General Sources on Migration

Ahmed, S. (2000). Strange Encounters: Embodied Others in Post-Coloniality (1st ed.). Routledge. Available at: https://doi-org.proxy.bib.uottawa.ca/10.4324/9780203349700

This text examines the relationship between strangers, embodiment and community. Ahmed challenges the assumption that a ‘stranger’ is simply anybody we do not recognize and instead proposes that they are socially constructed as somebody we already know. This book uses feminist and postcolonial theory to explore the impact of multiculturalism and globalization on embodiment and community whilst considering the ethical and political implication of its critique for postcolonial feminism. (Source text: https://doi-org.proxy.bib.uottawa.ca/10.4324/9780203349700) 

Benhabib, S. (2018). Exile, Statelessness, and Migration: Playing Chess with History from Hannah Arendt to Isaiah Berlin. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Available at: https://muse.jhu.edu/book/61019

Benhabib produces an examination of the intertwined lives and writings of a group of prominent twentieth-century Jewish intellectuals who experienced exile and migration (including Theodor Adorno, Hannah Arendt, Walter Benjamin, Isaiah Berlin, Albert Hirschman, Judith Shklar, Hans Kelsen, Emmanuel Levinas, Gershom Scholem, and Leo Strauss). The sense of belonging and not belonging due to their Jewish origins led them to confront essential questions: What does it mean for the individual to be an equal citizen and to wish to retain one’s ethnic, cultural, and religious differences, or perhaps even to rid oneself of these differences altogether in modernity? Benhabib isolates four themes in their works: dilemmas of belonging and difference; exile, political voice, and loyalty; legality and legitimacy; and pluralism and the problem of judgment. (Source text: https://muse.jhu.edu/book/61019/) 

Bhabha, H. K. (2004). The Location of Culture. London: Routledge. Available at: https://login.proxy.bib.uottawa.ca/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=495202&site=ehost-live&ebv=EB&ppid=pp_Cover 

This book reassesses the theoretical notions of identity, social agency and national affiliation within the context of postcolonial, postmodern and colonial discourse. Bhabha asserts that cultural productivity is most productive where it is most ambivalent, using concepts of mimicry, interstice, cultural hybridity and liminality to demonstrate their argument. Useful for researchers seeking to advance their theoretical knowledge in postcolonial and culture studies. (Source text: https://www.routledge.com/The-Location-of-Culture/Bhabha/p/book/9780415336390?srsltid=AfmBOopSRmDraRDExfBwA01MJPV2uNTDECWUtBPx93iaz3FiKMvg-yM9) 

Boym, S. (2001). The Future of Nostalgia. New York: Basic Books. Available at: https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780465007073 

Boym approaches the elusive concept of collective nostalgia and longing for the home by combining personal memoir and anecdotes, philosophical essay and historical analysis. Boym refers to the ruins and construction sites of post-communist cities (including St. Petersburg, Moscow, Berlin, Prague) and the imagined homelands of exiles (such as Benjamin, Nabokov, Mandelstam, and Brodsky). (Source text: https://www.amazon.ca/Future-Nostalgia-Svetlana-Boym/dp/0465007082)

Dalton, D. S., & Plascencia, D. R. (Eds.). (2022). Imagining Latinidad: Digital Diasporas and Public Engagement Among Latin American Migrants. Brill. Available at: https://brill.com/display/title/38449 

This book examines how Latin American migrants use technology for public engagement, social activism, to build digital, diasporic communities, and to stay in contact with the culture they left behind. Members of these groups share information related to their homeland through discussions of food, music, celebrations, and other cultural elements. Despite their physical distance, these diasporic virtual communities are not far removed from the struggles in their homelands, and migrant activists play a central role in shaping politics both in their home country and in their host country. (Source text: https://brill.com/display/title/38449) 

Dobson, S. (2004). Cultures of exile and the experience of refugeeness. Bern; New York: Peter Lang. Available at: https://search.worldcat.org/title/55737995 

This book explores the daily life and culture of refugees through Dobson’s long-term fieldwork as a community worker in a Norwegian municipality, investigating refugee experiences of policies of reception and resettlement and the construction of their own cultures of exile through activities (including a sewing circle, multicultural youth club, refugee associations, language newspapers). The study demonstrates how the cultures created by refugees in exile are necessary for self-recognition and survival. (Source text: https://www.peterlang.com/document/1054456)

Schneider, J., Oltmer, J., Pott, A., & Schmiz, A. (2024). Kulturproduktion in der Migrationsgesellschaft : Herausforderungen Für Kulturinstitutionen und Kulturpolitik. (1st ed.). Bielefeld: transcript Verlag. Available at: https://directory.doabooks.org/handle/20.500.12854/142805 

(In German) Migration and the increasing diversity of society pose challenges for cultural institutions and cultural policy. This concerns not only the question of the “canonization” of what is considered “high culture,” but also cultural production itself: who speaks, who is allowed to speak about what? Which stories are told and thus made visible? Who is “we” and who are “the others”? The contributions in this volume bring the results of the research project “Cultural Production in a Migration Society” (KultMIX) into dialogue with cultural and cultural policy practice. Their perspectives provide new insights into the opportunities and challenges of dealing with migration, diversity and social change. (Source text: https://directory.doabooks.org/handle/20.500.12854/142805, translated by Google Translate)

Suleiman, S. R. (Ed.). (1998). Exile and Creativity: Signposts, Travelers, Outsiders, Backward Glances. Duke University Press. Available at: https://doi-org.proxy.bib.uottawa.ca/10.1215/9780822379829

In this wide collection of essays, ranging historically from the Inquisition to the Holocaust, contributors examine and discuss their diverse experiences of exile, not only as a physical displacement but also as an interior experience. This text combines perspectives exploring the complex connection between exile and creativity. Useful for those interested in the problems of displacement and diaspora, the European Holocaust, and more generally art, literary and cultural studies, history, film, and the nature of human creativity. (Source text: https://read-dukeupress-edu.proxy.bib.uottawa.ca/books/book/451/Exile-and-CreativitySignposts-Travelers-Outsiders) 

Aciman, A. (2012). Alibis : Essays on Elsewhere. New York: Picador. Available at: https://search.worldcat.org/title/773667439 

A collection of 17 personal essays by Aciman about his travels regarding themes of time, place, identity and art, including Aciman’s thoughts on cities including Barcelona, Rome, Paris and New York. (Source text: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11250080-alibis) 

Aciman, A. (Ed.). (1999). Letters of Transit : Reflections on Exile, Identity, Language, and Loss. New York Public Library. Available at: https://archive.org/details/lettersoftransit00edwa 

Five essays reflecting on themes of exile, home and memory. Aciman traces his travels and migrations, comparing his uprootedness with that of many moderns. Includes personal reflections on the language and the loss of one’s first language (Eva Hoffman), conflict between political and cultural allegiances (Edward Said), the struggles of assimilating (Bharati Mukherjee), and an author’s attempts of “fitting in” in America (Charles Simic). (Source text: https://www.nypl.org/node/29645) 

Arendt, H. (2007). ‘We Refugees.’ In The Jewish Writings, ed. J. Kohn and R. Feldman. New York: Schocken Books. Available at: https://search.worldcat.org/title/70176931 

Arendt discloses a personal account of the degrading experience of the Jewish refugee in detail, before, during and after the Second World War. Arendt discusses the evolution of the definition of the term ‘refugee’; general public perceptions of refugees; language used to describe refugees in terms of ‘newcomers’ and ‘immigrants’. Particular attention is paid to the Jewish sense of loss, nationless, resilient optimism and its’ gradual transition to pessimism. Sensitive topics such as the Holocaust, Hitler’s regime and suicide are considered. Arendt describes human nature, moral standards and the crisis of identity.

Brodsky, J. (1995). ‘The Condition We Call Exile.’ In On Grief and Reason: Essays, 22–35. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux. Available at: https://www.amherst.edu/system/files/media/1622/ConditionWeCallExile.pdf

During this chapter, Brodsky describes the plight of the writer in exile and the importance of literature as society’s moral insurance, with human diversity placed at the center of literature. Brodsky describes the role and effect of displacement and exile in a writer’s journey, describing it as a “tragicomedy”. A writer in exile will experience humility, the metaphysical condition, retrospection and liberation.

Jin, H. (2008). The Writer as Migrant. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. Available at: https://search.worldcat.org/title/215172718 

These three essays raise questions about language, migration and the idea of a literature of migration in the globalizing world. Jin explores the sense of duty of a writer towards their country of birth and a migrant author’s decision of a literary language – Jin adopted English for their writing. An essay draws on V. S. Naipaul and Milan Kundera to consider how perpetual change forces a migrant writer to reconceptualize the very notion of home. Jin also engages with other celebrated writers, including W. G. Sebald, C. P. Cavafy, and Salman Rushdie. Useful for those interested in migration studies, displacement studies and exile, migration literature and sociology. (Source text: https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/W/bo6007124.html) 

Lamming, G. (1992). The Pleasures of Exile. Anna Arbor: The University of Michigan Press. Available at: https://archive.org/details/pleasuresofexile0000lamm/mode/2up

This book explores themes of identity formation, written during Lamming’s self-imposed exile in Britain (originally published in 1960). Lamming incorporates memoirs of his own experience, as well as drawing upon his fiction and poetry and the literary works of others such as Shakespeare’s ‘The Tempest’ and CLR James’s ‘The Black Jacobins’. He explores the physical, intellectual, psychological and cultural responses to colonialism, despite being written before the term ‘postcolonial’ was invented. Useful for anyone interested in the politics of migration, cultural hybridity and minority discourse. (Source text: https://www.plutobooks.com/9780745323442/the-pleasures-of-exile/) 

Said, E. (2000). Reflections on Exile and Other Essays.  Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press. Available at: https://archive.org/details/reflectionsonexi0000said 

This collection of literary and cultural essays reflects on Said’s own exile and the fate of the Palestinians, offering a mixture of personal and historical experience. Said’s topics are varied, from the movie heroics of Tarzan to the machismo of Ernest Hemingway to the shades of difference that divide Alexandria and Cairo. He offers major reconsiderations of writers and artists such as George Orwell, Giambattista Vico, Georg Lukacs, R. P. Blackmur, E. M. Cioran, Naguib Mahfouz, Herman Melville, Joseph Conrad, Walter Lippman, Samuel Huntington, Antonio Gramsci, and Raymond Williams. (Source text: https://www.hup.harvard.edu/books/9780674009974) 

Shklovsky, V., (Sheldon, R., Trans.). (2024). Zoo or Letters not about Love. London: Dalkey Archive Press. Available at: https://archive.org/details/zooorlettersnota0000shkl 

This epistolary novel was written by literary critic, Shklovsky, who fell in love with Elsa Triolet whilst living in exile in Berlin. This novel includes the letters he sent to Elsa, covering everything from observations about contemporary German and Russian life to theories of art and literature. (Source text: https://dalkeyarchive.store/products/zoo?variant=43346216452251) 

Piguet, Etienne. (2018). ‘Theories of Voluntary and Forced Migration’. In Routledge Handbook of Environmental Displacement and Migration, eds. Robert A. McLeman and François Gemenne, 17–28. London, New York: Routledge. Available at: https://www-taylorfrancis-com.proxy.bib.uottawa.ca/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781315638843-2/theories-voluntary-forced-migration-etienne-piguet?context=ubx&refId=530e2bfe-a827-45d2-8809-97ce05217a67 

This chapter presents an overview of theories that seek to explain the reasons behind voluntary or forced migration along a continuum of individual and contextual situations. The author considers often disconnected corpuses of theories to pave the way to re-embedding forced migration within migration theories in general. Migration linked to environmental hazards and climate change, often indirect and mediated first by economic factors, can make migration more or less desirable, sometimes compelling a population to move or trapping them in unsustainable surroundings. (Source text: https://www-taylorfrancis-com.proxy.bib.uottawa.ca/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781315638843-2/theories-voluntary-forced-migration-etienne-piguet?context=ubx&refId=530e2bfe-a827-45d2-8809-97ce05217a67)

Abdelhady, D., & Aly, R. (Eds.). (2022). Routledge Handbook on Middle Eastern Diasporas (1st ed.). Routledge. Available at: https://doi-org.proxy.bib.uottawa.ca/10.4324/9780429266102  

This handbook analyzes approaches to investigating diaspora groups in different national contexts, investigating how diasporans forge connections and means of belonging to both peoples and places. This text includes: how Middle Eastern diasporans contribute to transnational social spaces and new forms of cultural expressions; how diasporas were formed; how diasporans (re)make their homes; places where diasporas are contested; the influence of class, livelihoods and mobility on diasporic practices; the emergence of diasporic sensibilities; and the plurilocality of Middle East diasporas. Useful for students of Middle Eastern Studies, International Relations, and Sociology, or policymakers, government departments, and NGOs. (Source text: https://doi-org.proxy.bib.uottawa.ca/10.4324/9780429266102) 

Boccagni, P. (Ed.). (2023). Handbook on Home and Migration. Elgar Handbooks in Migration. Northampton: Edward Elgar Publishing. Available at: https://doi-org.proxy.bib.uottawa.ca/10.4337/9781800882775 

This Research Handbook analyzes the notion and relevance of house and home in relation to migration, contributing to research in the following social studies: migration, refugee, displacement and diaspora studies. It elaborates on the lived experience of voluntary and involuntary mobilities, inclusion and belonging through global case studies. A useful resource for students, scholars or researchers of sociology, anthropology, geography and architecture, as well as for those involved in social welfare, housing, social support and mobilisations for/by migrants and refugees. (Source text: https://doi-org.proxy.bib.uottawa.ca/10.4337/9781800882775) 

Canagarajah, A. S. (2017). The Routledge Handbook of Migration and Language. Routledge. Available at: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315754512

This handbook explores language and human mobility in today’s globalised world. This key reference brings together a range of interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary perspectives, drawing on subjects such as migration studies, geography, philosophy, sociology and anthropology. With over 30 chapters, this book analyzes: how basic constructs such as community, place, language, etc. are being retheorized in the context of human mobility; the impact of the ‘mobility turn’ on language use; the migration of skilled and unskilled workers, different forms of displacement, and new superdiverse and diaspora communities; new research orientations and methodologies; and the place of language in citizenship, educational policies, employment and social services. (Source text: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315754512)

Fiddian-Qasmiyeh, E., Loescher, G., Long, K., & Sigona, N. (Eds.). (2014). The Oxford handbook of refugee and forced migration studies. Oxford University Press. Available at: https://doi-org.proxy.bib.uottawa.ca/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199652433.001.0001

This Oxford Handbook is split into 52 chapters evaluating and analyzing: the birth and development of Refugee and Forced Migration Studies; key contemporary and future challenges of academics and practitioners working with forcible displaced populations globally; main intellectual, political, social and institutional challenges created by mass displacement; debates characterizing this field of research. Ideal for students seeking to advance their knowledge and understanding in the field, researchers and practitioners interested in forced displacement and policymaking. (Source text: https://doi-org.proxy.bib.uottawa.ca/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199652433.001.0001) 

Freeman, G. P., & Mirilovic, N. (2016). Handbook on Migration and Social Policy. Edward Elgar Publishing. Available at: https://doi-org.proxy.bib.uottawa.ca/10.4337/9781783476299 

This Handbook explores the connections between migration and social policy (particularly formal settlement and integration policies for migrants), discussing the positive and negative impact of different types of migrations on financial, social and political stability in leading receiving states across continents. Authors investigate connections between migration and trade theory, foreign direct investment, globalization, public opinion, public education and welfare programs. Useful reading for graduates and academics interested in developing their theoretical understanding in the field. (Source text: https://doi-org.proxy.bib.uottawa.ca/10.4337/9781783476299) 

McAuliffe, M., & Bauloz, C. (Eds.). (2024). Research Handbook on Migration, Gender, and COVID-19 (First edition.). Elgar Handbooks in Migration. Northampton: Edward Elgar Publishing.  Available at: https://doi-org.proxy.bib.uottawa.ca/10.4337/9781802208672  

This Research Handbook encompasses the latest research on the relationship between migration, gender and COVID-19, providing critical analysis in order to contribute to our understanding of immediate and long-term implications of the pandemic on international migration from a gender perspective. It explores several facets of migration including displacement, internal and international mobility, return migration, labor mobility and gender inequalities in migration. A useful resource for students or researchers in demography, migration studies, geography, political science, sociology and international law. (Source text: https://www.e-elgar.com/shop/usd/research-handbook-on-migration-gender-and-covid-19-9781802208665.html) 

Menjívar, C., Ruiz, M., & Ness, I. (Eds.). (2018). The Oxford Handbook of Migration Crises, Oxford Handbooks, Oxford Academic. Oxford University Press. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190856908.001.0001

This Handbook deconstructs and challenges representations of migrations as crises, examining how crises emerge, what is a crisis, and how this concept is used in the media and politics in transit and receiving countries. Authors highlight the role of the media and public officials in framing migratory flows as crises, revisiting and redefining a ‘migration crisis’ through a critical lens. (Source text: https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190856908.001.0001)

Rosenblum, M. R., Tichenor, D. J.  (Eds). (2012). Oxford Handbook of the Politics of International Migration, Oxford Handbooks, Oxford Academic. Oxford University Press. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780195337228.001.0001

In this Handbook, leading migration experts consider major questions and challenges related to the issue of international migration. This book examines the large-scale movement of people across international borders, integrating the perspectives of a wide variety of fields (political science, sociology, economics, anthropology). Articles analyze the origins and causes of migration; the consequences of migration at both ends of the migration chain; economics; the impacts of migration on parties and political participation; social and cultural effects of migration; the effects of public opinion on international relations and policy making; immigration policy; the immigrant experience (assimilation, race, transnationalism and gender; and contemporary issues (including trans-border crime and terrorism, organized labor, etc). (Source text: https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780195337228.001.0001) 

Rowlands, A., and Fiddian-Qasmiyeh, E. (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Religion and Contemporary Migration, Oxford Academic. Oxford University Press. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190076511.001.0001

This handbook is currently in development, with individual articles publishing online in advance of print publication.

Ahmed, S. (2010). Melancholic Migrants. In The Promise of Happiness. Durham: Duke University Press. pp 121-160. Available at: https://books-scholarsportal-info.proxy.bib.uottawa.ca/uri/ebooks/ebooks0/duke/2010-08-24/1/9780822392781 

This chapter discusses the relationship between unhappiness and multiculturalism; the imperial mission during the nineteenth century; the association of memories of empire with historical happiness; the connection between migration and experiences of racism; and the emergence of the melancholic migrant with specific reference to the British Asian experience and narratives in the films ‘Bend it like Beckham’ and ‘East Is East’. (Source text: Page 123 of book, chapter 4)

Agamben, G. (2008) “Beyond Human Rights.” Social Engineering, 15, pp. 90–95. Available at: https://www.on-curating.org/issue-30-reader/beyond-human-rights.html 

Agamben begins with a commentary on Hannah Arendt’s ‘We Refugees’ as a point of departure to  provide historical context on the first appearance of refugees as a mass phenomenon, observe the figure of the refugee in connection to the nation-state and identity, and position the refugee at the center of political analysis regarding illegal migration.

Anderson, B. (1991). Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. London and New York: Verso. Available at: https://archive.org/details/imaginedcommunit0000ande_f5f1 

This book examines the history, origins and development of nationalism and nationhood within the context of the founding of the Americas, European populist movements, anti-Imperialism and colonialism. A relevant text given current debates about the nation state.

Arendt, H. 1968. The Origins of Totalitarianism. New York: Harcourt. Available at: https://heinonline-org.proxy.bib.uottawa.ca/HOL/Page?handle=hein.beal%2Fogsotrm0001&collection=beal

Arendt produces a historical and political analysis of the course of events that led to the totalitarian Nazi and Soviet regimes, making reference to the implementation or manipulation of propaganda, scapegoating, economic hardship, terror, suspicion and paranoia. Arendt discusses the untrustworthiness of political forces focused on self-interest, the human tendency towards omnipotence or powerlessness, the birth of anti-Semitism, imperialism and the destructive nature of totalitarian global dominance. Arendt seeks to confront, comprehend and examine heavy historical events in rejection to the human predisposition to deny or hide from it. (Source text: Preface to the First Edition)

Cole, T. (2011). Traces of the Holocaust: Journeying in and out of the Ghettos. London, New York: Continuum. Available at: https://search.worldcat.org/title/694396593 

Cole adopts a multi-perspectival approach of perpetrators, bystanders and victims, providing various perspectives of the Holocaust and journeys into and out of Hungarian ghettos, framed around a variety of material traces (including receipts, maps, name lists, photographs). Cole highlights the visibility of these personal stories and events within the ordinary spaces of the city, the importance of an economic assault on Jews and the marked gendering of the Holocaust in Hungary. (Source text: https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/traces-of-the-holocaust-9781441169969/) 

Forsdyke, S. (2005). Exile, ostracism, and democracy : The politics of expulsion in ancient greece. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Available at: https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ottawa/detail.action?docID=445486 

This book explores the cultural and political significance of ostracism in democratic Athens, which functioned primarily as a symbol of democratic power and the ideological justification of democratic rule. Forsdyke demonstrates the relationship between exile and political power in archaic Greece, where in Athens and other cities, elites seized power by expelling their rivals in an unstable form of politics. Ostracism was a mild and infrequent form of exile. Analyzing the representation of exile in Athenian imperial decrees, in the works of Herodotus, Thucydides, Plato, Aristotle, and in tragedy and oratory, shows how exile was engaged in the debate about the best form of rule. (Source text: https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ottawa/detail.action?docID=445486)

Gigliotti, S. (2009). The Train Journey Transit, Captivity, and Witnessing in the Holocaust. New York: Berghahn Books. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1515/9781845459277 

This book draws on questions raised by Raul Hilberg in ‘Final Solution’ to explore the role of trains as mobile chambers in the deportation of millions of Jews to concentration and extermination camps. Gigliotti uses published memoirs and unpublished testimonies in order to examine victims’ experiences at each stage of forced relocation: the round-ups and departures from the ghettos, the captivity in trains, and the arrival at the camps. (Source text: https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9781785334771/html) 

Hájková, A. (2020). The Last Ghetto: An Everyday History of Theresienstadt. New York; Oxford: Oxford University Press. DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780190051778.001.0001 Available at: https://books-scholarsportal-info.proxy.bib.uottawa.ca/uri/ebooks/ebooks6/oso6/2020-11-19/1/oso-9780190051778-Hajkov 

This book provides an analytical history of the prisoner society and social hierarchies which formed in Terezín (Theresienstadt) from 1941-1945 during the Holocaust. Terezín functioned as a transit ghetto operated by the Nazis for Central and Western European Jews before their deportation in the East. Prisoners managed to create their own culture, habits and connections. The shared Jewishness of the prisoners was not the basis of their identities; instead, prisoners embraced their ethnic origin. Drawing on extensive archival research in nine languages, Hájková provides a transnational, cultural, social, gender and organizational history of Terezín, revealing how human society works in extreme situations. (Source text: https://books-scholarsportal-info.proxy.bib.uottawa.ca/uri/ebooks/ebooks6/oso6/2020-11-19/1/oso-9780190051778-Hajkov) 

Kushner, T. (2018). Journeys from the Abyss: The Holocaust and Forced Migration from the 1880s to the Present. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press. Available at: https://doi.org/10.5949/liverpool/9781786940629.001.0001

This book explores Jewish refugee movements before, during and after the Holocaust, within the historical context of forced migration from the 1880s to the present. Kushner explores the experiences of these refugees and other forced migrants from war, poverty, genocide and ethnic cleansing. This study focuses on three particular types of refugee movement – women, children and ‘illegal’ boat migrants. The scope is global including Europe, Africa, the Middle East, the Americas, South Asia and Australasia. This book highlights the relationship between Holocaust studies and migration studies. Useful for anyone interested in the following disciplines: history, geography, anthropology, cultural and literary studies and politics. (Source text: https://academic.oup.com/liverpool-scholarship-online/book/43204?login=false) 

Peschel, L. A. (2012). “A Joyful Act of Worship”: Survivor Testimony on Czech Culture in the Terezín Ghetto and Postwar Reintegration in Czechoslovakia, 1945-48. Holocaust and Genocide Studies, 26(2), 209–228. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1093/hgs/dcs032 

This article examines memoirs by three survivors of the Terezín (Theresienstadt) ghetto about the cultural life of the ghetto in the context of postwar reintegration. Czech Jewish survivors of the concentration camps struggled to reintegrate to a society very different from pre-war Czechoslovakia; they faced rejection of German-language culture, the shift to the political Left and postwar antisemitism. Given that the bilingual authors represented both Czech- and German-language prewar cultures, they had to overcome the suspicion engendered by the prewar association with German-language culture. This article illustrates how they attempted to establish common ground with non-Jewish Czechs. (Source text: https://doi.org/10.1093/hgs/dcs032) 

Said, E. W. (1993). Intellectual Exile: Expatriates and Marginals. Grand Street, 47, 112–124. Available at: https://doi.org/10.2307/25007703 

This article discusses the history and transformation of exile in the 20th century, as a punishment or forced displacement, not only of special individuals, but also whole communities and peoples. Said challenges the notion that being exiled means being completely isolated and separated from one’s place of origin. He examines the modern exile, in particular, the intellectual exile in terms of liberation and marginality. (Source text: pages 113-114 of article)

Sassen, S. (1999). Guests and Aliens. New York: New Press. Available at: https://archive.org/details/guestsaliens0000sass_y7d6 

This book analyzes worldwide immigration, providing historical context of global border crossing, for instance, the mass migrations of Italians and Eastern European Jews during the 19th and 20th centuries, especially after the end of the Second World War, and the consequent development of the notion of the ‘refugee’. Sassen examines the causes of immigration, the welcoming or rejection of incomers into receiving nations as either ‘guests’ or ‘aliens’, and new approaches to improving U.S. and European immigration policies. Useful for anyone interested in migration studies or immigration policymaking. (Source text: https://thenewpress.com/books/guests-aliens) 

Bonfiglio, T. P. (2013). “Inventing the Native Speaker.” Critical Multilingualism Studies, vol. 1, no. 2, pp. 29–58. Available at: https://cms.arizona.edu/index.php/multilingual/article/view/29/55 

This book examines the ideological legacy behind terminology linked to language and linguistics, analyzing their connotations of empowerment and disempowerment. For instance, the true meaning and alienation behind terms such as ‘native speaker’, ‘native language’ and ‘mother tongue’. Bonfiglio traces the history and construction of ethnolinguistic nationalism and engages in discourse about racial impressions of language. (Source text: in-text abstract)

Canagarajah, A. Suresh. (2017)The Routledge Handbook of Migration and Language. 1st ed., Routledge
Available at: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315754512.

In the context of recent forms of globalization, migration has engendered profound social changes and challenged scholars to rethink their disciplinary constructs. The Routledge Handbook of Migration and Language surveys this controversial topic through: coverage of issues like identity, superdiversity, & citizenship and the role language plays in their definition and practice; analysis of migrant experiences in geographical and historical context; exploration of new research orientations; investigation of the place of language in citizenship, educational policies, employment, economy, and social services. This handbook is essential reading for those with an interest in a more general migration studies with language as a specific perspective.

Canagarajah, S. (2012). Translingual Practice: Global Englishes and Cosmopolitan Relations. London: Routledge. Available at: https://doi-org.proxy.bib.uottawa.ca/10.4324/9780203073889

This book combines multilingual studies, sociolinguistics and new literacy studies to offer a new perception of the use of English within a global context, exploring its role as an International Language and a Lingua Franca, and challenging traditional approaches in second language acquisition and English language teaching. Chapters cover theorizing and recovering translingual practice; English as translingual; translingual negotiation strategies; pluralizing academic writing; negotiating translingual literacy; reconfiguring translocal spaces; developing performative competence; and finally, a dialogical cosmopolitanism. Useful reading for those interested in multilingualism, world Englishes and intercultural communication. (Source text: https://doi-org.proxy.bib.uottawa.ca/10.4324/9780203073889) 

Garde, Ulrike. “Spotlight on Literary Strategies of Multilingual (Post)Migrant Drama in the Play The Situation.” Journal of Literary Multilingualism [Leiden | Boston], vol. 1, no. 2, November 2023, pp. 240–62,
Available at: https://doi.org/10.1163/2667324x-20230207.

Yael Ronen and Ensemble’s award-winning play and theatre production The Situation, first staged at Berlin’s Maxim Gorki Theater in 2015, features monologues and dialogues spoken in Arabic, English, German, Hebrew and Russian (made accessible to audiences via German and English supertitles). My analysis interprets this multilingualism both as a literary strategy that creates fluid meanings and identities, and as a contribution to the decentring of German as the dominant language of the German theatre landscape. Combining a philological approach to multilingualism with insights gained through tools offered by theatre studies and cultural studies, the article also shows how the playwright and director’s poetic and dramaturgical strategies contribute to The Situation serving as an intervention that questions the ‘automatic’ coupling of linguistic with cultural, national and/or ethnic identities in a (post)migrant theatre created by artists with personal experiences of migration. This source is useful for analyzing how migrant performance uses language to contest national belonging and reshape theatrical space.

Holmes, Prue, and Beatriz Peña Dix. “A Research Trajectory for Difficult Times: Decentring Language and Intercultural Communication.” Language and Intercultural Communication [Abingdon], vol. 22, no. 3, May 2022, pp. 337–53.
Available: https://doi.org/10.1080/14708477.2022.2068563.

Description: This study engages with how creative arts, methods and intercultural pedagogy, can be used to aid new forms of language and intercultural learning within the context of conflict. The work uses Augusto Boal’s “Theatre of the Oppressed” and critical pedagogy. It aims to open a space for a social activist stance within language and intercultural communication education.

O’Brien, S. (2017). Linguistic Diasporas, Narrative and Performance The Irish in Argentina. Springer International Publishing. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-51421-5 Available at: https://books.scholarsportal.info/en/read?id=/ebooks/ebooks4/springer4/2019-06-29/1/9783319514215 

This book explores the present-day Irish Diaspora in Argentina, using oral narrative and a sociolinguistic theoretical framework to characterize contemporary Hiberno-Argentine identity. O’Brien analyzes the spoken memories and discourses of Irish-Argentine descendants to trace the socio-political evolution of a bilingual, bicultural community from World War II to the present day. Challenges of preconceived notions of what it is to be Irish in the New World. Useful to an interdisciplinary audience including scholars of migration, oral history, folklore, bilingualism, memory, sociolinguistics, narrative performance and Irish Diaspora studies. (Source text: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51421-5) 

Phipps, A. (2019). Decolonizing Multilingualism: Struggles to Decreate. Bristol: Multilingual Matters. Available at: https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ottawa/detail.action?docID=5786548 

This book argues that multilingualism is a largely colonial practice across the world given that language policies and curricula usually favor colonial and imperial languages (such as English, Spanish, French, Chinese and more), whilst many minority and indigenous languages remain endangered or extinct. Phipps offers a series of autoethnographic narra­tives, fragments, poems, interludes, critical reflections and some theoretical engagement which seeks to decolonize multilingualism. (Source text: Introduction of the book)

Piller, Ingrid. (2016) Linguistic Diversity and Social Justice : An Introduction to Applied Sociolinguistics. First edition., Oxford University Press
Available at:  https://doi-org.proxy.bib.uottawa.ca/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199937240.001.0001.

Understanding and addressing linguistic disadvantage must be a central facet of the social justice agenda of our time. This book explores the ways in which linguistic diversity mediates social justice in liberal democracies undergoing rapid change due to high levels of migration and economic globalization. Focusing on the linguistic dimensions of economic inequality, cultural domination, and imparity of political participation, Linguistic Diversity and Social Justice employs a case-study approach to real-world instances of linguistic injustice. Linguistic diversity is a universal characteristic of human language, but linguistic diversity is rarely neutral; rather, it is accompanied by linguistic stratification and linguistic subordination. Domains critical to social justice include employment, education, and community participation. The book offers a detailed examination of the connection between linguistic diversity and inequality in these specific contexts within nation-states that are organized as liberal democracies. Inequalities exist not only between individuals and groups within a state but also between states. Therefore, the book also explores the role of linguistic diversity in global injustice with a particular focus on the spread of English as a global language. Although it doesn’t directly address theatre or the performing arts, it can support readings of migrant performance as a space where linguistic injustice is staged, exposed, and even contested.

Stroinska, M. and Cecchetto, V. (2003) Exile, Language and Identity. Frankfurt an Mein: Peter Lang. Available at: https://search.worldcat.org/title/52948515 

This text examines the process of the exile’s self-translation, the way they must rediscover a new language or way of expression to help them illustrate their experience of loss – of their home and identity – and also healing. Authors discuss the unavoidable losses wrought upon immigrants, exiles and refugees by their displacement, advancing our understanding of these problems and the process of rebuilding shattered identities. (Source text: https://www.peterlang.com/document/1095112)

Yildiz, Y. (2011). Beyond the Mother Tongue: The Postmonolingual Condition. New York: Fordham University Press.
Available at: https://doi-org.proxy.bib.uottawa.ca/10.5422/fordham/9780823241309.001.0001 

This book  argues that monolingualism (the idea of having just one language as the norm) , although a recent invention, is a dominant structuring principle of modernity. Multilingual forms and practices are thus perceived as a threat to the cohesion of individuals and communities, institutions and disciplines. Chapters focus on canonical and minority writers working in German (Franz Kafka, Theodor W. Adorno, Yoko Tawada, Emine Sevgi Özdamar, Feridun Zaimoğlu) which suggest that the dimensions of gender, kinship, and affect encoded in the “mother tongue” are crucial to the persistence of monolingualism and the challenge of multilingualism. (Source text: https://doi-org.proxy.bib.uottawa.ca/10.5422/fordham/9780823241309.001.0001)

Adair, G., Fasselt, R., & McLaughlin, C. (Eds.). (2025). The Routledge companion to migration literature. Routledge. Available at: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003270409

This text demonstrates the influence of the “age of migration” on literature and showcases the role of literature in shaping socio-political debates and creating knowledge about the migratory trajectories, lives, and experiences that have shaped the post-1989 world. Contributors examine a broad range of literary texts and critical approaches that cover the spectrum between voluntary and forced migration. They reflect the shift in recent years from the author-centric study of migrant writing to a more inclusive conception of migration literature. The book contains sections on key terms and critical approaches in the field; important genres of migration literature; a range of forms and trajectories of migration, with a particular focus on the global South; and on migration literature’s relevance in social contexts outside the academy. (Source text: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003270409)

Beer, R. (2011). GESTURING TO AN EMPTY THEATRE? Author, Text and Audience in the Fiction of Fatou Diome and Aïssatou Diamanka‐Besland. Relief : Revue Electronique de Littérature Française, 5(1), 44–61. Available at: https://doi.org/10.18352/relief.657 

In this article, Beer examines the context, works and themes of Fatou Diome and Aïssatou Diamanka‐Besland, Senegalese women migrant novelists who have addressed the theme of irregular migration between Senegal and France and its associated dangers in their literature. Beer considers the authors’ treatment of the theme of migration which raises questions about the relationship between the Senegalese novelist, her text and her multiple readerships, as well as questions regarding the authorial positioning of the migrant writer. (Source text: https://doi.org/10.18352/relief.657) 

Boyce-Davies, C. (1994). Black Women, Writing and Identity: Migrations of the Subject. London: Routledge Taylor & Francis Group. Available at: https://doi-org.proxy.bib.uottawa.ca/10.4324/9780203201404

This book stimulates discourse surrounding the representation of and by black women and women of color, challenging our understanding of identity, location and representation. Boyce-Davies opens the Introduction with a migration narrative, with a personal account of her mother’s own migration to the United States. Boyce-Davies covers the following topics: re-mapping, re-naming and cultural crossings; tourist ideologies and world traveling; gender, heritage and identity; African women’s writing and resistance to domination; marginality, effacement and decentering; gender, language and the politics of location. (Source text: https://doi-org.proxy.bib.uottawa.ca/10.4324/9780203201404 and Introduction)

Hitchcott, N. (2006). Calixthe Beyala: Performances of Migration (1st ed.). Liverpool University Press. DOI: 10.5949/liverpool/9781846310287.003.0001 Available at: https://books-scholarsportal-info.proxy.bib.uottawa.ca/uri/ebooks/ebooks3/oso/2013-06-07/1/upso-9781846310287-Hitchcott 

Nicki Hitchcott considers the representation and the literary works of Calixthe Beyala, the most successful female writer from Francophone Africa and someone who was convicted for plagiarism; both an “authentic” African author and a proven literary “fake”.  Hitchcott examines representations of Beyala in the media; critical responses to her writing; Beyala’s efforts to position herself as a feminist who defends women’s rights; and the themes of migration and identity in Beyala’s novels. (Source text: https://academic.oup.com/liverpool-scholarship-online/book/17296) 

Kristeva, J. (2024). Strangers to Ourselves. Trans. Roudiez, Leon. New York: Columbia University Press. Available at: https://doi-org.proxy.bib.uottawa.ca/10.7312/kris21461

Kristeva approaches the idea of the stranger—the foreigner, outsider or alien in a country and society not their own—as well as the notion of strangeness within the self, when a person feels that their outside appearance is distinct from their conscious idea of self. Kristeva explores literary works, discussing the foreigner in Greek tragedy, in the Bible, and in the literature of the Middle Ages, Renaissance, Enlightenment, and the twentieth century. This book considers the legal status of foreigners throughout history. Useful for those interested in migration studies, philosophy, sociology, literature and the literature of migration. (Source text: https://doi-org.proxy.bib.uottawa.ca/10.7312/kris21461) 

Seyhan, A. (2001). Writing Outside the Nation. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Available at: https://login.proxy.bib.uottawa.ca/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=81074&site=ehost-live&ebv=EB&ppid=pp_Cover 

This book compares American and German diasporic contemporary literatures by bilingual and bicultural writers writing outside their first language in order to develop a new approach to observe the connection between displacement, memory and language. Seyhan analyzes themes of loss, witness, translation, identity, and exclusion in diasporic literatures and its important role in archiving histories impacted by migration and connecting distant cultural traditions. Seyhan argues that Germany’s cultural transformation suggests new ways of reading American literature. Useful for anyone interested in postcolonial studies, diaspora and migration studies, and transnational literature. (Source text: https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691050997/writing-outside-the-nation?srsltid=AfmBOorsnNKtRaEg_FpCJ_9StPD1j0g47ahVwli7HBVFBDk2ESfJ1rYk) 

Deleuze, G., and Guattari, F., (Massumi, B., Trans.). (1987). A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia. London; Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. Available at: https://files.libcom.org/files/A%20Thousand%20Plateaus.pdf 

This book includes social and psychological analyses for feminists, literary theorists, social scientists, philosophers, and others interested in the problems of contemporary Western culture. It occupies a key space to the development of late-20th century critical theory, positioned at the center of reassessing the works of Freud and Marx from an entirely new approach. (Source text: https://www.upress.umn.edu/9780816614028/a-thousand-plateaus/)

Derrida, J., Dufourmantelle, A., (Bowlby, R., Trans.). (2000). Of Hospitality. Stanford: Stanford University Press. Available at: https://search.worldcat.org/title/44676000 

These two lectures by Jacques Derrida, ‘Foreigner Question’ and ‘Step of Hospitality/No Hospitality’, derive from a series of seminars on ‘hospitality’ conducted by Derrida in Paris, January 1996. The book consists of two texts on facing pages. ‘Invitation’ by Anne Dufourmantelle appears on the left, clarifying and inflecting Derrida’s ‘response’ on the right. The interaction between them not only enacts the ‘hospitality’ under discussion, but preserves something of the rhythms of teaching. The volume also combines careful readings of canonical texts and philosophical topics, using ‘hospitality’ as a means of rethinking a range of political and ethical situations. ‘Hospitality’ is viewed as a question of what arrives at the borders, in the initial surprise of contact with another, a stranger, a foreigner. (Source text: https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=633) 

Lévinas, E., (Lingis, A., Trans.). (1969). Totality and infinity : an essay on exteriority. Pittsburgh; Pennsylvania : Duquesne University Press. Available at: https://archive.org/details/totalityinfinity0000levi 

Influenced in part by the dialogical philosophies of Franz Rosenzweig and Martin Buber, this book departs from the ethically neutral tradition of ontology to analyze the face-to-face relation with the Other. This has become one of the classics of modern philosophy. (Source text: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/751683.Totality_and_Infinity)

Agamben, G., (Binetti and Casarino, Trans.). (2000). Means without End: Notes on Politics. Theory Out of Bounds. (Vol. 20). Minneapolis: Minnesota Press. Available at: https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5749/j.ctttttww 

Through a contemporary lens, Agamben seeks to identify political patterns and behaviors in experiences that are not typically viewed as political: natural human life; temporary suspension of the rule of law; the concentration camp as a hybrid of public, private and political spheres; the status and role of the formerly marginal refugee figure in the modern nation-state; and how language seeks to define politics. Ambagen proposes a rethinking of traditional political thought through identifying and reevaluating the relationship between politics, power structures and contemporary life and returning ordinary human life back to the center of political thought. (Source text: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/85831.Means_Without_End) 

Castles, S. (2002). ‘International Migration at the Beginning of the Twenty-First Century.’ International Social Science Journal, 52 (165), 269–81. Available at: https://doi-org.proxy.bib.uottawa.ca/10.1111/1468-2451.00258 

This article discusses the impacts of globalization and the increasing volume of international migrants in relation to social transformation and development around the world. However, whilst some migrants are classified as positive, the mobility of other migrants are viewed as negative and restricted. Castles address the causes and patterns of migration, development, international cooperation, settlement, ethnic diversity, cultural exchange and the challenges migration could pose to the nation-state. (Source text: https://doi-org.proxy.bib.uottawa.ca/10.1111/1468-2451.00258)

Cheatham, A. and Roy, D. (2024). ‘What Is Canada’s Immigration Policy?’ Council On Foreign Relations, March 28, 2024. Available at: https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/what-canadas-immigration-policy

This article discusses Canada’s role as a global leader in refugee resettlement as a popular receptor of immigration which values multiculturalism. Foreign-born people now account for almost one quarter of the population. However, despite the vital role that immigrants play in Canada’s economy, helping to counter aging demographics and fuel economic growth, there are concerns about increasing demand for housing and social services. Canada’s history and patterns of immigration is elaborated in more depth, including its impact on shaping Canadian society and culture. (Source text: https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/what-canadas-immigration-policy) 

De Genova, N., & Roy, A. (2020). Practices of Illegalisation. Antipode, 52(2), 352–364. Wiley Online Library. Available at: doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/anti.12602 

This article aims to draw connections and continuities between: the illegalization of migrant and refugee mobilities due to lawmaking or other border policing and immigration law enforcement; the illegalization of the rights, claims and juridical status of minoritized citizens; and the connection between law and terror. Study in this field allows critical poverty scholarship to better analyze how socio-political classifications related to marginalization may arise or be reinforced as a result of the state’s legal productions of illegality. This topic has gained relevance given the resurgence of right-wing nationalisms today. (Source text:  https://doi.org/10.1111/anti.12602)

Goldring, L., and Landolt, P. (2013). Producing and negotiating non-citizenship: precarious legal status in Canada. University of Toronto Press. Available at: https://books-scholarsportal-info.proxy.bib.uottawa.ca/uri/ebooks/ebooks3/utpress/2013-08-29/1/9781442663862 

This book examines legal status, rights and non-citizenship in Canada, considering a variety of different people whose journey to citizenship is either uncertain or impossible – from migrant workers, students and refugee claimants to people with expired permits. Authors consider the non-citizen’s precarious status and migrant illegality in Canada, as well as everyday experiences of precarious status among various social groups, aiming to conceptualize multiple forms of precarious status non-citizenship. (Source text: https://muse.jhu.edu/book/106291/) 

Kim, J. (2011). Establishing Identity: Documents, Performance, and Biometric Information in Immigration Proceedings. Law & Social Inquiry, 36(3), 760–786. Available at: http://www.jstor.org/stable/23011889 

This article analyzes how during family-based immigration in South Korea (specifically return migration from China) it is difficult for migrants and immigration bureaucrats to establish kinship and marital status to secure or limit migrants’ access to the labor market and citizenship, also using fieldwork to demonstrate the use of identity tags to authenticate family relations and more. This article highlights normative orderings that inform migrants’ strategies and their challenge to the criminalizing and stigmatizing perception of the immigration state. (Source text: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1747-4469.2011.01249.x)

Lowe, L. (1996). Immigrant Acts: On Asian American Cultural Politics. Duke University Press. Available at: https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ottawa/detail.action?docID=3007850 

Lowe examines the historical, political, cultural, and aesthetic meanings of immigration in relation to Asian Americans. Due to exclusionary laws, bars from citizenship and the memory of U.S. wars in Asia, Asian Americans are distanced from national culture and seen as the perpetual immigrant or foreigner. However, rather than a sign of “failed” integration of Asians into the American cultural sphere, Lowe opens up different possibilities for political practice and coalition across racial and national borders. Distance from the American national culture constitutes Asian American culture as an alternative site that produces its own cultural forms. Useful to anyone concerned with race and ethnicity in the United States, American cultures, immigration, and transnationalism. (Source text: https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ottawa/detail.action?docID=3007850) 

McKinnon, S. L. (2009). Citizenship and the Performance of Credibility: Audiencing Gender-based Asylum Seekers in U.S. Immigration Courts. Text and Performance Quarterly, 29(3), 205–221. Available at: https://doi-org.proxy.bib.uottawa.ca/10.1080/10462930903017182 

This article argues that the possibility of access to U.S. citizenship is increasingly dependent on asylum seekers’ ability to appear coherently credible, grounded on the performance conventions of good speech, narrative rationality, and embodied affect. McKinnon focuses on the conventions of audiencing used by immigration judges to evaluate the credibility performed by asylum seekers. By examining cases made by women who claim asylum on the basis of gendered violence, we can observe the subjects most impacted by the dynamics of credibility. (Source text: https://doi-org.proxy.bib.uottawa.ca/10.1080/10462930903017182)

Mezzadra, S., and Neilson, B. (2013). Border as Method, or, the Multiplication of Labor. Duke University Press. Available at: https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ottawa/detail.action?docID=1603738 

The authors investigate the implications of contemporary globalization and borders for migratory movements, capitalist transformations and political life. The authors examine the atmospheric violence surrounding borderlands and border struggles across several geographical scales, with case studies across continents. Their work enables new perspectives on the crisis of the nation-state and a powerful reassessment of citizenship and sovereignty. (Source text: https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ottawa/detail.action?docID=1603738) 

Moraña, M. (Ed.). (2021). Liquid Borders: Migration as Resistance (1st ed.). London: Routledge. Available at: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003142911 

This book provides an analysis of the large-scale migration of people across borders in recent years. Contributors analyze key issues regarding: diasporic movements; displacements; exiles; “illegal” migrants; border crossings; deportations; maritime ventures; and the militarization of borders from political, economic, and cultural perspectives. Contributors engage with the concept of freedom of movement and introduce a new way of thinking surrounding citizenship and sovereignty. Includes cases from the Mediterranean, Australia, the US/Mexico border, Venezuela, and deterritorialized sectors in Colombia and Central America.  A useful text to policy makers and to researchers across the humanities, sociology, area studies, politics, international relations, geography, and migration and border studies. (Source text: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003142911) 

Nail, T. (2015). MIGRANT COSMOPOLITANISM. Public Affairs Quarterly, 29(2), 187–199. Available at: http://www.jstor.org/stable/44713986 

This news article approaches the problem that global mass migration presents for political theory, in terms of the structural inequality that many migrants who do not receive full citizenship status or legal equality experience. Nail introduces the concept of “migrant cosmopolitanism” to refer to a new approach which refuses to structurally exclude the migrants and refugees within a nation-state. Nail engages with different political theories by renowned philosophers to develop the reader’s understanding of cosmopolitanism and migrant cosmopolitanism.

Rai, Shirin. 2018. ‘The Good Life and the Bad: Dialectics of Solidarity.’ Social Politics 25 (1), 1–19. Available at: https://doi-org.proxy.bib.uottawa.ca/10.1093/sp/jxx023 

This essay asks four questions about the good life. First, what place has recognition of exclusion in the politics of redistribution? Second, can we imagine a public good life without also paying attention to the private and how does the private leach into the public imagination of a good life? Third, what obligations of justice are necessary to ensure our shared good lives? Finally, can we imagine new ways of thinking about resistance and change through alliances of the excluded? (Source text:  https://doi-org.proxy.bib.uottawa.ca/10.1093/sp/jxx023)

Ribero, A. M. (2018). Drifting across the Border: On the radical potential of undocumented im/migrant activism in the US. Performance Research, 23(7), 95–102. Available at: https://doi-org.proxy.bib.uottawa.ca/10.1080/13528165.2018.1558389

Ribero analyzes a moment of im/migrant youth activism popularly known as the Dream 9 action, a group of young im/migrants who asked the US government for asylum in 2013. Ribero frames the Dream 9 an activist performance that re-signifies US/Mexico border politics and re-appropriates border spaces for social action. This article explores the ways in which the Dream 9 action confronted exclusionary im/migration policies and questioned the very idea of national borders. (Source text: https://doi-org.proxy.bib.uottawa.ca/10.1080/13528165.2018.1558389)

Sørensen, N. N., Van Hear, N., & Engberg-Pedersen, P. (2002). The Migration-Development Nexus: Evidence and Policy Options. IOM Migration Research Series. United Nations: International Organization for Migration. Available at: https://doi.org/10.18356/e48ad218-en 

This book offers an overview and evidence of current knowledge of migration-development dynamics and the consequences of development and humanitarian policy interventions. Contributors discuss the issues of: poverty and migration; conflicts, refugees and migration; migrants as a development resource; and aid and migration. The paper is split into four comprehensive sections about 1) international migration, globalization and conflict; 2) issues with the migration-development nexus; 3) relations between migration and development; and 4) challenges to the aid community and debates regarding selectivity in aid and relief. (Source text: https://doi.org/10.18356/e48ad218-en)

Ahmed, S., Castañeda, C., Fortier, A.-M., & Sheller, M. (Eds.). (2020). Uprootings/regroundings : questions of home and migration. Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group. Available at: https://doi-org.proxy.bib.uottawa.ca/10.4324/9781003087298 

This book examines the interdependence of mobility, migration and belonging by considering how homes are formed in relationship to movement and the flexible concept of home (rather than being set in a fixed location). Drawing on feminist and postcolonial theory, contributors rethink the notion of uprootings and what it means to be grounded. This book demonstrates how the movements of bodies and communities are intrinsic to the making of homes, nations, identities and boundaries, with contributors focusing on differences of race, gender, class and sexuality. Contributors reflect on the different experiences of being at home, leaving home, and going home, as well as exploring how an attachment to a place is created or challenged. (Source text: https://doi-org.proxy.bib.uottawa.ca/10.4324/9781003087298)

Alonso Bejarano, C., López Juárez, L., Mijangos García, M. A., & Goldstein, D. M. (2019). Decolonizing Ethnography: Undocumented Immigrants and New Directions in Social Science. Duke University Press. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1515/9781478004547 

In this book, authors offer a methodological and theoretical reassessment of social science research, demonstrating its multiple functions both as a vehicle for activism and a tool for marginalized people to talk about their lives. Authors offer their own insight of the connection between ethnographic practice and activism, including ethnographic field notes and an original bilingual play about workers’ rights. Useful for those wishing to achieve social transformation and decolonization through ethnography. (Source text: https://read.dukeupress.edu/books/book/2581/Decolonizing-EthnographyUndocumented-Immigrants) 

Arnado, J. M. (2010), Performances across Time and Space: Drama in the Global Households of Filipina Transmigrant Workers. International Migration, 48: 132-154. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2435.2010.00621.x 

This article employs Erving Goffman’s dramaturgical approach (explaining human behavior in terms of performance) in order to examine the everyday performances and social drama of transnational migrant workers in their contrasting roles as breadwinners in kinship households in the Philippines and as domestic workers or ‘maids’ in global households in Singapore. This research aims to explain variations of domestic workers’ performances and the overwhelming hardships and poor performances during the initial years of migrants’ employment versus the mastery of their performances in long-term employment. (Source text: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2435.2010.00621.x) 

Beller, M., and Leerssen, J. T., Eds. (2007). Imagology: The Cultural Construction and Literary Representation of National Characters: A Critical Survey. Amsterdam: Rodopi. Available at: https://search.worldcat.org/title/191856342 

The foreword challenges and considers Weber’s 1905 definition of nationality, analyzing what it means to be perceived as ‘typical’ of a specific nationality, and raising concerns regarding consequent stereotyping and caricatures of what could be considered characteristic of a nationality, culture or ethnicity. Throughout these 120 articles, contributors investigate how nationality stereotypes are determined and created. Split into three parts, it discusses: ethnic and national images represented in European literatures; an encyclopedia of stereotypes generally associated with certain ethnicities and nationalities; and finally, an overview of key concepts in several cultural fields and academic disciplines. (Source text: https://brill.com/display/title/29975?language=en)

Brettell, C. B. (2022). Theorizing Migration in Anthropology: The Cultural, Social, Phenomenological, and Embodied Dimensions of Human Mobility. In Migration Theory (4th ed., Vol. 1, pp. 194–231). Routledge. Available at: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003121015-6 

This chapter provides an anthropological approach to migration. Brettell discusses a brief review of research methods; the formulation of typologies; theories of articulation between sending and receiving societies, including discourse on the critical concepts of transnationalism and the “culture of migration”; the relational and gendered dimensions of migration and settlement; an exploration of race and ethnicity, identity, citizenship and belonging; and the role of governmentality and the state in the lives of immigrants. (Source text: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003121015-6) 

D’Onofrio, A. (2017). Reaching for the Horizon : Exploring Existential Possibilities of Migration and Movement within the Past-Present-Future through Participatory Animation. In Anthropologies and Futures: Researching Emerging and Uncertain Worlds, edited by Juan Francisco Salazar et al. London: Routledge. pp. 189–207. Available at: https://doi-org.proxy.bib.uottawa.ca/10.4324/9781003084570 

This chapter focuses on participatory animation as a way to creatively engage with and imagine people’s life stories as a way of advancing ethnographic practices. The animated film can help us identify and represent particular kinds of experience and perceptions, which is difficult to sufficiently express in another way. (Source text: https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781003084570-12/reaching-horizon-exploring-existential-possibilities-migration-movement-within-past-present-future-participatory-animation-alexandra-onofrio) 

De Genova, N. (2002). Migrant “Illegality” and Deportability in Everyday Life. Annual Review of Anthropology, 31, 419–447. Available at: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4132887

This article engages with the scholarship concerning undocumented migration. The author aims to elaborate on the theoretical status of migrant “illegality” and deportability to aid the conceptualization of further research in this field. The study of migrant “illegality” is considered an epistemological, methodological, and political problem, in order to then be formulated as a theoretical problem. The author will use historically informed accounts of sociopolitical processes of “illegalization” to support their argument. Useful for researchers seeking to focus on the aspects of the everyday life of undocumented migrants and the idea of “illegality”. (Source text: in-text abstract on the first page/p419)

Leurs, K., & Ponzanesi, S. (2024). Doing Digital Migration Studies : Theories and Practices of the Everyday. (1st ed.). Amsterdam University Press. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1515/9789048555758 

This book offers an entry point to the theoretical debates, methodological interventions, political discussions and ethical debates surrounding migrant forms of belonging articulated through digital practices. Digital technologies impact everyday migrant lives, whilst at the same time migrants also play a key role in technological developments. This anthology engages with international experts who pluralize our understanding of ‘the migrant’ and ‘the digital’. The anthology is organized into five different sections: Creative Practices; Digital Diasporas and Placemaking; Affect and Belonging; Visuality and digital media and Datafication, Infrastructuring, and Securitization. (Source text: https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9789048555758/html) 

Murcia, L. E. P., & Bonfanti, S. (2023). Finding Home in Europe : Chronicles of Global Migrants. (1st ed.). New York; Oxford: Berghahn Books. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1515/9781800738515 

A compilation of archived interviews from nine transnational migrants and refugees across five European countries, this book critically engages with the personal experience of home by those who move. Subaltern migrants and refugees use the political strength of their voices to help combat the notion that they are ‘out of place’ or cannot claim their right to belong. (Source text: https://doi.org/10.1515/9781800738515)

Sheller, M., & Urry, J. (2006). The New Mobilities Paradigm. Environment and Planning. A, 38(2), 207–226. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1068/a37268 

A ‘mobility turn’ is transforming the social sciences, transcending the dichotomy between transport research and social research, putting social relations into travel and connecting different forms of transport with patterns of social experience. This article identifies a new paradigm within the social sciences; the ‘new mobilities’ paradigm. Contributors explore characteristics, properties, and implications of this emergent paradigm, especially documenting some novel mobile theories and methods. (Source text: https://doi.org/10.1068/a37268)

Cox, E. (2017). Processional Aesthetics and Irregular Transit: Envisioning Refugees in Europe. Theatre Journal (Washington, D.C.), 69(4), 477–496. DOI: 10.1353/tj.2017.0066 Available at: https://doi.org/10.1353/tj.2017.0066 

This essay discusses “processional aesthetics”, a term which Cox uses to describe a persistent mode of envisioning refugees as processional collectives through the intensively imaged and spectated movements of refugees and migrants into and across Europe. Cox seeks to make sense of processional aesthetics as a way of seeing and as an embodied practice responsive to refugees through an analysis of narrative and photographic representation (principally news media) and of collective embodied responses (including community marches, walks, parades, religious ceremonies, performance art). (Source text: https://doi.org/10.1353/tj.2017.0066) 

Davis, R.G., Fischer-Hornung, D., & Kardux, J.C. (Eds.). (2010). Aesthetic Practices and Politics in Media, Music, and Art: Performing Migration (1st ed.). New York: Routledge. Available at: https://doi-org.proxy.bib.uottawa.ca/10.4324/9780203844724

This collection of essays analyzes innovative forms of media and music (including art installations, television commercials, photography, films, songs, telenovelas) to examine the performance of migration in contemporary culture. Art and media clearly impact the way migration is articulated and recalled, influencing both individual perceptions and public policy. Contributors explore how forms of media shape how the host country and homeland are imagined. Topics include new forms for representing migration; widening how these representations may be analyzed; readings of enactments of memory in trans- and inter-disciplinary ways; and discussions of globalization and transnationalism. (Source text: https://doi-org.proxy.bib.uottawa.ca/10.4324/9780203844724) 

Hall, S. and Tawadros, G. (2024). Selected Writings on Visual Arts and Culture: Detour to the Imaginary, New York, USA: Duke University Press. Available at: https://chooser-crossref-org.proxy.bib.uottawa.ca/?doi=10.1215%2F9781478059332 

This volume assembles two dozen of Hall’s essays, lectures, reviews, catalog texts, and conversations on art, film, and photography. Providing rare insights into Hall’s engagement with the “radically different” intellectual and aesthetic space of the visual imaginary, these works articulate the importance of the visual as a site of contestation at the same time as it is a space in which Black artists and filmmakers reframe questions about diaspora, identity, and globalization. (Source text: https://read-dukeupress-edu.proxy.bib.uottawa.ca/books/book/3375/Selected-Writings-on-Visual-Arts-and-CultureDetour) 

Köhn, S. (2016). Mediating Mobility: Visual Anthropology in the Age of Migration. Columbia University Press. Available at: https://doi.org/10.7312/kohn17888 

This book examines the integral role of images in the political regulation of immigration and how visual representations gain political momentum, considering images that draw attention to those who accompany, show or conceal migrants. The author analyzes documentary approaches (of Ursula Biemann, Renzo Martens, Bouchra Khalili, Silvain George, Raphael Cuomo and Maria Iorio, Alex Rivera, and Rania Stepha) which explore questions concerning interrelations between politics and poetics, mobility and mediation, and the ethics of probability and possibility. Finally, Köhn discusses his own cinematic practice of the production of a trilogy of films exploring the potential to communicate the bodily, spatial, and temporal dimensions of the experience of migration. (Source text: https://cup.columbia.edu/book/mediating-mobility/9780231178884) 

Piredda, M. F. (2019). Il progetto “MigrArti”: finanziamento pubblico e accesso al mercato del cinema migrante in Italia. Schermi (Milano), 3(5), 117-133. Available at: https://doi.org/10.13130/2532-2486/10813 

(IN Italian) This essay focuses on MigrArti, a call opened by MiBAC in 2015 to promote creative initiatives in the fields of cinema, music, theatre and art, enabling migrants to introduce their traditions and their values in Italian society and culture. Piredda attempts to answer the question of which subjects, production/distribution models and themes gain support, and why, in order to address the continued marginality of films made by immigrants in Italy. Topics consider the concept of “Italian cinema” in relation to cultural shifts; provide a picture of the funding of migrant cinema in Italy; and analyze the structure of the MigrArti call. (Source text: https://doi.org/10.13130/2532-2486/10813) 

Mansour, C. (2011). On the Fallacies of Useful Art: Tanya Brugueras Immigrant Movement International. Seismopolite: Journal of Arts and Politics 2 (December). Available at: https://www.seismopolite.com/on-the-fallacies-of-useful-art-tania-brugueras-immigrant-movement-international 

This article considers the artwork of Tania Brubuera, a performance artist who works on a number of social projects and has recently started a center in Queens called the Immigrant Movement International (IMI) to help raise public awareness about the political situation of immigrants. Mansour observes Brubuera’s artwork and how she relates her practices to the new art-historical concept, “Arte Útil” (“useful art”), which Mansour argues could create more confusion than freedom. (Source text: in-text abstract/summary)