“Between Belonging”: Habitus and the migration experience

Abstract

This paper explores the impacts of migration both on the small island community of Grand Manan, New Brunswick, and on the group of Newfoundland families who have moved there from their homes 1500 km away. Based upon personal interviews with individuals and families, impacts and meanings are examined in terms of social networks, community cleavages, and intergenerational differences. The complexity of patterns and the ambiguities experienced by both groups are related to Bourdieu's concept of ‘habitus’, and its relevance for changing meanings of ‘place’ and ‘community’. In exploring the changing patterns of social relationships and meanings of community, this paper highlights issues of social cohesion and tensions associated with forging new identities, and examines the particular impacts upon youth whose sense of belonging is explicitly between homes. The experience of migration for those who decide to stay permanently is shown to be different than for the majority who come as seasonal migrants. In the decision to stay through the winter or not, crucial factors are both the sense of belonging back in Newfoundland and whether or not families have children, whose abilities to forge new relationships are the everyday concerns for parents. While the importance of jobs provides the main incentive to migrate, the difficulties associated with integrating into new social groups, negotiating new identities, and adjusting to different educational requirements pose almost insurmountable challenges for many families. It is in the details of family lives, values and perceptions, told through their narratives of experience, that we begin to discern the ambiguities and fluidity of evolving habitus for both groups. Cet article analyse les effets de la migration à la fois sur la petite communauté insulaire de Grand Manan au Nouveau‐Brunswick et sur les families qui s'y sont déplacées, depuis Terre‐Neuve, à plus de 1500 km de distance. Basé sur des entrevues auprès d'individus et de families, il examine le sens et l'effet de la migration en accordant une attention particulière aux réseaux sociaux, aux disparités communautaires et au fossé intergénérationnel. On y fait appel au concept d'habitus de Bourdieu pour rendre compte de la complexité des pratiques propres à chacun des deux groupes et de l'ambiguité du sens qu'ils confèrent à leur expérience. L'analyse contextualisée de la dynamique des relations sociales et du sens de la communauté met en lumière des questions liées à la cohésion sociale et aux inévitables tensions liées à ces dynamiques. Plus particulièrement, l'article examine les effets de la migration sur les jeunes dont le sentiment d'appartenance se définit précisément entre deux ‘chez soi’. L'éxpérience de la migration chez ceux qui ont décidé de s'établir de façon permanente est bien différente de celle vécue par la majorité qui se déplace de façon saisonnière. Le sentiment d'appartenance à Terre‐Neuve et le fait d'avoir ou non des enfants (leur capacité de tisser de nouvelles relations sociales étant un souci perm...

Youth Migration and Social Advancement: How Young People Manage Emerging Differences between Themselves and their Hometown

“…While demographic and economic researchers have sought to identify the major patterns of geographical migration and the economic consequences of these trends for regional communities, youth researchers have developed youth-centred analyses of this phenomenon and increasingly focused attention on the cultural aspects of youth migration (Jones 1995(Jones , 1999a(Jones , 1999bWierenga 1999;Ní Laoire 2000;Marshall & Foster 2002;Molgat 2002;Jones 2004;White & Wyn 2004, pp. 58Á/78).…”

La movilidad transfronteriza de rumanos en España en tiempos de crisis

“…Después de la caída del muro de Berlín, que cambió el mapa de las migraciones en Europa (King 2002), asistimos a la apertura fronteriza hacia el este, mediante las dos ampliaciones (2004 y 2007) que supusieron un aumento de la movilidad en el espacio de la Europa de los 27 y la incorporación de un amplio flujo de personas en los países desarrollados de la UE (Meinhof 2002;Favell 2008;Díez Medrano 2008). 1) El objetivo central del estudio es explorar la movilidad humana como proceso social complejo, centrándose en las percepciones de los inmigrantes como actores del propio proyecto migratorio, que, debido a su movilidad, se sitúan entre su país de origen y el país de destino (Marshall y Foster 2002).…”

Understanding the lived experiences and identities of young rural to urban migrant workers in Vietnam

“…When individuals move from this place to another, from this culture to another culture, they usually bring their cultural values and practices to the host society (Marshall & Foster, 2002).…”

“…Some studies examine identity of transnational migrants using the concept of 'habitus', as developed by Bourdieu (1977), to understand the process of resistance, rejecting and transformation of migrants' identities (in their ways of integrating and assimilating into the mainstream society). For example, the 'between belonging' situation of migrants is discussed in Marshall and Foster (2002), in which the authors show the potential for a transformed habitus in forming the newly reconstructed identity of the migrants and the host community. Kelly and Lusis (2006) discuss 'dualistic dispositions' of Filipino migrants' habitus through re-defining their identities in the diaspora in Canada, as these immigrants maintain strong links with their origins in various aspects: socially, economically, culturally and even politically.…”

“…When a person moves from one place to another, from one culture to another, they bring their cultural values and practices to the host community (Marshall & Foster, 2002). Such cultural values and practices of the migrants interact with that of the people and communities in the host society.…”