Bibliography

I have decided to change my topic from the Nigerian migrants in Turkey to the belonging issue of survivors of Armenian massacre, in some cases called as genocide in diaspora which entails difference corners of the world, USA, western Europe etc. In my study, I am going to take the movie “Ararat”, which is about the question where is homeland of diaspora Armenians, as the cultural object and around this movie I will analyze to what extent the diaspora Armenians feel where they live is their home.

Aghajanian, A (2011). Roots and Routes: Road from Home to America, Middle East and Diaspora, about being Armenian Genocide Female Survivor.

Egoyan, A. (Director). 2002. Ararat [Motion Picture].

Manjikian, L. (2005). Collective Memory and Diasporic Articulations of Imagined Homes: Armenian Community Centres in Montreal

Pattie, S. (1991). Longing and Belonging: Issues of Homeland in Armenian Diaspore

Shiririan, L. (2000). Writing Memory: the Search for Home in Armenian Diaspora Literature as Cultural Practice. Kingston Ont.: Blue Heron Press. 

Final Project

I would like to write my paper or prepare a video that will be on Africans who migrate to Turkey. Africans in Turkey are suffering from discrimination and unemployment. Especially I want to bring that suffering that African football players are going trough lime light. There are lots of Africans who are really talented on football. They come here with aims and dreams as all immigrants all around the world do. However, they generally do not have that opportunity to show case themselves. Also, some fraudsters shattered their dreams. Even now it is getting better with the changes to the immigration laws, it is still difficult for Africans to achieve their dreams.

African women also suffer from discrimination and unemployment as African men do. However, there are also some sexist issues. It is really difficult to getting a job for most of the African women. Because of the financial situation of African women, most of the employees take advantages on them either not paying the salaries like they should or sexually abusing them since they are illegally employed. If I will be able to record a video that includes some interviews, probably women will not accept to talking about these things and because of that I am not sure if I should do project or just write about it.

Just a Kiss

“Ae Fond Kiss” is a movie which is directed by Ken Loach. It is a story of a Pakistani immigrants in Scotland. Even if it is like a drama which is based on romance, it also includes difficulties of immigrants in social life and also with diplomacy.

Migritude

I think Shailja Patel’s performance was so interesting and inspiring. Her performance that is called Migritude includes poem, photography and dance; and is performed by a woman –Shailja Patel. The way that she performs makes it even more interesting since I think it is always better in poetical way. She gives that feeling with her moves and also words. She emphasizes love and justice with a story which is based on some siris. She brings hidden reality about post-colonized Africa to audiences in a different perspective. She, as an Indian who lived in Kenya and recently lives in California, US, has different perspective than we got used to since we are not used to topics that about minorities in Africa.

I think the main reason that the show is inspiring is listening the political and social history from a personal perspective. Feeling that discrimination, scare and looking for a protection is make it real since it is a real story. Actually it is not just a story; it is a way to express her to the world. As I checked, Migritude is a combine of “Migrant,” “Attitude,” and “Negritude.” I think performance’s name is also impressive because even without watching it, if you just know the meaning of the name, you will have some ideas about the show.

Signs Taken for Wonders

The article of Bhabha, which is called Signs Taken for Wonders: Questions of Ambivalence and Authority under a Tree Outside Delhi is impressed me a lot. Thanks to quote of Robert Southey in the beginning, give clue about what the story is going to be about: “A remarkable peculiarity is that they (the English) always write the per-sonal pronoun I with a capital letter. May we not consider this Great I as an unintended proof how much an Englishman thinks of disown consequence? (102)”

Bhabha explains the colonial power, colonization and discrimination with san anecdote about bible, which is called the European book or English book. According to Bhabha, the English book is a way to understand how Europeans have dominance on there. 

He also define hybridity “Hybridity is the name of this displacement of value from symbol to sign that causes the dominant discourse to split along the axis of its power to be representative, auth-oritative (113.)” He sees hybridity as the way of how culture was shaped in a process. I think culture consists of participation of people and it becomes a common thing to understand each other. Since almost all of the cultures are shaped by participation of other people who have different cultures, the new or updated culture becomes more like other. Even cultures are different, they have similarities.

reasons of migration

In Turkey, lots of people think that Kurdish issue is based on economical factors and if the government focuses on Kurdish areas to prevent economical welfare, Kurdish issue would be solved. As Ibrahim Sirkeci mentions, Kurdish people migrate from Turkey to Germany not just because of economical situation but also because of historical forces migrations, social an cultural exclusions and political events. In other words they are escaping from social and cultural discrimination and when they go to Germany they face another one. Ibrahim Sirkeci explained the reasons of Kurdish issue in three points: Socio economic underdevelopment, demographic trends and political deprivation. There were no various job opportunities in southern Turkey. And in big cities like Istanbul, Kurdish had to ask for lower money than others to get job since no one wanted to have Kurdish employer. Moreover, politically, there was no one who represents Kurdish people. Even the idea that having a Kurdish in parliament was making people angry. Even today, lots of people think that all of the Kurdish people are terrorist, they do not matter anything and they do not need to be represented. A Kurdish family, who face these problems, could want to migrate to find a place where they can live peacefully. They have more other reasons additionally to Turks that want to migrate. When they migrate, they cannot just get rid of their problems and even they get new ones. All Kurds and Turks who migrate to Germany or any other European country suffer from living between the two cultures. Second generation emerges that suffer from not feeling belong to somewhere but having part of two cultures.

Kurdish family, who face these problems, could want to migrate to find a place where they can live peacefully. They have more other problems additionally to Turks that want to migrate.

Multiculturalism

Multiculturalism is being argued in these days. Many countries indeed express support for multiculturalist’s principles. Even if we are all multiculturalist now, we still need time to understand the multiculturalists. As Simon and Pala argued, France and Britain are the enough cases to analyze to understand how multiculturalism works. When France works on assimilation plans, Britain does not. I do not know if assimilation is the correct implement for living peaceful as multicultural or it is just easiest way to deal with problems.

As I remember one of the most successful strategies of Ottoman Empire was assimilation. They were sending Turkish families to territories that there is not Turkish. They lived there, worked there and their new life formed there. So, thanks to Turks, new territories’ society had chance to see how Turks live. However, discrimination still existed and Ottoman Empire could not resist against that.

Also in Turkey, there were lots of campaigns for mainly Kurdish people to be assimilated. However, government forced people who belongs different ethnicity. Speaking in Kurdish was banned for a long time. Lots of Kurdish villages was forced to migrate western cities to provide any unity in eastern part of Turkey where Kurdish people live. It was okay for a police to arrest someone who was born in one of the Kurdish cities. These campaigns were not just based on force, there were also another really barbaric campaigns. In 1980’s, in Tunceli, which is also called Dersim, lots of people killed and there are some views that it was government implementation. Even Musa Anter who is Kurdish journalist, went to court just because he whistled in Kurdish.I think assimilation does not work for multiculturalists. If a state wants to rule, people has to be happy. In my opinion any kind of assimilation plans of government may cause resistance against government. Musa Anter who is Kurdish journalist, went to court just because he whistled in Kurdish. I think assimilation does not work for multiculturalists. If a state wants to rule, people has to be happy.