Navigating the (Post)Colonial Pathways of Somali Migration to Scotland: Between the Edges of Empire

What happens when migration takes place between sites defined by different types of ‘colonial difference’? This book asks this question in the context of Somali migration to Scotland, which it maps over a century of colonial relations, independence movements, and the reorganisation of the (post)colonial Somali and British states. Framing both Somalia and Scotland as sites of marginality in the matrices of colonial power, it tracks through a combination of archival material and contemporary testimonies the operation, development and divergence of (the) colonial(ity of) power in shaping Somali migration and citizenship experiences in Scotland. However, whilst the book has a grounded and localised focus, it makes the argument that Somali-Scottish migration cases present the urgent need for a holistic approach to the operation of coloniality, which not only emanates from the so-called ‘centre’ of Empire, but also at and between its edges. Acknowledgements Contents List of Figures 1 In Media Res Fauzia’s Story Continuity or Change? A View from Scotland A View From Somalia Through the Lens of Migration Navigating colonialities of citizenship and migration Between ‘colonial difference(s)’ Triangulating the margins: Between the Edges of Empire Chapter Overview Some Notes on Navigating the Book The Coloniality of Research A Brief Note on Writing Choices 2 Applying a Critical Colonial Lens to Somali Migration to Scotland Colonial Power and South-North Migration Constructing Hierarchies of Humanity and Space Constructing Citizens and Migrants The Coloniality of Contemporary Migration Regimes Colonialities of Bordering and Citizenship A Decolonial Approach to the Coloniality of Migration? (De)Provincialising or (Dis)Entangling Migration? Evaluating a Critical Colonial Perspective on South-North Migration 3 The Colonial Foundations of Scottish-Somali Relations Edinburgh 1910: The ‘Somali Village’ Somalia and the British Colonial Imaginary Colonialism in Somalia: 1887–1960 Species of Colonial Power in Somalia Constructing the Somali Periphery Through Symbolic Violence The ‘Curious Case’ of Colonial Scotland The Colonial Nation ‘Without a State’ (De)Constructing the Colonial Parochial Colonial Scots in the Colonial Somalilands Scottish Constructions of the Somali Other The Foundations of Relations 4 Ali Mohamed: ‘A Somali Man Living in Glasgow’, 1932 Glasgow, 1932 Contextualising Mohamed Governing Somali ‘Immigration’ to the Colonial ‘Centre’ ‘He Appears to be a Somali Seaman’: Administrating British Colonial Subjecthood Race-Making and the Modification of Protected Personhood Rights ‘I was Under the Impression that in this Country at any Rate, Relief Could not be Refused’ Migrantising Subjecthood 5 The Dysphoria of the Colonial ‘Centre’ and the Glasgow Bajuni Campaign Introduction The Glasgow Bajuni Campaign Continuity and Change The Universalisation of Colonial Difference by the Bordered Centre Reconceptualising the ‘Colonial Migrant’ Out of Space and Time Colonial Dysphoria 6 New Scots, Old Tricks? Duniya (De)Constructing ‘Aspirational Pluralism’ The Appeal and Frustrations of New Scots Refashioning Relations Navigating the Coloniality of the Governmental Assemblages of the (Non)State The Coloniality of Integration in the UK Policy Transfer in a (Post)Colonial, Multi-Governmental Landscape Contesting ‘New’ Scots? Migrantising Ethnicity No Time but the Present The Specificities of the ‘Here and Now’ 7 Black, African; Muslim, Asian? Coloniality and the Racialisation of Somalis in Scotland ‘But... We were Left Behind from the Start’ The Racialisation of Somali ‘Southern Others’ in the Global North Black or Muslim? ‘Whatever Derogatory Terms There Are, It’s Nothing to Do with Somalia’ The Asianfication of Somalis in Glasgow Localising Racial Ascription ‘They Have to Accept We’re Black, We’re from Africa’ Doubled, Split and Tripled 8 The Possibilities of Indifference: (de)constructing Somali-Scottish identities and (re)positioning the ‘centre’ Technologising ‘Clan’ Clan in Migration ‘That Reflects... That Doesn’t Reflect Here’: (De)Constructing Clan in Glasgow ‘We Are Very Little in Scotland, We Want to Talk About Somalis Not About Clans’ The Consequences of Indifference ‘Unfortunately This is Equal to Everyone’ The Consequences of ‘Negative Freedom’ The Race-Making Possibilities of Somalinimo Repositioning the Centre 9 Beyond the Edges of Empire Postscript References Index