The Paradox(es) of Diasporic Identity, Race and Belonging (Politics of Citizenship and Migration)

✍ Scribed by Benjamin Maiangwa (editor)

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2023
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 278
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

This book explores how questions about home and belonging have been framed in the discourses on race, migration, and social relationships. It does this with the aim of envisioning alternative modes of living and reimagining our political communities in ways that question the legacy of colonization and constructed identities which detract from our sense of obligation to each other and the planet. The book questions problematic categories of difference to transform human relations beyond the materialism of our global political economy. Questions addressed in the volume include: In what ways are combative colonial identities of difference manufactured within our national and global spaces of encounter? How can we expel the racialized and tribalized political identities that seek to purify and deny the complexities and sacredness of being human? How do we embrace the notion that everyone we encounter is a mirror reflecting our fears of suffering and our desires for happiness?
The book is set in the context of re-emerging ultra-nationalists and anti-migrant politicians on the national and international stage, advancing various strands of extreme-right and protectionist ideology couched as redemptive-welfarist strategies. The adverse impacts of these strategies seem to be reifying a possessive idea of citizenship and identity, engendering a national fantasy that portrays communities as homogenous entities inhabiting enclosed borders. This is essentially a compendium of conversations across the intersection of the racial, national, ethnic, spiritual, and sexual boundaries in which we live.

✦ Table of Contents

Prologue
Acknowledgements
Praise for The Paradox(es) of Diasporic Identity, Race and Belonging
Contents
Notes on Contributors
Chapter 1: The Paradox(es) of Diasporic Identity, Race, and Belonging
Introduction
The Crisis of Identity: Race, Belonging, and Citizenship
Probing Questions and the Objective of the Volume
Methodology
Contribution of the Volume
Book Structure
References
Part I: Identity, Coloniality and Home
Chapter 2: Can We Forgo Our Attachments to Socially Constructed Identities?
Introduction
Identity and Conflict: A Theoretical Insight
What Is Identity Conflict?
Intersectionality and the Ethos of Vulnerability
Intersectionality
Ethos of Vulnerability
Inner Peace
Changing Perception
Detaching from Our Socialized Identities
Conclusion
References
Chapter 3: On Names, Labels, and Colonial Amnesia
Introduction
What Is in a Name?
The A-word
Inventing “Africa”
What If People of African Descent Named Themselves?
References
Chapter 4: The Unresolved Crisis of Belonging in African Literature: A Reflection
I
II
III
References
Chapter 5: Being and Becoming “African” in the Postcolony
Introduction
Being and Becoming African: The Precontact Stage
The Gender Question
The Ethno-territorial Question
The Confessional Question
The Race Question
The Nervousness of Becoming “African”: The European Stage
The “Postcolonial” Condition
Conclusion
References
Part II: Diaspora, Race, and Immigration
Chapter 6: Notes on the Nervous Condition of Black and African Immigrants in Canada
Introduction
Not Seeing the Forest for the Trees
What Does Experience Show?
Concluding Thoughts
References
Chapter 7: The Geo-cultural Politics of Space and the Poetics of Race
Introduction
Formation of a Migrant Consciousness
Colonialism and the Creation of the Diaspora
The Capitalist Implications of Colonial Boundaries on Migrants
The Colonial Roots of Forced Migration and Power Dynamics
Of Western Sensibilities and the Politics of Denial
Politics of Space and Its Interface with the Poetics of Race
Conclusion
References
Chapter 8: Exiting Whiteness and Patriarchy: Embracing Oneness, Breaking Free of Incarcerating Ideologies, and Enabling Pathways to Belonging
Introduction and Forethoughts
What I Have Learned About Myself
Changing Clothes
A Metaphor
Metabolizing Trauma
The Relationship Between Patriarchy and Whiteness
How Does DuBois’s Metaphor of the Incarcerating “Veil” Apply to All Humanity?
The White Gaze, Double Consciousness, and Tragic Duality
No One Is White, a Historic Paradox
Conclusion: Treason to Whiteness and Patriarchy Is Loyalty to Humanity
References
Part III: Belonging: Cross-cutting Issues
Chapter 9: Migrant Women’s (Non)Belonging in Pandemic Times: An Intersectional Analysis of Home/Land
Introduction
Insights from the Literature
Belonging and Non-belonging Among Migrants
Theorising Belonging
Context and Methodology
Findings and Discussion
Transnational Belonging, Emotions, and Border Closure
Multiplicities of Belonging
Othering and (Non)Belonging
Conclusion
References
Chapter 10: How Social Enterprise Can Facilitate the Inclusion of Highly Skilled Newcomers to Canada
Introduction
Newcomers’ Experiences of Socio-economic Marginalization in Canada
Strong Sense of Belonging Among Newcomers Despite Poor Socio-economic Outcomes
The Social Enterprise Model
Social Enterprises and the Inclusion of Highly Skilled Newcomers
Conclusion
References
Chapter 11: Racialized Skilled Immigrants in the Canadian Labour Market
Introduction
Context
Methodology
Personal Reflections: Storytelling and Autoethnography
Searching for Solutions: Looking Through an Interdisciplinary Lens
Relevance of PACS Approaches in Migration Studies
Unit of Analysis
Relationships and Grassroots Peacebuilding
Negative and Positive Peace, and Structural Conflicts
Basic Human Needs Theory
Multi-track Diplomacy for Conflict Transformation
References
Chapter 12: On Blackness and Related Subjects: Concluding Conversation
Setting the Tone
The Question of Blackness
References
Spider Web and Dew Drops
Index