History, Memory and Migration: Perceptions of the Past and the Politics of Incorporation (Palgrave Macmillan Memory Studies)

By conversing with the main bodies of relevant literature from Migration Studies and Memory Studies, this overview highlights how analysing memories can contribute to a better understanding of the complexities of migrant incorporation. The chapters consider international case studies from Europe, North America, Australia, Asia and the Middle East. As the growing diversity of societies is recognised as both an asset and a challenge, academia has been forced to re-evaluate some of its basic assumptions about migrant incorporation and social memories. However, scholars have rarely combined Migration Studies and Memory Studies to consider how perceptions of the past affect the incorporation of immigrants in their host societies. The authors in this volume merge the extensive knowledge and relevant findings produced in both fields. They demonstrate, through a series of empirical studies from Europe, North America, Australia, Asia and the Middle East, how various actors have referenced diverse conceptions of their local, regional and national pasts to include and exclude immigrants from receiving societies. By focusing on how the presentation of a certain past relates to the immigration present, the book aims to examine the relationship between the politics of memory and the incorporation of immigrants Front Matter....Pages i-xiv Front Matter....Pages 1-1 The Memory and Migration Nexus: An Overview....Pages 3-29 Front Matter....Pages 31-31 Cultures of History: The New Left, South Asians, and Historical Memory in Post-War England....Pages 33-48 ‘I am also a Foreigner, but with Me it’s Different’: Polish Displaced Persons, War Memory and Ethnification in Belgium....Pages 49-67 Using History to Relate: How Teenagers in Germany Use History to Orient between Nationalities....Pages 68-84 Front Matter....Pages 85-85 Caught between Two Worlds: The Europeans of Algeria in France after 1962....Pages 87-105 Remembering Egypt: Evangelicals, Conservatism and Immigration in America....Pages 106-137 Past Migrations, Contemporary Representations and Complex Multicultures in London....Pages 138-153 African Asylum Seekers and the Changing Politics of Memory in Israel....Pages 154-170 Front Matter....Pages 171-171 Famine Commemorations and Asylum Debates in Ireland Conflated....Pages 173-188 Migrant Incorporation and Political Memories: Transformations of Civic and Communal Belonging in Australia since 1949....Pages 189-213 Songs for the Nation: Migrant Pasts and Global Futures in Singapore....Pages 214-234 Front Matter....Pages 235-235 History, Memory and Migration: Comparisons, Challenges and Outlooks....Pages 237-243 Back Matter....Pages 245-251 "This is an exciting new collection which looks at the various and shifting interplays between memory and migration. It is certainly a welcome addition to historiography in this field."--Kathy Burrell, De Montfort University, UK