Dynamic values negotiating geo-political narratives across a migration system.

Abstract

In this contemporary world, hyperconnected by migrations and digital media, discourse studies can add important insights about diverse interacting voices. Given increasing contact among individuals, groups, and institutions, understanding discursive interactions across geo-political migration systems requires methodological innovation. This article presents a theory-based research design and analysis of how diverse participants in the process of migration use discourse genres to make sense of displacement and interventions. We illustrate this dynamic narrative inquiry with an activity-meaning system design sampling discourses by diverse participants along the Balkan migration route and an analysis of values salient to them. Animating this method is a study in an education intervention in Serbia, where hundreds of young refugees, arriving from violent displacements in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria attended public schools alongside local peers. This methodology integrates principles of critical discourse analysis to study how displaced youth, their peers, educators, national/international policymakers, and public media used relevant genres to make sense of social inclusion. Analyses of participants' narratives, letters, policies, education guidelines, and news reports yielded 17 values and their dynamic interactions. A discourse-based values analyses revealed echoes across student and institutional expressions (the importance of subjectivity and cultural practices) and diverse group values: migrant students' uses of narratives to emphasize geo-political injustices, Serbian students' emphasis on local cultural practices, and institutional emphases on social inclusion. The study demonstrates the ecological validity of an inquiry sensitive to webs of meaning among diverse actors, adding complexity to social inclusion.

Narrating Crisis From War Zones to Disease Zones

“…I have trouble understanding the language. (Daiute & Kovacs-Cerovic, 2019) Haman organized the reenactment of his journey as elements became salient from memory (Daiute et al, 2020). Flexibly using narrative qualities of plot, time, character, and evaluation, Haman introduced his purpose, built suspense to a turning point, and then mulled over several challenges in his past and present.…”

“…Children are experts of their experience, yet professional advice to parents and educators in crises typically focuses on the advice to give young people rather than to listen to their advice. Writing letters with advice about how others could deal with dangerous circumstances reveals different details and insights from youth perspectives (Daiute, 2010(Daiute, , 2014Daiute et al, 2020). Magi, who, like Haman, escaped wars in the Middle East, wrote this concise letter to a friend following in his path.…”

“…Some unaccompanied youth fleeing wars and youth sheltered at home suffer abuse and neglect by adults experiencing their own tensions or taking advantage of youth isolation (Cuartas, 2020). As time goes on, youth become increasingly sensitive to injustices such as how systemic racism leads to worse health outcomes, acknowledgments that also spark youth activism (Daiute et al, 2020; Wang, 2020).…”

“…Children of diverse cognitive abilities develop narrative capacities by late childhood or early adolescence (Berman & Slobin, 2009), so it is not surprising that young people whose lives change dramatically in extremely challenging and uncertain times can put those capacities to work for sense making (Daiute, 2010; Daiute et al, 2020). Narrating experience in a letter to a peer, a loved one, or a diary involves calling events and people from memory, reacting to them anew, and interpreting them in the current time and space.…”

“…Thus, the dynamic storytelling process also involves connecting. To engage intrapersonal and intragroup complexity of purpose and interpretation, prior research invited students and youth activists to share narratives—to write letters to peers, family, and public officials—thereby shifting the communication posture (Daiute, 2010; Daiute et al, 2020). This letter (as written) by a displaced youth to a peer illustrates how participants used letters to share different facts, connections, and intentions from those in their narratives.…”