Migrant Representations – Life Story, Investigation, Picture

Migrant Representations: Life-story, Investigation, Picture (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press / Oxford University Press (US edition / online; 2022; pp. 304)
Peter Leese, Associate Professor, Department of English, Germanic and Romance Studies, University of Copenhagen.

Short description

‘Migrant Representations’ explores the depiction of migrant experiences from the late 18^th to the early 21^st century through a series of contrasting, comparative case studies. Two questions frame my account. First, how were the lives of migrants rendered in the past? Second, how has the contemporary figure of the migrant (asylum seeker, benefits scrounger, self-made entrepreneur, etc) been constructed historically, politically and aesthetically? The book contextualises, analyses and compares accounts from migrants who have connections with Britain, with comparisons or parallel cases from elsewhere. The analysis of life-stories is complemented by the theme of investigation: how politically motivated observers, journalists, anthropologists have interpreted the lives and experiences of migrants. The interplay between self-representation and the investigation of the migrant experience is discussed in the third section of the study, which gathers visual evidence from both groups. Throughout I explore the sense-making procedures (talking, writing, filming), social networks (family, community, diaspora) and cultural resources (history, language, genres) used by migrants and their observers. My intention is not to give a comprehensive overview or ‘history of migration’ but to acknowledge and investigate the varieties of migrant experience, to more fully recognise singularity.

Extended description

How do migrants see themselves? How are migrants seen and understood by their host societies? In our global age of mobile labour, instant opinion and intense social division, these two questions demand deeper and more complex understanding. As a serial migrant who moved from England to Poland (1992-2009) and then to Denmark (in 2009), I see these questions as vivid, practical concerns affecting the everyday life of my Anglo-Polish-Danish family. My individual life story of migration informs and enhances my professional perspective on the migrant. As a social and cultural historian, with an expertise in trauma studies, I use my varied disciplinary background, wide geographical expertise and eclectic methodologies in my innovative approach to the study of migrants.

Migrant Representations: Life-story, Investigation, Picture, my recently published monograph with Liverpool University Press (in the UK; and Oxford University Press in the US) employs a unique methodology and structure to investigate its subject. My monograph consists of a sequence of ‘snapshot moments’ that examine the figure of the migrant in Britain, in Europe, and globally, at particular times from the late 18^th to the early 21^st century. The study proceeds through this series of contrasting, comparative case studies to address two research questions. First, how have images of movement, mobility and settlement been constructed in speech, writing and picture by individuals who have first-hand experience of migration: for instance, in the diary of an Irish labourer, the films and photographs of a Lithuanian refugee, or the tape-recorded letters of an Indian doctor? Second, how have speech, writing and picture been used to make ‘outside’ representations of the migrant, for example, a missionary’s report, journalist’s photographs or next-door neighbour’s letters? By considering these two broad questions, I investigate how migrants understand themselves and how others perceive or fail to see them. As a historian and serial migrant, I am fascinated by changes in migrant representation across time: I am eager to better understand how documents (police reports, social surveys, family photographs, among others) are produced and interpreted as knowledge.

These research questions are traditionally answered within nation-state or ethnic-group studies, but the globalised conditions of 21^st-century mobility require an altogether new methodology. My investigation is, therefore, a transnational, comparative and often micro-historical act of past making. It is a reading of historical changes, communicative events and individual life stories, which incorporates the Indian subcontinent, the Americas, eastern and western Europe, as well as parts of Africa. I examine cases connected to, but also contrasting with, Britain. Migrant Representations crosses thematic and geographical boundaries; I am particularly interested in personal stories that illuminate wider themes, but I also contextualise individuals and themes by the use of macro-historical overviews. In place of a continuous narrative, my study will use three contrasting analytic categories: psychological, social and visual.

In its geographical reach, my book compares life stories from both within and outside the western and English-speaking world. In each chapter I focus on two contrasting cases. The analysis of these instances of ‘Self-representation’ in Part One will be complemented by the theme of ‘Investigation’ in Part Two. Here I consider how various journalists, social scientists and film-makers have interpreted the lives and experiences of migrants. The interplay between ‘Self-representation’ and ‘Investigation’ is discussed in Part Three, ‘Picture’, which gathers visual evidence from both the migrants and the investigators. Throughout, the study explores the sense-making procedures (talking, writing, filming), social networks (family, community, diaspora) and cultural resources (history, language, genre) used by migrants and their observers. My aim is not to give a comprehensive ‘history of migration’ overview, but to acknowledge and explore the varieties of migrant representation, to raise critical questions and to recognize singularity.

Migrant Representations constitutes a transnational cultural history from below; its comparative perspective juxtaposes non-western and western accounts on an equal footing to give new insights. There is, to my knowledge, no precedent for, or previous example of, such a history. My approach reflects a particular understanding of historical knowledge best summarised by Raphael Samuel, who sees such a history as ‘a hybrid form of knowledge, syncretising past and present, memory and myth, the written record and the spoken word’. To achieve this kind of hybrid synthesis, I ‘triangulate’ the migrant figure via telling, interpreting and looking in order to consider how our understandings of migration and migrants have changed.

In conceiving and constructing this study, I have drawn on not only professional historical practice, but also a broader critical-interpretive dissenting tradition. In particular, I have been inspired by the highly praised, innovative and influential non-fiction trilogy (1967-82) by John Berger, writer, and Jean Mohr, photographer. Especially their second book, A Seventh Man (1975), is an illuminating expression of changes in the aesthetics of migrant representation from the later 20^th century. Berger and Mohr’s model of investigation into the lives of the culturally deprived is fundamental to my new readings. My monograph will not replicate Berger and Mohr’s aesthetic moves, but on a far larger historical and geographical scale will seek to humanise, bring new insights, and more fully acknowledge the varieties of migrant experience. Additionally, my ongoing parallel research into histories of trauma has proven highly relevant to a deeper understanding of the social and psychological processes of migration and related memory formation. Trauma, troubled memories and the remembered self are important aspects of the migrant experience; understanding them is crucial to comprehend changing self-interpretations of migrants across their lifetimes.

Migrant Representations is a provocative intervention in scholarly and public debates on global mobility. Its central concern is a radically new appreciation of the imaginative, psychological and social processes related to movement, adaptation and settlement. The book’s hybrid synthesis of narrative psychology, social and cultural history as well as textual analysis generate innovative, transferable and trans-disciplinary methodologies. It monograph reveals a fuller, historicised understanding of the interaction between cultures, personal memory procedures and public discourses surrounding the image of the migrant. This unique and revealing study engages both general readers and scholars from across a range of disciplines.

'Migrantrepresentationer' udforsker skildringen af ​​migrantoplevelser fra slutningen af ​​det 18. til det tidlige 21. århundrede gennem en række kontrasterende, komparative casestudier. To spørgsmål indrammer min fortælling. Det første er, hvordan blev migranternes liv fortalt/husket i fortiden? Det andet spørgsmål er, hvordan blev den moderne migrantfigur (asylansøger, kontanthjælpsmodtager, selvstændig iværksætter osv.) konstrueret historisk, politisk og æstetisk? Bogen kontekstualiserer, analyserer og sammenligner beretninger fra migranter, der har forbindelser til Storbritannien, sammenlignet med lignede eller sideløbende cases fra andre steder. Analysen af ​​livshistorier suppleres med undersøgelsestemaet: Hvordan politisk motiverede observatører, journalister, antropologer har fortolket migranters liv og oplevelser. Samspillet mellem selvrepræsentation og undersøgelsen af ​​migrantoplevelsen diskuteres i studiets tredje afsnit, som samler visuelle beviser fra begge grupper. Igennem hele skildringen, udforsker jeg de meningsskabende handlemåder (at tale, skrive, filme), sociale netværk (familie, samfund, diaspora) og kulturelle ressourcer (historie, sprog, genrer), der bruges af migranter og deres observatører. Hensigt er ikke at give et omfattende overview eller 'migrationshistorie', men at anerkende og undersøge de forskellige migranterfaringer, for at skabe en mere dybdegående anerkendelse af det enkelte menneske.