Migration, Belonging, Alienation

In this monograph I explore the question of how migrants of a specific social and ethnic group construct narratives of their experiences of belonging, alienation and citizenship. My intention here is to reverse the order of looking at questions of migrant belonging and alienation within the nation-state. Instead of theorizing who can belong and how migrants should belong, I asked migrants to tell me about their perceptions of belonging, how they belong or how they are alienated as migrant citizens. Migration and its implications would then be among the most pressing dilemmas of the nation-state affecting its imagination and self-definition as much as its policy and economy. My intention in this thesis is to help to close the gap between mainstream narratives of what it means to belong and to be a citizen and migrants' narratives of belonging and citizenship. It is my hope that the dialogue between the theoretical narratives of the nation-state and migrant narratives will facilitate fuller and more fruitful discussion of questions of inclusion and exclusion of those perceived as Others' in the narratives of the nation-state.