Abstract
Public discourses on citizenship, identity and nationality, which link
geographical borders and the political boundaries of a community, are infused
with tensions and contradictions. This paper illustrates how these tensions
are interwoven with multilayered notions of home, belonging, migration, citizenship
and individual’s ‘longing just to be’, focusing on the Dutch and the
British context. The narratives of a number of Dutch and British women, who
either immigrated to the respective countries or were born to immigrants, illustrate
how the growing rigid integration and assimilative discourses in Europe
contradict an individual anchoring in national and local communities. The narratives
of women participating in these studies show multilayered angles of
belonging presenting an alternative to the increasing strong argument for a
fixed notion of positioning and national belonging. The female ‘new’ citizens
in our study tell stories of individual choices, social mobility and a sense of
multiple belonging in and across different communities.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 725-741 |
Number of pages | 17 |
Journal | Identities: Global Studies in Culture and Power |
Volume | 19 |
Issue number | 6 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 02 Jan 2013 |
Keywords
- Dutch and British citizenship; migration; de-territorialisation
- Narrative Methods
- Politics of Belonging