Transnationalizing Home in Winnipeg: Refugees’ Stories of the Places Between the “Here-and-There”

Abstract

This article asks how refugees narrate home. Based on extensive interviews (oral histories) with refugees in Winnipeg, Manitoba, who arrived from Europe after the Second World War, from Central America during the 1980s, and from Afghanistan during the 2000s, this article argues that refugees are continually engaged in the process of making home, not only in the sending and receiving countries, but also in countries along their often complex and long migration routes. Listening closely to their stories forces researchers to move beyond “methodological nationalism” and a dichotomous “here-or-there” conceptualization of home, toward a transnationalizing of home. Dans cet article je parle au sujet de comment les réfugiés racontent ce qui est, pour eux, leur maison. La recherche est basée sur les entrevues (histoire orale) avec des réfugiés à Winnipeg, Manitoba. Ceux-ci sont arrivés de l’Europe après la deuxième guerre mondiale, ainsi que de l’Amérique Centrale pendant les années 80, et d’Afghanistan pendant les années 2000. Je parle du processus de s’établir un domicile, dans lequel les réfugiés se sont continuellement engagés, pas seulement dans leur pays d’origine et d’accueil, mais aussi dans les pays tout au long de leurs voies de migration, souvent complexes et longues. L’écoute attentive de leurs histoires fait en sorte que les chercheurs se déplacent au-delà du « nationalisme méthodologique » et de l’idée des pôles opposés représentée par « ici ou là », pour aller chercher les innombrables connections entre les différents pays, ainsi qu’une transnationalisation des maisons.

Social dimensions of health across the life course: Narratives of Arab immigrant women ageing in Canada

“…Canada is, however, accepting high numbers of refugees from Muslim and Arab countries. Refugee populations experience additional transnational stressors related to witnessing violence, forced displacement, death of loved ones and family left behind (Freund, ). This study highlights some of the ways social dimensions of health can manifest locally and transnationally within vulnerable populations to negatively impact the ageing experience.…”

Mini U Brochures: Advertising Social Exclusion at a Post-Secondary Institution, Canada?

“…From a critical point of view, multiculturalism has ghettoized ethnic communities and segregated racial groups in Canada due to its focus on the coexistence of ethnic enclaves (e.g., side by side) instead of intercultural learning, cooperation, and dialogue (Guo & Lloyd, 2015;Gyepi-Garbrah et al, 2014;Henry & Tator, 2006). Even though Canada champions multiculturalism as a sovereign dogma, racism and discrimination pervade in everyday Canadian life (Douglas & Halas, 2013;Freund, 2015;Guo, 2015;2103;Henry & Tator, 2006;Zaami, 2015). In spite of the widespread multiculturalism, Canada has not fully removed socio-structural-cultural barriers deeply entrenched in our society, such as racism and whiteness, thereby making marginalized populations to feel a lost sense of belonging to Canada (Mensah & Williams, 2015;Veronis, 2015).…”

Making a home in the world: Clothes as mnemonic devices through which refugees experience home in flight and resettlement

“…His t-shirt was not simply linked to Istanbul but to a range of key experiences and places, enabling Mahdi to feel connected to a multitude of different times and places that were important to him. Freund (2015: 62–62) states that we must stop thinking of home as ‘one-time accomplishments in the country of origin and the country of settlement’ but rather understand that for refugees’ stories of home, it is rarely one place or one time but an amalgamation of ‘their manifold and diverse experiences of making home in different places’. As Mahdi moved with his t-shirt it continued to connect him to new routes and experiences along his journey whilst documenting and absorbing them for the future.…”

“…This is a field which has garnered little attention within studies of forced migration. Following Freund (2015: 61), I highlight how ‘refugees are continually engaged in the process of making home, not only in the sending and receiving country, but also in the countries along their often complex and long migration routes’. Through examining how the journey plays an integral part in homemaking for many refugees, I counter typical narratives of flight as simply ‘a vacuum in which migrants feel “lost”’ (Freund, 2015: 62).…”