Mobility
In: African DiasporaSearch for other papers by Nauja Kleist in
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Abstract
In this keyword, I reflect upon African diaspora in a mobilities perspective, exploring analytical and empirical resonance and tensions. Despite the boom of diaspora and mobilities studies in the last decades, research explicitly linking these two literatures is still nascent. Exploring diaspora through a mobilities perspective, I suggest that attention to regimes of mobilities and migratory trajectories can yield important insights. The first perspective highlights how mobility and immobility is governed, facilitated or constrained historically and today, shedding light on the unequal distribution of safe, legal and free (im)mobility for African diaspora groups, whether ‘old’ or ‘new’; the second illuminates the twists and turns of migratory journeys or displacement, bringing attention beyond the host land – homeland axis found in some diaspora studies. Finally, turning the analytical lens around, I dwell upon temporality and belonging in diaspora studies and how they link to mobility, with emphasis on potentiality and elusiveness rather than fixity and stability.
Résumé
Au travers de ce concept, j’ aborde la diaspora africaine sous l’ angle de la mobilité, en explorant les résonances et les tensions à la fois analytiques et empiriques. En dépit du boom que connaissent depuis plusieurs décennies les études portant sur la diaspora et les mobilités, la recherche reliant explicitement ces deux littératures en est toujours à ses débuts. En explorant la diaspora sous l’ angle des mobilités, j’ émets l’ hypothèse selon laquelle cette attention accordée aux régimes de mobilités et des trajectoires migratoires apporte des éclairages importants. Cette première perspective met en lumière la manière dont la mobilité et l’ immobilité sont gérées, encouragées ou restreintes que ce soit dans le passé ou aujourd’ hui, portant un éclairage sur la distribution inégalitaire en matière d’ (im)mobilité sécurisée, légale et libre des groupes de la diaspora africaine, ‘ancienne’ ou nouvelle; la deuxième perspective met en lumière les tours et détours des parcours ou déplacements migratoires, regardant au-delà de l’ axe pays d’ accueil / pays d’ origine qu’ on retrouve dans certaines études consacrées aux diasporas. Pour finir, en retournant la focale analytique, je me concentre sur la temporalité et l’ appartenance dans les études sur les diasporas et sur la manière dont elles sont reliées à la mobilité, en mettant l’ accent sur la potentialité et la fugacité plutôt que sur la fixité et la stabilité.
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Mobility
In: African DiasporaSearch for other papers by Nauja Kleist in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Abstract
In this keyword, I reflect upon African diaspora in a mobilities perspective, exploring analytical and empirical resonance and tensions. Despite the boom of diaspora and mobilities studies in the last decades, research explicitly linking these two literatures is still nascent. Exploring diaspora through a mobilities perspective, I suggest that attention to regimes of mobilities and migratory trajectories can yield important insights. The first perspective highlights how mobility and immobility is governed, facilitated or constrained historically and today, shedding light on the unequal distribution of safe, legal and free (im)mobility for African diaspora groups, whether ‘old’ or ‘new’; the second illuminates the twists and turns of migratory journeys or displacement, bringing attention beyond the host land – homeland axis found in some diaspora studies. Finally, turning the analytical lens around, I dwell upon temporality and belonging in diaspora studies and how they link to mobility, with emphasis on potentiality and elusiveness rather than fixity and stability.
| All Time | Past Year | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 1843 | 65 | 15 |
| Full Text Views | 93 | 14 | 4 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 128 | 30 | 8 |