“Coming home? Conflict and return migration”. Southampton, April 2009
Wednesday, July 30th, 2008Call for papers: Coming home? Conflict and return migration in
twentieth-century Europe.
1-3 April 2009, University of Southampton.
The question of return has long been thought to be central to an exilic discourse and yet relatively little is known about how return migration is actually experienced and subsequently remembered by exiles and also by migrants more widely. In order to mark the 70th anniversary of the ‘official’ end of the Spanish Civil War and the start of the Second World War, events which led to the mass displacement of refugees, this conference seeks contributions for papers on the broad theme of conflict and return migration in twentieth-century Europe. We welcome individual papers or panels in English that focus on any exile, refuge or migrant return episode that has Europe as its point of arrival or departure. We are particularly interested in addressing the experiences, memories and conceptual issues of return in relation to the following questions:
- What were the motivations for returning? How did institutions, political and social networks influence return? How was return organised?
- What strategies did migrants adopt to deal with the impossibility of return?
- How were migrants received, perceived and represented by the authorities and communities upon their return?
- To what extent were attitudes and post-return daily practices (e.g. rituals, cultural practices, language etc.) influenced by the experience of migration? In what ways, if at all, did migrants re-construct questions of home and homeland upon their return?
- How does return relate to the wider migratory process? To what extent does return signify the end of exile, diaspora, and the closure of the migration cycle?
- How has return been remembered at an individual and group level? Does this vary between different categories of migrants?
- How has return been represented in literature, art and film? What are the epistemological and ontological implications of these representations? Does an adequate representation or performance of return exist?
Keynote speakers:
- Alicia Alted Vigil, Professor of History, UNED, Madrid
- Geneviève Dreyfus-Armand, Historian and Director of the BDIC, Paris
- Franziska Meyer, Associate Professor of German Studies, University
- of Nottingham
Organised with The Exilio Network: Research into Refugees and other Migrations, which is supported by the AHRC, and Outcast Europe.
A selection of papers will be considered for publication after the conference. Please send abstracts (250 words) before 01/08/08 to:
- Dr Alicia Pozo Gutiérrez   apg@soton.ac.uk
- Dr Scott Soo ssoo@soton.ac.uk
Conference website:Â Â http://www.soton.ac.uk/ml/research/cominghome.html
Bronwen Walter, Inaugural lecture: 9 Sept, 2008
Tuesday, July 29th, 2008Professor Bronwen Walter, Professor of Irish Diaspora Studies at Anglia Ruskin University, will give her inaugural lecture on 9 September.
The lecture is entitled “Close to home: Irish/English entanglements�. Professor Walter says,
How Irish are the English? The English have had an ambivalent relationship with the Irish for centuries. Constructions of the Irish as the uncivilized and violent ‘other’, which defines the boundaries of Englishness, are well-recognised. But hybridities between the two – mixing, borrowing, overlaps, exchanges, incorporations – are often overlooked or misread. Novels may provide unexpected routes into these private worlds which are often beyond the reach of social research. In this inaugural lecture I explore some ways in which these identities constitute shared ‘diaspora spaces’, both in England and more distantly.
Professor Walter is internationally recognised for her research on Irish migration to Britain and the wider experiences of the Irish diaspora. She may be best known to Ean members for her work on the report, “Irish emigrants and Irish communities abroad: a study of existing sources of information and analysis for the Task Force on Policy Regarding Emigrants�.
The September 9 lecture will take place at 5 pm in Mumford Theatre, Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge.
Musical drama focuses on Scots-Irish journey
Tuesday, July 29th, 2008A musical drama spectacular focusing on the emigration of the Scots-Irish to America will be on stage this autumn. On Eagle’s Wing explores 4 centuries of the Scots-Irish journey from the Scottish Lowlands to the New World. Composed by John Anderson, the show was previously recorded for broadcast in the US. It is also available on DVD.
The show will be at the Grand Opera House in Belfast from 29 September to 4 October; in Dublin at the Helix on 11 and 12 October; and at the Millennium Forum, Derry from 14-18 of October.
Order “On Eagle’s Wing� at Amazon.com.
Morrison praises commitment of Taoiseach to undocumented
Monday, July 21st, 2008Former US congressman Bruce Morrison has praised Taoiseach Brian Cowan’s commitment to and understanding of undocumented immigrants in the US. He went so far as to say, “I’m very heartened by his analysis, which I think is spot on.”
Mr Morrison, a hero to many in the Irish-American community because of his work in securing visas for the undocumented in the 1980s and 1990s, was interviewed by the Sunday Independent during Mr Cowan’s visit to New York.
When queried on the prospects for a positive solution for the undocumented Irish in the US, Mr Morrison was upbeat, and noted that the ultimate solution may include a requirement to have the immigrants leave the US and reapply for visas to return.
“There will be a solution. The question is how soon and in what ways. One of the focal points of the work, which certainly the Taoiseach understands, and is committed to, is leaving and coming back, a model which worked before with Morrison visas and Donnelly visas. When one leaves, one is no longer an illegal. So opportunities for the waiver of past violations in the context of new visa opportunities is certainly something that would continue to be part of the advocacy”.
He also noted that the solution for the Irish may lie in either comprehensive immigration reform that would assist immigrants of all nations, or as part of a specific solution for the Irish.
Mr Morrison also said that Mr Cowan favours a ‘three-legged stool’ approach, which would result in
- opportunities for Americans to come to Ireland to work
- enhanced opportunities for Irish citizens to work in the US legally and
- a resolution to the undocumented Irish in America.
Mr Morrison praised Mr Cowan’s knowledge of the situation at a meeting with Irish immigrant activists:
“Well, he was in a room full of people who don’t have a habit of staying silent, but he made a presentation up front which really made people feel he didn’t need a lot of education. He just needed to be affirmed in what he was saying.”
Similarly, the Irish Lobby for Immigration Reform has also praised the Taoiseach following a meeting with him in New York. “What we like about the Taoiseach is he understands the Irish community,” said Ciaran Staunton, vice-chair of the group.
Read the articles on the Irish Independent’s website:
- Cowan “more genuine” on commitment to illegal Irish.
- Cowan wants illegal Irish to leave the US.
- Cowan in visa bid to resolve immigrant plight.
“Evidence of Irish diaspora everywhere” in Montserrat, says journalist
Monday, July 21st, 2008There’s a brief but interesting description of Montserrat, sometimes known as “the Emerald Isle of the Carribbean� in an extract of “More Thrills than Skills: A Half-life in Journalism�, the memoirs of Scottish war correspondent Paul Harris.
The extract is appearing on allmediascotland.com.
In 1632, the English governor, Sir Thomas Warner, ordered the tiresome dissident Irish living on nearby St Kitts to colonise Montserrat for England and the island soon became renowned as a refuge for persecuted Irish Catholics from other English colonies.
The evidence of this Irish diaspora is everywhere. Irish shamrocks adorn Government House and the cannons on the foreshore of the now abandoned capital of Plymouth. The flag and crest bear a lady – Erin – with a cross and a harp.
St Patrick’s Day is celebrated with an open air fete.
The names of the estates, villages and heights are pure Irish: St Patrick’s, Fergus Mountain, Kinsale, Galway’s, Cork Hill, Sweeney’s, O’Garro’s and Galloway.
Montserrat enjoys an extraordinary and unique Afro-Irish culture; a curiously integrated mixture of the cultures of the Caribbean slave and the Irish settler. It is intriguing to hear a black Monserratian ending a sentence, “at all, at all�.
See the entire extract at www.allmediascotland.com.
Irish-American family’s return to Ireland focus of RTE kids’ show
Tuesday, July 15th, 2008RTE has commissioned a new interactive children’s series that will focus on the life of an Irish-American teenager who moves to Ireland with her family. “Aisling’s Diary” will be aired on weekdays on RTE 2, and will also be available online.
According to a report on the IFTN website, Aisling is an Irish-dancing obsessed teen who must adjust to her new school and culture. She begins a romance with “the hip hop bad boy next door”.
The show is being created by the creater of Sofia’s Diary, a popular online programme, which was the first internet-based show to make the transition to UK television; it is being proudced by Campbell Ryan Productions. Aisling’s Diary will be accompanied by a Bebo page.
“We are really excited about this series as it examines what it means to be Irish in contemporary Ireland,” ‘Aisling’s Diary’ producer TrÃona Campbell told IFTN. “The series will feature modern dance, hip hop and Irish dance, and we will also be launching a search online for new Irish bands to play on the soundtrack to the series”.
See the full article on the IFTN website.
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