Paper short abstract:

I shall consider imaginaries of Europe among Tuareg in Northern Niger focusing on narratives of those who traveled to Europe. Next to possibilities to travel and other social factors they influence decisions about travelling to Europe.

Paper long abstract:

In my ethnographic research with Tuareg on three different locations in Northern Niger I was interested how images of Europe and Europeans are produced, transmitted, changing and classified. Despite presence of TV and/or school which radiate images of 'the West' and European countries the main form of transmission is oral. Narratives are based on experience or on other person's narratives. One of the sources are also experiences of those Tuareg who already visited Europe, lived there for a limited period of time or on narratives of Europeans visiting or living for a while in Niger. The imaginaries of Europe are ambiguous: while on the one hand infrastructural, health, schooling and technological facilities are appreciated on the other hand thorough critique is expressed about lack of spontaneous social life and about personal over organisation of time, both perceived as lack of freedom. Next to this, reasoning about high financial means needed for life in Europe and a wish to be close to one's relatives is influencing the pragmatic decisions to stay based at home in Niger and only if and when possibility arises visit Europe. Possibility is often associated by having a friend (usually European) who can be a guarantee for legal migration and a host. Even in younger generation and despite lack of opportunities to earn in Libya after fall of Khadafi, it seems that pragmatic decisions and looking for (limited) opportunities closer to home mostly prevail above risks of undocumented travel across Mediterranean.

Paper short abstract:

Mass media mediated imagination works as transformative power of social and cultural reality. This paper analises how actors' migration-related knowledge practices and social imaginations collaboratively negotiate, shape and challenge the dominant European border regime in Euro-African borderlands.

Paper long abstract:

In today's globalised world the workings of imagination are a central source for the formation of social and cultural practices (Appadurai). They fuel migrant mobility. Mediated by mass media and new technologies providing an immense reservoir of new discourses and images about other possible lives, "social imagination" operates as socially-speculative knowledge and transformative force affecting people's daily lives .

To this effect, the Euro-African space between Moroccan Rabat and Spanish Murcia constitutes not only a contested postcolonial, lethal borderland and zone of changed and renewed migrant movements shaped by a shared history of "entangled modernities" (Conrad/Randeria), but involves furthermore a landscape of (virtual) communications, imaginaries and knowledge-practices.

Adopting a post-/decolonial perspective in critical migration studies this paper is concerned with the current regime of border, relations of power and knowledge established by the hegemonic EU policy of migration management; a constellation that is constantly challenged, altered and co-created by migrant movements. Pointing to selected social contexts in "cosmopolitised" (Beck/ Sznaider) Rabat and Murcia I firstly map the assemblage of local actors participating in transversal knowledge production - migrants' associations and civil society, NGOs, intergovernmental organisations and EU-agencies. It comprehends the negotiation of dominant and minorised discourses just as knowledge-practices and co- or counter-imaginations about migration projects to Europe. Secondly, I analyse how these social imaginations are practised (Römhild) and inform improvised arrangements and solidary alliances between putative settled nationals and migrants in social and political struggles, like the first Moroccan migrants trade union section ODT-I or the Spanish anti-eviction platform PAH.

Paper short abstract:

Drawing upon my research between North Africa and Europe, this contribution aims to analyse the 'desire of elsewhere' and the underpinning global imaginaries which inform the motivation to move (often 'at any cost') of people of different origins.

Paper long abstract:

If migration has been a normal aspect of social life throughout history, every epoch may have configured some peculiar patterns of human mobility, based upon time-related forms and reasons. Observed from the so-called "sending countries", contemporary reasons seem to take up some specific features, which are representative of a sort of "global form of life" with hegemonic traits. Whereas people have normally explained their desire to move as a search for a better life, criteria against which 'better life' is defined today are influenced by standards whose origin is situated in a wider field of models and values. If material achievement through consumption is conceived as the primary source of visible success - a sort of "material citizenship" that enables to think to oneself (and to be deemed) as different - transnational circulation is regarded as the primary way to "become first class" (Ferguson) in a world in which movement represents one of the clearest forms of social power.

Drawing on my fifteen-year research in anthropology and psychology between North Africa and Europe, this contribution analyses the impact of hegemonic global values on the "desire of migration" and on the imaginary construction of the elsewhere.

Paper short abstract:

This paper explores the relationship between Amsterdam’s imageries, the lifestyle aspirations and emplacement realities of Portuguese migrants related to the arts and the creative industries in the city.

Paper long abstract:

The bohemian character of urban life has long constituted a factor of fascination and attraction of people to cities. In the last decades the processes of urban restructuring occurring in certain capitals of the global north and the intensification of mobility have boosted such dynamics, as urban economies and development strategies become more attached to the promotion of culture, creativity and entertainment. Artists and people related to those industries constitute an important part of the population potentially drawn to such hubs, in search of places with alternative lifestyles and favorable to the development of their projects. But while the urban branding rhetoric's produced in municipality's offices welcome the arrival of international creativity, celebrating their diverse and cosmopolitan added value, it becomes important to access what the actual realities of these people are. What are the correspondences and/or mismatches between them and the initial migration expectations? Is the branded urban character fitting to everyone or is it selective and exclusionary? What strategies are undertaken by such migrants to fulfill their aspirations and how are these related to the particular artistic/cultural/creative fields and their economic structure in the city?

By answering these questions this paper will explore and problematize the relationship between urban imageries vs. the lifestyle aspirations and emplacement realities of such migrants. It will do so by looking at the expectations and experiences of migration of Portuguese in the arts and creative/ cultural industries in the city of Amsterdam, while relating them to the cities' branding images.

Paper short abstract:

The paper contributes to the discussion on imaginaries of migration by analysing deliberate production of imagery in Swiss cities to appeal to skilled migrants. It investigates the strategies of public and private stakeholders contributing to branding the studied cities as attractive destinations.

Paper long abstract:

This paper contributes to the discussion on imaginaries of migration by observing how major cities in Switzerland deliberately produce imagery to appeal to migrants that they perceive as valuable. It compares and analyses the strategies developed by private and public stakeholders in different locations in Switzerland to attract skilled migrants. Our research focuses on Swiss cities relevant for skilled migration and investigates the dynamics that contribute to branding these places as attractive destinations. We examine not only the work done by public administration in order to make their administrative district more attractive, but also the practices of private recruiters and companies interested in hiring and keeping new talents. Moreover, special attention is paid to the collaborations between private and public sectors in relation with place branding and to the changes resulting from such interactions. The questions guiding our analysis are: Who are the main actors implicated in the process of city/place branding? What kind of image do they want to promote? How do they envision the targeted population? What interests are at stake? Our methodology is qualitative and draws upon semi-directed interviews with public officials and company recruiters, participant observation of their practices and analysis of communication channels targeted at wanted migrants.

Paper short abstract:

This paper investigates San Francisco/Silicon Valley as an actual and imagined place for tech-entrepreneurs, living and working in Europe and in the US. Including perspectives from residents and prospective residents, envisioned migration, as well as actual everyday life is explored.

Paper long abstract:

This paper takes its starting point from a research project studying Swedish tech-entrepreneurs, living and working in Europe and in the US. Sweden has in recent years been playing a relevant role in the internet/tech-field with successful companies such as for example Skype and Spotify. The paper sets out to investigate San Francisco, as both an actual and an imagined place. Migrating to San Francisco (and/or Silicon Valley) is for the internet/tech-community primarily associated with opportunities for success - and it is for many entrepreneurs in the field regarded as the ultimate location to live and work. How is San Francisco constructed as a mythical, imagined place that holds relevance for the tech scene? And how is this image mediated in different channels such as for example social and traditional media? The social ideal of making a difference in a global context can be regarded as an important value for the Internet/tech community but the utopian image of San Francisco as the most important global tech hub is at the same time challenged by the city's social problems such as poverty and segregation. How do the skilled migrants of the transnational network that is the tech community experience this conflict? Including perspectives from both residents and prospective residents of San Francisco/Silicon Valley, this paper explores envisioned migration, as well as actual everyday life and concrete experiences.

Paper short abstract:

Citizenship ceremonies intend to create sense of belonging and confirm images of migrants as loyal citizens. Heterotopias are real places in which utopias are played out (Foucault 1967). The paper investigates citizenship ceremonies as heterotopias and matters of diverse imaginaries and ‘doing’.

Paper long abstract:

Citizenship ceremonies are forms of ritual practices emerging in several European nation states. Intended to create a sense of belonging, they implicitly problematize migrant loyalties and hybrid identities. The rhetoric at the ceremonies in different countries is strikingly alike; they confirm the image of successful integration and the migrant as a welcomed contribution to the new community. This paper will examine these imaginaries and the embedded expectations to the emotional effects of the discourses and materializations of citizenship, as these are not simply the results of the organizers intensions. They are also a result of the images, expectances and agency of the new citizens.

For some participants the country may appear in a more inclusive version in the ceremonies. In this sense, the ceremonies correspond to Foucault's concept of heterotopias: Whereas utopias are unreal locations, heterotopias are real places in which utopias are played out with great effect. These heterotopias are matters of distributed agency, enactment and 'doing'. Thus it will be argued that the images of migrants as citizens that are performed at the ceremonies involve materiality, performativity, history, structural constraint, and the co-dependence of the performers in the desired transformation of the self from immigrant to citizen. Based on ethnographies from citizenship ceremonies in UK, Australia and Scandinavia this paper will explore how images of migration and utopias of inclusion are performed and materialised in heterotopias in all their ambiguity and heterogeneity.

Paper short abstract:

In the paper I will discuss the figure of the balikbayan who embodies the imaginaries of migration in the Philippines, and the positive branding of migration by the state. I will also analyze the expectations connected with ”going abroad” - that opportunity awaits just beyond the border.

Paper long abstract:

In the proposed paper I will discuss the figure of the balikbayan who embodies the imaginaries of migration in the Philippines, and the positive branding of migration as done by the Philippine state. The balikbayan is a long-term migrant who returns home (Rafael 2000), and she/he represents well the expectations and achievements connected with "going abroad". The paper is based on extensive fieldwork in the Philippines and in Filipino communities in the US.

Due to the long-term impact of out-migration from the Philippines, "going abroad" is seen as the only path towards a "better life". In the shared and reproduced imaginary of "going abroad", the exact country of migration is of lesser importance, as opportunity awaits just beyond the border. Migration is seen predominantly as an opportunity, also as sacrifice, but almost never as a danger or risk. Immigrants actively shape this imaginary through supporting their families financially, sending the so called balikbayan boxes full of foreign products, and occasionally visiting the home country. Balikbayans also judge their relatives' way of life, and through this propagate their own vision of success.

I will also look at the positive branding of migration as done by the state - the Philippine nation is identified as a migrant nation and those who work abroad are seen as new heroes. Although the economic significance of migration might be comparable to other countries, the Philippines is an especially strong example of how the state can influence the imaginaries of migration.

Paper short abstract:

This paper argues the utopist habitus of South Korean people which originates from the oppression of people until the late 1980s and still leads them to seek for an alternative social order in another time or space.

Paper long abstract:

Since the new millennium began, the population of newcomer Koreans has perceptively been growing in the Greater New York area. As a distinct contrast with recent immigrants and Koreans that emigrated to the U.S. during last century, this new group has wealth and social position high enough to live as middle-class people in today's South Korea --- a modern, technologically advanced country with a thriving popular culture. Instead of political economy, what motivates them to leave their motherland is a more sentimental and emotional issue. Feeling a particular psychological sense of oppression, depression and hopelessness, they come to yearn for and seek out an alternative social order in another place. Many have found the GNY area offers the most efficient and prompt solution to this issue. My paper attempts to weave their narratives to interpret this mentality by making the best use of a social scientific concept which has been looked down upon unjustly in mainstream anthropology for a long time: utopia.