Abstract
According to Deleuze and Guattari (1987) ‘de-territorialization’ is followed by a moment of re-territorialization. This moment, however, has to be regarded as a continuing educational process that becomes a different spatial site of social practices. It is argued in this chapter that regional, local as well as global identification override national and mono-ethno cultural identities, while shaping particular notions of gendered belonging and creating specific diasporic practices. Based on a sample of interviews with professional and academic South Asian British citizens in London, in Leicester, and in a number of Northern English cities gendered and generational patterns in terms of local diasporic identities are explored. Apart from multiple cultural belonging, foremost, territorial bonds and notions of group loyalty collapse at a point where temporary migration and settlement alternate in individual biographies.
K., male, aged 40, living in Leicester; the chapter was accepted in 2011. By now, K. is older.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
Ways of being refers to the actual social relations and practices that individuals engage in rather than to the identities associated with their actions’. (2007, p. 163).
- 2.
Ways of belonging refers to practices that signal or enact an identity which demonstrates conscious connection to a particular group.’ (2007, p. 164).
- 3.
- 4.
(Brah 1996, p. 190).
- 5.
Levitt and Glick-Schiller (2007, p. 157) characterize transnational activity as ‘Simultaneity, or living lives that incorporate daily activities, routines, and institutions located both in a destination country and transnationally is a possibility.’
- 6.
Confronted with concepts unsupportive of a critical understanding of the unfair treatment of black women and, thus, inadequate to grasp different social complexities, black feminist and academic Crenshaw (1989, 1991) initiated a theoretical debate on the intersections of different layers of social identities and group belonging in the United States.
- 7.
- 8.
Mishra and Mohapatra (2001) draw similar conclusions concerning a more urban and white-collar profession for those with an ‘Indian profile’ (2001, p. 1); rather blue-collar for Pakistani and Bangladeshi social profiles (ibid).
- 9.
Bagguley and Hussain (2007, p. 45) criticize the lack of stable resources here. One of my interview partners works in this filed of ‘widening participation’ and conformed staggering success despite unreliable funding for her job.
- 10.
I will come back to some issues related to the scope and scale of the study later on.
- 11.
- 12.
The population of Bradford is counted as around 293.000; including 26,1 % South Asian, predominantly with Pakistani heritage.
- 13.
Oldham is part of Greater Manchester with an estimate of 104.000 inhabitants; roughly 29, 4 % South Asian
- 14.
12, 01 % of Londoners are categorised as South Asian; though a larger percentage of Indian heritage.
- 15.
I interviewed eight women and seven men.
- 16.
In Bradford, National Front allies gathered in a pub provoking protest and resistance among Asian South youth.
- 17.
- 18.
Honeyford was a Bradford primary school head teacher, who disrespected ethnic-religious diverse pupils at his school and was dismissed as response to public local protest.
- 19.
Some orthodox Muslim men burnt the book ‘Satanic verses’ in Bradford and this action was widely broadcasted adding to the negative of the Bradford Pakistani Muslim communities.
- 20.
Pragna Patel was just named as one of the 100 most inspirational women by the British newspaper, Guardian, 08.03.2011.
- 21.
- 22.
References
Agnew, V. (2005). Introduction. In V. Agnew & V. Agnew (Eds.), Diaspora, memory and identity – a search for home (pp. 3–17). Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Alam, M. Y., & Husband, C. (2006). British pakistani men from Bradford: Linking narratives to policy. New York: Joseph Rowntree Foundation.
Ali, Y. (1992). Muslim women and the politics of ethnicity and culture in Northern England. In G. Sahgal & N. Yuval-Davis (Eds.), Refusing holy orders – women and fundamentalism in britain (pp. 106–130). London: WLUML.
Anderson, B. (1983/1991). Imagined communities: Reflections on the origin and spread of nationalism. London: Verso.
Anitha, S., Pearson, R., & McDowell, L. (2012). Striking Lives: multiple narratives of South Asian women’s employment, identity and protest in the UK. Ethnicities, 12(6), 654–775.
Anthias, F. (2006). Belongings in a globalising and unequal world: Rethinking translocations. In N. Yuval-Davis, K. Kannabiran, & U. M. Vieten (Eds.), The situated politics of belonging (pp. 17–31). London: Sage.
Appadurai, A. (1996). Modernity at large: Cultural dimensions of globalization. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Arnot, M. (1997). “Gendered Citizenry”: New feminist perspectives on education and citizenship. British Educational Research Journal, 23(3), 275–295.
Aygeman, J. (1989). Black people, white landscape. Town and Country Planning, 58(12), 336–338.
Bagguley, P., & Hussain, Y. (2007). The role of higher education in providing opportunities for South Asian women, study on behalf of the Joseph Rowntree foundation. Bristol: Policy Press.
Bauman, Z. (1999). In search of politics. Oxford: Blackwell.
Bhopal, K. (1998). How gender and ethnicity intersect: The significance of education, employment and marital status. Sociological Research Online, 3(3), 1–14. Available at: www.socresonline.org.uk [accessed: 05.06.2011].
Brah, A. (1993). Race and culture in the gendering of labour markets: South Asian young Muslim women and the labour market. New Community, 19(3), 441–458.
Brah, A. (1996). Cartographies of diaspora – contesting identities. London/New York: Routledge.
Brah, A. (2006). The “Asian” in Britain. In N. Ali, V. S. Kalra, & S. Sayyid (Eds.), A postcolonial people – South Asians in Britain (pp. 36–61). London: Hurst & Co.
Brown, J. M. (2006). Global South Asians – introducing the modern diaspora. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Cantle Report. (2001). Community cohesion: A report of the independent review team, chaired by Ted Cantle. London: The Home Office.
Clifford, J. (1997). Routes: Travel and translation in the late twentieth century. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Cohen, R. (1997). Global diasporas: An introduction. London: UCL Press.
Crenshaw, K. (1989). Demarginalizing the intersection of race and sex: A black feminist critique of antidiscrimination doctrine, feminist theory and antiracist politics. University of Chicago Legal Forum, 1989, 139–167.
Deleuze, G., & Guattari, F. (1987). A thousand plateaus: Capitalism and schizophrenia (trans: Massumi, B.). Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Farrar, M. (2005). Leeds foot soldiers and London bombs. (http://www.opendemocracy.net/conflict-terrorism/leeds_2696.jsp)
Ghorashi, H., & Vieten, U. M. (2013). Female narratives of ‘new’ citizen’s belonging(s) and identities in Europe: Case studies from the Netherlands and Britain. Identities: Global Studies in Culture and Power, 1(1), 1–17.
Gilroy, P. (1993). The Black Atlantic: Modernity and double consciousness. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Goodman, M. (2006). Diaspora, ethnicity and problems of identity. In H. Moghissi (Ed.), Muslim Diaspora – gender, culture and identity (pp. 54–67). London/New York: Routledge.
Gorman, D. (2006). Imperial citizenship – empire and the question of belonging. Manchester/New York: Manchester University Press.
Grasmuck, S., & Pessar, P. (1991). Between two Islands: Dominican international migration. Berkeley: University of California.
Herbert, J. (2008). Negotiating boundaries in the city – migration, ethnicity, and gender in Britain. Farnham: Ashgate.
Kannabiran, K. (2006). A cartography of resistance: The national federation of dalit women. In N. Yuval-Davis, K. Kannabiran, & U. M. Vieten (Eds.), The situated politics of belonging (pp. 54–71). London: Sage.
Kim, N.-K. (2010). Deliberate multiculturalism in new labour’s Britain. Citizenship Studies, 15(1), 125–144.
Koshy, S. (2008). Introduction. In S. Koshy & R. Radhakrishnan (Eds.), Transnational South Asians – the making of a neo-diaspora (pp. 1–41). Oxford/New York: Oxford University Press.
Lister, R., Williams, F., et al. (2007). Gendering citizenship in Western Europe: New challenges for citizenship. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Levitt, P., & Glick Schiller, N. (2004). Conceptualizing simultaneity: A transnational social field perspective on society. International Migration Review, 38(145), 595–629.
Levitt, P., & Glick Schiller, N. (2007). Conceptualizing simultaneity: A transnational social field perspective on society. In A. K. Sahoo & B. Maharaj (Eds.), Sociology of Diaspora – a reader (Vol. 1, pp. 156–193). Jaipur: Rawat Publications.
Minow, M. (1996) Comments on ‘suffering, justice and the politics of becoming’. In William E. Connolly, presented as the Roger Allan Moore Lecture, 11 May 1995. Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry 20, 279–286.
Mishra, P., & Mohapatra, U. (2001). South Asian Diaspora in U.K.: A bibliographical study. Delhi: Kalinga Publications.
Modood, T. (2007/2008). South Asian assertiveness in Britain. In S. Koshy & R. Radhakrishnan (Eds.), Transnational South Asians – the making of a neo-diaspora (pp. 124–145). Oxford/New York: Oxford University Press.
Nava, M. (2005). Visceral cosmopolitanism: The specificity of race and miscegenation in UK’. In A. Kumar and M. Ryan (Eds.), Politics and culture (http://www.aspen.conncoll.edu/politicssandculture/page.cfm?key=255)
Nava, M. (2006). Domestic cosmopolitanism and structures of feeling: The specificity of London. In N. Yuval-Davis, K. Kannabiran, & U. M. Vieten (Eds.), The situated politics of belonging (pp. 42–53). London: Sage.
Nava, M. (2007). Visceral cosmopolitanism – gender, culture and the normalisation of difference. London: Berg Publishers.
Ouseley Report. (2001). Community pride not prejudice – making diversity work in Bradford, chaired by Herman Ouseley. Bradford: Bradford Vision.
Ritchie Report. (2001). One Oldham, one future. Oldham: Independent review.
Safran, E. (1991). Diasporas in modern societies: Myths of homeland and return. Diaspora, 1(1), 83–99.
Sayyid, S. (2006). Introduction: Br Asians – postcolonial people, Ironic citizens. In N. Ali, V. S. Kalra, & S. Sayyid (Eds.), A postcolonial people – South Asians in Britain (pp. 1–10). London: Hurst & Co.
Shuval, J. T. (2007). Diaspora migration; definitional ambiguities and a theoretical paradigm. In A. K. Sahoo & B. Maharaj (Eds.), Sociology of Diaspora – a reader (Vol. 1, pp. 28–42). Jaipur: Rawat Publications.
Stillwell, J., & Hussain, S. (2010). Exploring the ethnic dimension of international migration in Great Britain using migration effectiveness and spatial connectivity. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 36(9), 1381–1403.
Touraine, A. (1997). What is democracy? Boulder: Westview (translated by D. Macey).
Triadafilopoulos, T. (2011). Illiberal means to liberal ends? Understanding recent immigrant integration policies in Europe. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 37(6), 861–880.
Tsagarousianou. (2007). Reevaluating ‘Diaspora’: Connectivity, communication and imagination in a globalised world. In A. K. Sahoo & B. Maharaj (Eds.), Sociology of Diaspora – a reader (1st ed., pp. 101–117). Jaipur: Rawat Publications.
Tsolidis, G. (2001). Schooling, Diaspora and Gender – being feminist and being different. Buckingham: Open University Press.
Verloo, M. (2006). Multiple inequalities, intersectionality and the European Union. European Journal of Women’s Studies, 13(3), 211–229.
Vieten, U. M. (2006). “Out in the blue of Europe”: Modernist cosmopolitan identity and the deterritorialization of belonging. Patterns of Prejudice, 40(3), 259–279.
Vieten, U. M. (2009). Intersectionality scope and multidimensional equality within the European Union: Traversing national boundaries of inequality? In D. Schiek & V. Chege (Eds.), European Union Non-discrimination Law – Comparative Perspectives on Multidimensional Equality Law (pp. 91–113). New York: Routledge-Cavendish.
Vieten, U. M. (2011). Tackling the conceptual order of multiple discrimination: Situating different and difficult genealogies of race and ethnicity. In D. Schiek & A. Lawson (Eds.), European Union non-discrimination law and intersectionality – investigating the triangle of racial, gender and disability discrimination (pp. 63–76). Farnham: Ashgate.
Vieten, U. M. (2012). Gender and cosmopolitanism in Europe: A feminist perspective. Farnham: Ashgate.
Wemyss, G. (2006). The power to tolerate: Contests over Britishness and belonging. In K. Kannabiran, U. M. Vieten, & N. Yuval-Davis (Eds.), Boundaries, identities and borders: Exploring the cultural production of belonging. Patterns of Prejudice, 40(3), 215–236.
Wemyss, G. (2009). The invisible empire – white discourse, tolerance and belonging. Farnham: Ashgate.
Yuval-Davis, N. (1997). Gender & nation. London: Sage.
Yuval-Davis, N. (2004). Borders, boundaries and the politics of belonging. In S. May, T. Modood, & J. Squires (Eds.), Ethnicity, nationalism and minority rights (pp. 214–230). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Yuval-Davis, N. (2006). Intersectionality and feminist politics. European Journal of Women’s Studies, 13(3), 193–209.
Yuval-Davis, N., Kannabiran, K., & Vieten, U. M. (2006). Introduction – Situating contemporary politics of belonging. In N. Yuval-Davis, K. Kannabiran, & U. M. Vieten (Eds.), The situated politics of belonging (pp. 1–14). London: Sage.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank the editor and the helpful comments of the anonymous referee. The research was funded by the VSB, a Dutch grant, and carried out as a research project of the interdisciplinary research group ‘Inclusive Thinking’ in 2009–2011. I would like to thank particularly Halleh Ghorashi (VU Amsterdam) and James Kennedy (University of Amsterdam) for their generous support.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2014 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht.
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Vieten, U.M. (2014). ‘When I Land in Islamabad I Feel Home and When I Land in Heathrow I Feel Home’. In: Tsolidis, G. (eds) Migration, Diaspora and Identity. International Perspectives on Migration, vol 6. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-7211-3_4
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-7211-3_4
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-007-7210-6
Online ISBN: 978-94-007-7211-3
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and LawSocial Sciences (R0)