Cultures in Refuge by Anna Hayes Robert Mason

Author:Anna Hayes, Robert Mason [Anna Hayes, Robert Mason]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781409484028
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Ashgate Publishing Ltd
Published: 2012-11-28T00:00:00+00:00

Memories of Loss

Australian immigration has been characterized historically by an unwillingness to condone migrants bringing past political experiences or disputes into their new homes. This is, in part, connected to the country’s desire to attract long-term settlers rather than short-term transient labourers. However, a better appreciation of migrants’ historical pasts and sense of personal biography can greatly enrich Australia’s capacity to settle newcomers effectively. This is particularly crucial with regards to migrants from regions that have undergone significant political or social violence, such as the country’s many Latin American residents.

Latin America has a long history of colonialism at the hands of various imperial powers, informing a widespread social consciousness about imperialism and dispossession among many inhabitants. The United States’ long history of involvement in the region was articulated most clearly in the nineteenth century Monroe Doctrine. This imperialism achieved a heightened visibility in the Cold War, when intervention by the United States, in countries such as El Salvador or Nicaragua, was particularly direct. The conditions created by this intensified ‘neo-coloniality’ had a profound social and psychological impact on residents, who viewed the United States and capitalism as the agents of their woes. Moraña, Dussel and Jáuregui (2008) note the close association between the contemporary effects of coloniality and critiques of occidentalism and modernity throughout Latin America. The discourses surrounding resistance to coloniality are many and varied but remain intimately tied to local space and social practice.

A sense of enduring historical injustice and its experience at the communal level is a powerful motivator for political action. While such action has often been violent and contested in Latin America, it derives continued meaning and vibrancy through everyday expressions of resistance that are enacted at the local level throughout the continent. Oral and subaltern histories of resistance to coloniality form nodal points in contemporary communities’ social memories. The sense of historical injustice and resistance continues to inform actions that seek to overturn continued practices of colonialism, and identities that typically focus on experiences of economic inequality, social justice and political corruption. Ollick’s (2007) discussion regarding the ‘politics of regret’ is a useful aid through which to understand these groups’ contemporary engagement with past atrocities and the use of historical lessons to legitimate current actions. Such actions, he argues, are not based on universal norms of human rights but on the particular experiences of the actors and their social needs.

What is the implication of this for those individuals who become forced migrants as a result of conflicts in Latin America? The process of migration is necessarily an experience of rupture and change, as social networks and capital are constituted anew. Yet, this sense of displacement is more profound for forced migrants and is frequently accompanied by traumatic memories of violence and loss. Such experiences compound existing traumas, creating memories seared by inalterable content and fractured from personal biographies (Mujcinovic 2003). It is within this context that refugees and forced migrants must find new ways to ‘re-story’ (Bowman 1999) their life narratives in new homes that have only limited capacity to provide empathetic support.

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