The portfolio feedback will probably centre around technical stuff - referencing, grammar, structuring evidence & arguments, etc. Things that will hopefully help when it comes to editing for your case studies.
Speaking of case studies ...
You will be assigned & sent details of your group for the final assignment this week. The groups need to be based on your case study theme (people, food, nature, stuff). You also need to email me a dot point plan of your essay by midnight on Friday 27th sept. For a further 5% of your case study grade.
Also, ...
There are 3 short answer questions that you need to complete. You have two weeks to get it done (it closes at midnight on Oct. 5th and has been opened a week early to accommodate the shift around in the lecture order).
Quiz Hint: Make sure you look at definitions and types of diaspora when you do the reading.
Finally, ...
Watch the lecture and share your thoughts on people networks, and diasporas (their similarities and differences); use the questions in the tute guide as, well .. a guide .. and let us know what you think.
p.s. Next week is lecture recess,
so remember to take at least little bit of guilt -free time out from studying.
Regarding the Rasta diaspora and the Italian diaspora in North Queensland, the main differences I can see are the motivations behind the diaspora. The ancestors of the Rastas were enslaved and had no choice in leaving their homelands while the Italian farmers in North Queensland came here freely to work and for the financial gain. The Rastas also claim ties to an imagined natal territory (Ethiopia - perpetuated through myths) while the Italians actually come from the land they have ties to. Both groups are also united by their faiths, which strengthens their resolve when set upon by members of the host society and both groups can be found to congregate and live in close proximity. A lot of the Italian families I have known also romanticise their homeland (as do the Rastas with Ethiopia) and talk about going back. It's interesting to note that my family, migrant farmers from Albanian, displayed all these characteristics, but while they were here romanticising their homeland for 30/40 years, the homeland changed to such a degree that when they did go back they felt out of place. Consequently the picture I have of our ancestral homeland is pretty much like something dug up from a time capsule. Things have moved on, but the people who make up the diaspora are perpetuating a mythic homeland that isn't very accurate.
ReplyDeleteThis is a really nice summary of the similarities & differences between these two diasporic groups.
DeleteYour final statements remind me of an interview I did with an elderly Czech migrant I did a few years ago. He was talking about his ideas of homeland versus the reality today and ended up stating that "my country [Czechoslovakia] is not even a country any more" - his ideas of "home" and the image he had passed on to his kids was the "time capsule" version, and this was the image that he held dear, despite acknowledging that it no longer reflected the reality in the region.
The Italians that came to North Queensland were fleeing oppression, but that of the oppression of poverty. If you take the French attitude, as cited by Ma Mung (2005, p.39), they were of a proletarian diaspora. Perhaps they ought not to be classified as a diaspora at all but as economic migrants, part of contemporary immigration between central and secondary poles (Ma Mung, 2005, p.34). If we are to expand the definition of diaspora thus, logically couldn't the term be applied on a small scale such as interstate migration? Cultural and attitudinal differences still apply. Interstate migration can be borne of exile or economic compulsion. To follow that vein it's meaning could be further broken down to inter-city, even inter-suburban migration. I think it is stretched too far. In the broader context it tries to encompass too much. All people have connections to, carry memories of, and influences from, the past. That is what makes people who they are. When a stranger in a strange land (Heinlein, R.A. 1961) it is empowering to have a sense of self, community and identity.
ReplyDeleteThe adherents of the Rastafari movement came from economic migrants of a sort as well, although that migration was not by choice and increased the wealth of the enslavers, not of the migrants. Slavery by definition is dis-empowering and affects the psyche such that it takes many generations after emancipation to recover. Their wish to return to Africa is understandable, however they are not a stateless nation. They have a homeland. Again, it is questionable to apply diaspora here. It is probably more accurate for these two groups to be considered structured networks (Ma Mung, 2005, p.44).
Reference List
Heinlein, R.A. (1961) Stranger in a strange land. Avon, NY: Putnam Publishing Group.
Ma Mung, E. (2005) Comparative European research in migration, diversity and
identities. Bilbao, Spain: Publications of University of Deusto.
Individuals and communities move locations and homeland due to them trying to gain a better lifestyle such as financial income, health and for better education. This creates the allusion of diasporas as “diasporas represent a form of adaptation to the new means of transportation and communication and are particularly well integrated into the current globalization of economy as well as migrations or cultural phenomena” (Ma Mung, 1992, pp.34.).
ReplyDeleteMa Mung, E. (2005). Comparative European research in migration, diversity and identities. Bilbao, Spain: Publications of university of Deusto.
I find the concept of diaspora both fascinating and relevant to understanding an aspect of modern globalisation. Economic migrants account for the diverse ethnic backgrounds we are seeing in most Western countries. Having a new found insight into diaspora has helped me understand the challenges some of these ethnic groups are having assimilating into the broader community of their adopted country. On a smaller scale, I can relate diaspora to small ex-pat communities of Westerners living overseas. In both instances, strong networks are key to both communities independent identities to that of the host countries population.
ReplyDelete