Existential Accounts of Iranian Displacement and the Cultural Meanings of Categories
2010; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 31; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1080/07256860903579061
ISSN1469-9540
Autores Tópico(s)Diaspora, migration, transnational identity
ResumoAbstract This paper examines the linguistic categories of identity amongst refugees and explores why Iranians living in Melbourne, Australia, construct themselves outside the ‘refugee’ category and in the process unpack the meanings embedded in the identity ‘refugee’. The Iranians in this study refuse to be categorised and fixed within a bureaucratically constructed refugee identity, which they believe, only seeks to ‘sort’ and ‘order’ displaced people. They do not see it as a meaningful category that gives expression to their experiences and stories of displacement, marginality and identity. Keywords: BelongingCategoriesDisplacementExileIdentityIraniansMigrationNarrativeRefugeeRoot Notes 1. Eight hundred and sixty-one persons in 1984, 1,022 in 1988, 960 in 1995, 989 in 2000 (see Crock, Saul and Dastyari). 2. The memorandum states that Iran would accept asylum seekers to be deported from Australia, in exchange for a cultural programme allowing educated young Iranians to go and experience the Australian lifestyle. 3. In a media announcement the government stated that: This would include providing reintegration assistance at $2,000 for each individual or up to $10,000 for each family and meeting the costs of airfares and travel documents. Detainees have 28 days from the date of formal notification in which to accept the offer. Should the offer not be accepted detainees will be returned to Iran without any of the benefits offered to voluntary participants. http://www.dimia.gov.au/media/media-releases/2003/d03031.htm 4. Hamid Naficy describes them as predominantly a Westernised, bourgeois community, who left after the fall of the Shah. See Naficy, The Making of Exile Cultures: Iranian Television in Los Angeles. In particular, Iranian ‘exiles’ in the USA while not homogenous tend to be represented either by being associated with US foreign policy or in relation to the axis of evil doctrine used by the former US President George W. Bush in his State of the Union Address on 29 January 2002 in order to describe nations helping terrorism and seeking weapons of mass destruction: Iran, Iraq and North Korea. 5. The leader of the People's Mujahideen is Miriam Rajavi and is based in Paris. This group took up arms against the Islamic republic in the 1980s. It established its military bases in Iraq and was supported by Saddam Hussein during the 1980s and till his regime's collapse after the American invasion of Iraq in 2002. 6. Muhammad and his followers experienced persecution which led to their migration from Mecca to Medina. 7. Although the term ‘gypsy’ is quite acceptable in Australian English it is not politically correct to use it in some countries. To prevent the possibility of offence when using this word I will use the world ‘traveller’ instead. 8. Gypsies are now referred to as Romani; however, it is debated as to whether there is such an ethnic group. 9. This usually connotes impurity and that they are contaminated, usually from a sexual context. Additional informationNotes on contributorsMammad Aidani Dr Mammad Aidani is a scholar with a background in socio-linguistics, philosophy, literature and psychology who is interested in the interdisciplinary dialogue between phenomenological methods, theories of meaning, social suffering and embodiment, and displaced narratives of migrants and refugees. Mammad is also a playwright, theatre maker and theatre director. Mammad's plays have been performed both in Australia and abroad. Mammad was the co-coordinator of the Creative Writing Unit at Footscray Community Arts Centre where he worked with youth, migrants and refugees on participatory creative writing and theatre projects
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