Journals Information
Sociology and Anthropology Vol. 2(1), pp. 15 - 24
DOI: 10.13189/sa.2014.020103
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Collective Identities in Migration. Biographical Perspectives on Ambivalences and Paradoxes
Roswitha Breckner *
Department of Sociology, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Vienna, Austria
ABSTRACT
Notwithstanding the deconstruction of essentialist concepts of national or ethnic identity also with respect to the growing movements between nation states and developing transnational spheres [1-4], to construct collective belongings with references to imagined communities[5] based in nation, culture or ethnicity still seems to be a relevant social practice. At the same time, we can observe increasing ambivalences and even paradoxes inherent in these practices. They show when looking at biographical processes in which collective belongings concretely take shape. Based on empirical research on East-West European migration during the Cold War [6], I would like to demonstrate in this article how different biographical experiences interconnect when national, cultural, ethnic or other collective identities emerge, and also when they drop to the background in processes of undoing a collective identity.
KEYWORDS
Collective Identities, We-Relations, Biographical Research, Migration Research, Division Of Europe During The Cold War, Romania
Cite This Paper in IEEE or APA Citation Styles
(a). IEEE Format:
[1] Roswitha Breckner , "Collective Identities in Migration. Biographical Perspectives on Ambivalences and Paradoxes," Sociology and Anthropology, Vol. 2, No. 1, pp. 15 - 24, 2014. DOI: 10.13189/sa.2014.020103.
(b). APA Format:
Roswitha Breckner (2014). Collective Identities in Migration. Biographical Perspectives on Ambivalences and Paradoxes. Sociology and Anthropology, 2(1), 15 - 24. DOI: 10.13189/sa.2014.020103.