DIASPORIC REALITIES:

Modern Europe in the Words of Europe-based Asians



When does a flood of migrants become a diaspora? What stops a migrant

from becoming an integral part of his new society? On the one hand,

there is a pull-factor exerted by the culture of the migrant. His

earlier identity with which he judges his new world, and which he

feels eroding away even as he learns new languages and new rituals,

longs for words and a forum where his displacement can gain artistic

expression. On the other, there is the push-factor inherent in the

recipient culture's social ontology. The migrant does not arrive into

a conceptually and organisatorily neutral space. He is a category,

through which his displacement gains form and from which he seeks to

exit. In both cases, we see the distancing function of identity at

work.



Do Asian migrants in Europe constitute an Asian Diaspora? Is that

term useful? Or are we dealing with diasporas from East Asia, South

Asia, Southeast Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. Or are we

dealing with migration sufficiently describable existentially as

nationality migration? All these aspects are worthy of study.



The clash of individual space that is the lot of man becomes a

powerful clash of cultural space through migration. However, when a

flow of migrants can be described in geopolitical and historical

terms, cultural incomprehension, and intercultural coercion and bias

will configure much of the individual experience.



We are planning to publish an anthology, which will help give voice

to these modern inter-cultural experiences, and are asking

individuals of Asian origin with analytical ability, and who have

lived continuously in Europe, to discuss aspects of their culturally

confusing situation.



If you are interested, please write an abstract of 100-150 words to

us before November 30th, 2003. If we consider your project suitable,

you should be willing to hand in the completed article (not longer

than 20 A4 pages) by the end of March 2004.





Yours Sincerely,



Dr Ooi Kee Beng ([log in to unmask])

Tobias Hübinette, Ph.D Candidate ([log in to unmask])



STOCKHOLM UNIVERSITY



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