Local Lives

Local Lives contests dominant trends in migration theory demonstrating that many migrant identities have not become entirely diasporic or cosmopolitan but remain equally focused on emplaced belonging and the anxieties of being uprooted. By addressing the question of how migrants legally and symbolically lay claim to owning and belonging to place it refocuses our attention on the micro-politics and everyday rituals of place-making that are central to the construction of migrant identities. Exploring immigrants' interactions with house spaces property rights environmental conservation landscape historical knowledge of place ideas of 'local community' and place-specific 'traditions' this volume shows how in a fluid world of movement locality remains a deeply contested and symbolically rich place to situate identity and to constitute the self. Thematically organised and presenting a diverse range of empirical studies dealing with migrant communities in Hawaii Britain France Spain Australia New Zealand the Dominican Republic and Albania Local Lives reorients research in migration and transnational studies around locality. As such it will appeal to social scientists working on questions relating to landscape identity and belonging; race and ethnicity; and migration and transnationalism.