bayt, day�aa and ta�eefa amongst the second generation through the gendered renegotiation of the marriage contract from relations of descent to relations of consent. Thus, the Hadchitis now face a crisis of (re)production and attribute this to the Australian state being hukum niswen, ruled by women, an inversion of the gendered order of power in Lebanon. Through pilgrimages to the ancestral village �migr�s seek a spiritual resolution to the contradictions of migration through the restoration of their connection to place, but find they cannot seamlessly belong in Hadchit. Meanwhile, multicultural crisis and a milieu of anti-Lebanese racism limit their claims to national belonging in Australia. This study finds that the contradictions of the migration process are unresolvable through physical mobility, because the feeling of �home� is ultimately an affective and social construction that transcends place. The elusive quality that defines home and provides a sense of unconditional belonging is, in fact, socially constructed by women, through their daily practices of care within the home and the most important woman for the construction of homeliness is the matriarch, sit el bayt � the power of the house. Thus, the place where the immigrant can be at home is metaphorically at their �mother�s table�. The shifting and gendered construction of home amongst the Hadchitis in Sydney has also led to a transformation of cultural identity amongst them. Through the process of migration, (re)production and return the Hadchitis have become Lebanese-Australians.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/289560 |
| Date | January 2009 |
| Creators | Hyndman-Rizik, Nelia Nacima, nelia.hyndman-rizik@anu.edu.au |
| Publisher | The Australian National University. ANU College of Arts and Social Sciences |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | http://www.anu.edu.au/legal/copyrit.html), Copyright Nelia Nacima Hyndman-Rizik |
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