Who are Our National Heroes beyond National Borders?

The focus of this article is on monuments to national heroes built at the initiative of the Bulgarian nation state, political party or migrant community beyond the national borders. Three analytical perspectives are presented: geographical, cultural and social, given that monuments are both physical objects and represent non-physical relations. The place of a monument is essential in the interpretation of its function, reflecting intercommunity negotiations and the views of community elites regarding the place of the in the host society. Another basic issue is who Bulgarian national heroes are abroad, who has selected them, and what means and procedures brought them there. Our hypothesis connects the core of the national celebrations (both pantheon and calendar) within the national territory with its periphery in what is a dynamic system. These reflections are illustrated with three case studies: Botev’s monument in Beijing, Vazov’s bust in Moscow and Levski’s memorial plate in Yeniköy (Romania). An inventory and a map of all the monuments dedicated to these three figures are attached.

Queering the web archive: A xenofeminist approach to gender, function, language and culture in the London French Special Collection

Based on the author’s experience of curating a collection of migrant community web objects within the UK Web Archive, this paper combines conceptual interrogation with empirical analysis. The central premise is that the incorporation of multilingual, diasporic micro-archives serves to queer the anglophone UK Web Archive, or “patriarchive”, by dismantling steadfast binaries and implicit postcolonial hegemonies. The article challenges Jacques Derrida’s contention that the mal d’archive is the result of the archive’s ‘troubling’ duality, and posits, on the contrary, that such boundary-crossings are the very incarnation of a positive, transgressive form of xenofeminism (XF). From the dualism at the origin of the archive itself, to that comprised in the concept of genre/gender, and from the spatiotemporal in-betweenness of the archived diasporic (web)site to the translanguaging present therein, the article demonstrates how the diasporic micro-archive is the embodiment of a non-binary, trans-inclusive XF ideology. Taking French migrant women’s blogs preserved in the London French Special Collection as a primary source and examining their transformation over time, the paper explores how blog repurposing can be apprehended as a technomaterialist XF act and how the blogs’ increasing multimodal translanguaging bears witness to a form of culturo-linguistic transitioning that transcends binary hybridity.

Challenges of reverse migration in India: a comparative study of internal and international migrant workers in the post-COVID economy

In India, the major drivers of both internal and international migration are the prevailing unemployment, competitive labour market and enhanced livelihood prospects in the destination state or country. However, the nationwide lockdown and the sealing of inter-state and international borders to control the COVID-19 pandemic triggered the reverse migration of informal migrant workers. This requires the central and state governments to collectively forge strategies to enable their reverse migration and smooth reintegration in the post-COVID economy. In this paper, we have focused on the inter-state migrants in India and returnee migrants only from Gulf countries as they account for two-thirds of Indian migrants living abroad. This study conducted a comparative analysis of the Indian government’s varied approach towards its internal and international migrants during their reverse migration, repatriation and reintegration after the announcement of the lockdown. Firstly, the paper compares the challenges faced by internal and international migrant workers during these stages with the help of in-depth interview data collected from migrants and social workers. Secondly, the varied governmental responses towards their repatriation are discussed. Thirdly, it analyses the obstacles in their economic reintegration to help frame suitable welfare policies for the Indian migrant community.

Islamic Universalism or Ethno-nationalism? Exploring identity salience within a Kurdish migrant community in Britain

This article examines identity salience among members of a Kurdish Muslim migrant community in England. The study, in contrast to previous research on the Kurdish diaspora, focuses on religious identity in a small-city context, with recently arrived migrants, predominately from Iraqi Kurdistan. In-depth interviews highlight how ethnic repression within sending nations results in greater politicisation of ethnicity and in turn salience over all other identities, even within a non-Muslim setting. As such, findings did not demonstrate growing salience of religious identity over ethno-national identities, in order to close ranks with other Muslim minorities in a local context, as described in literature on ‘Islamic diasporas’. Abstract in Kurmanji Gerdûnparêziya îslamî ya netewparêziya nijadî ? Vekolîna girîngiya nasnameyî di civateke Kurdên koçber li Brîtanyayê de Ev nivîsar girîngiya nasnameyî ya li nav endamên civateke Kurdên misilman ên koçber li Inglîstanê vedikole. Li berevajiyê lêkolînên bihorî yên li ser diyasporaya kurd, ev vekolîn li ser nasnameya dînî ya koçberên nûhatî, pirraniya wan ji Kurdistana Êraqê ve, di çarçoveya bajarokeke piçûk de radiweste. Hevdîtinên hûrgilî bal dikişînin ser polîtîzebûna bêhtir a ku bi encama zordestiya nijadî li neteweyên birêkêr pêk hat û, li ser vê, girîngiya meztir a nasnameya nijadî li ber hemû nasnameyên din, heta di hawirdoreke ne-misilman de jî. Weha, van encam hane girîngiya zêde ya nasnameya olî li hember nasnameyên nijadî-neteweyî nîşan nedaye, li berevajiyê destbiratiya herêmî ya bi kêmneteweyên misilman ên din re ku di edebiyata li ser ‘diyasporayên misilman’ de tê dîtin. Abstract in Sorani Îslamî cîhanî yan nasêwnallîzmî êtnî? Lêkollîneweyek le ser giringî nasnamey êtnî le nêwan komellêk koçberî kurd le le Berîtanya Em wutare şirovey giringî nasnamey êtnî le nêwan endamanî komellêk koçberî musullmanî kurd dekat le Berîtaniya. Twêjîneweke be pêçewaney twêjînewekanî pêştir le ser rewendî kurd le tarawge, tîşk dexate ser nasnamey ayinî le nêw koçberî tazegeyştû le Kurdistanî ‘Êraqewe,‌ le çwarçêwey‌ şarêkî biçûkda. Çawpêkewtinî dûrxayan derîxistwe ke çawsanewey êtnî le wllatî koçkirdinewe debête hoy besiyasîbûnî nasnamey êtnî û zallbûnî be ser nasnamekanîtir da, tenanet le nêwendî namusullmanekanîş da. Le ber ewe encamekan zallî nasnamey ayinî be ser nasnamey êtnî dernaxen bo nizîkbûnewe le gell kamayetiy musullmanekanîtir le nêwendî nawxoda, wek leserçawekanîtir le ser musllmananî ‌tarawge baskrawn. Abstract in Zazaki Îslamî cîhanî yan nasêwnallîzmî êtnî? Lêkollîneweyek le ser giringî nasnamey êtnî le nêwan komellêk koçberî kurd le le Berîtanya Em wutare şirovey giringî nasnamey êtnî le nêwan endamanî komellêk koçberî musullmanî kurd dekat le Berîtaniya. Twêjîneweke be pêçewaney twêjînewekanî pêştir le ser rewendî kurd le tarawge, tîşk dexate ser nasnamey ayinî le nêw koçberî tazegeyştû le Kurdistanî ‘Êraqewe,‌ le çwarçêwey‌ şarêkî biçûkda. Çawpêkewtinî dûrxayan derîxistwe ke çawsanewey êtnî le wllatî koçkirdinewe debête hoy besiyasîbûnî nasnamey êtnî û zallbûnî be ser nasnamekanîtir da, tenanet le nêwendî namusullmanekanîş da. Le ber ewe encamekan zallî nasnamey ayinî be ser nasnamey êtnî dernaxen bo nizîkbûnewe le gell kamayetiy musullmanekanîtir le nêwendî nawxoda, wek leserçawekanîtir le ser musllmananî ‌tarawge baskrawn.

Subaltern Praxis: A Vygotskian and Freirean Framework in NGO Education

This article examines the functionality and ideological underpinnings of an NGO system in Beirut, Lebanon. This grassroots NGO, in partnership with the Migrant Community Center and migrant domestic workers from African and Southeast Asian countries, creates an educational space that is both transformative and libratory. This activist space is informed by an anti-racist and feminist ideology. Based on the narratives of this system’s stakeholders, I forward a subaltern praxis, a transformative model for the development sector informed by Vygotsky’s constructivist frameworks and Freirean ideology.

Fenomena dan Faktor Perkawinan Semarga

Traditionally, there are 3 (three) Batak marriage systems, namely; exogamy, endogamy, and electrograms. Based on these three types, clan marriage is a marriage that is prohibited in Batak customs and culture. Semarga is a condition where one individual and another individual has a blood lineage through the father's line. Family marriages carried out by the Batak Mandailing migrant community in Yogyakarta experienced a shift in meaning from the traditional Batak culture, from an exogamous marriage system to an eleutherogamous marriage system that does not recognize any prohibitions as is the case in the exogamous or endogamous marriage system. The article is field research with a qualitative approach. The method of data collection was carried out by field observations and conducting interviews with informants. The primary sources in this paper are the Mandailing Batak people who marry within the same clan. In addition, interview data were also obtained for traditional leaders, religious leaders, intellectuals, and the surrounding community. The results of the study concluded; Factors that affect clan marriages in the Batak Mandailing migrant community are due to love factors, religious factors, economic factors, educational factors, and cultural factors. Family marriages in the Batak Mandailing migrant community are carried out because the migrant Batak Mandailing community does not believe in taboo things that are local wisdom.

On ‘being Australian’: Korean migrants in ‘post-multicultural’ Australia.

This paper reports on the findings of research into what Korean Australians thought about the process of ‘becoming and being Australian’, drawing on measures of social cohesion and ‘Australianness’. The aim of the research was to find out what Korean Australian migrants valued or were uncomfortable with in relation to multiculturalism and processes of ‘being Australian’, or conformation with ‘Australianness’. Based on in-depth interviews with ten and a survey of 153 members of the Korean migrant community in Sydney, data indicated that social activities and self-perception of identity effectively continue to reflect past Australian policy settings that recognised the importance of multiculturalism as both a community-based policy framework as well as a national social policy. The study found participants highly valued Korean identity, language and community and that bonds to the Korean community, limited English language competency and experiences of racism reinforced the importance of settling into a society that valued multiculturalism.