Mari Korpela

A Postcolonial Imagination? Westerners Searching for Authenticity in India

This article looks at contemporary Westerners in the Indian city of Varanasi. The Westerners claim to appreciate authentic India and I argue that this authenticity refers to Indias ancient, romanticised past instead of its modern present. I investigate how the Westerners encounter India and Indians and what kinds of subject positions are constructed in those encounters. The article also discusses how the authenticity becomes constructed, especially in regard to the Westerners who are studying Indian classical music in Varanasi. I argue that the Westerners ‘imagine’ India according their own needs and I ask how their understanding of India and Indian people relates to the ‘colonial imagination’.

Lifestyle of Freedom? Individualism and Lifestyle Migration

The current era is often called the age of individualism: individuality is expected, even demanded, of us. Within this discourse, lifestyle migrants seem to be ideal subjects. Lifestyle migration is often described as an individual’s search for a better life abroad and lifestyle migrants often present themselves as active agents who have improved their lives by way of their own unmediated choice; they have taken their destiny into their own hands by escaping unsatisfactory circumstances and do not expect others (or societies) to act on their behalf. As the interview extract above suggests, the emphasis is on ‘what I want’. Since the individualised self is a central figure in our times and lifestyle migration a common phenomenon, it is reasonable to look at lifestyle migration in the light of individualisation theories.

Interrogating child migrants or ‘Third Culture Kids’ in Asia: An introduction

Research on children and youth involved in migration in Asia is predominantly—and understandably—concerned with those move to improve their livelihoods. This includes those young people who move with their families as well as the effects on those ‘left behind’. Substantial routes and streams include rural-to-urban migration to the burgeoning factory work sector in China in the context of industrialization (Murphy, 2002; Pun, 2005); Filipino women moving to globalizing cities, such as Hong Kong and Singapore, in the domestic work sector (Constable, 1997); Indonesian workers migrating to Malaysia or the Gulf, lured by prospects of higher wages in rubber plantations or on constructions sites (Lindquist, 2010); young Chinese moving to Japan to work or study (Coates, 2013); and young people from Myanmar crossing the border into Thailand in search of more stable and promising futures (Ball and Moselle, 2015). In addition, significant numbers of Asians migrate to the US, Canada, Australia, the Gulf countries and Europe. The processes that engender these diverse movements extend beyond Asia, however: the global flows of capital and their consequences also spark the movements of banking staff from other parts of the world to financial hubs such as Singapore (Beaverstock, 2002); transnational corporations move staff into subsidiaries across Asia; and those disaffected by what they perceive as the daily grind of life in high income countries seek temporary reprieve in the warm climes of beach resorts in Goa and Thailand (Thang et al., 2012). Further, the relatively low-income status of, for example, Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar channels an influx of international aid agency staff into these countries.

A (sub)culture of their own? Children of lifestyle migrants in Goa, India

Increasing numbers of ‘Western’ families spend several months a year in Goa, India, and the rest of the time in the parents’ native countries or elsewhere. These ‘lifestyle migrants’ are motivated by a search for ‘a better quality of life.’ This article asks whether their children can be labeled as Third Culture Kids (TCKs) by elaborating and critically probing this concept. Based on extensive ethnography, the study not only examined what children say in interviews, but also paid attention to what they do. Findings from the study problematize the presumed elitist privilege of TCKs and the assumption that the parents have an unproblematic sense of belonging to their native ‘cultures.’ The article elaborates on what it means for the children to live in the global subcultural center of Goa and on their agency in creating the social and cultural environment in which they live.

Navigating Bureaucracies, Intentions and Relationships: Temporary Transnational Migration Between Finland and Asia

The chapter shows that Finland attracts increasing numbers of temporary migrants from Asia who come to study or work in the country. At the same time, it is increasingly popular for Finns to work, study or travel in Asia. The chapter elaborates on various aspects of temporary migrants’ lives and experiences in Finland, including their motivations to migrate and the significance of money and careers. It becomes evident that money is not the only motivation for temporary migration and policies should not treat migrants as mere labour force. The authors argue that there is a contradiction between Finland wanting to attract skilled labour migrants and the slow and complicated bureaucracies that make foreigners feel they are not welcome. Similarly to in-coming migrants, many Finnish lifestyle migrants and returnees struggle with Finnish bureaucracies and rules relating to permanent residence when their lifestyle entails spending long periods abroad. The chapter also discusses the temporary migrants’ social relationships and argues that their integration into local society is hindered by their lack of language skills. Migrants’ future plans are characterised by various insecurities. Eventually, the authors argue that temporary migration is only a momentary solution for individual people because they tend to become tired of temporariness.

Introduction: Temporary Migration in European-Asian Social Spaces

One of the key tendencies in the contemporary world is the increase in the volumes of people’s mobility back and forth between nation-states for various reasons as well as the rise of people’s engagement in cross-border social ties. People ‘migrate, oscillate, circulate or tour’ (O’Reilly 2007: 281) between their home and host countries, which means that they may leave one country, move to a second and then either settle there or return to their native country, or move on to a third.

Conclusion: Characteristics, Experiences and Transnationality of Temporary Migration

Besides uncovering how politics structure the transnational movement issues in sending, transit and receiving societies, the previous chapters sought to make the transnational practices and lived experiences of individual temporary migrants visible. Since the 1990s scholars have explored the dynamics of transnational migration with an emphasis on the emergence of transnational spaces that transcend geographic, political, social and cultural borders (e.g. Faist 2000; Portes et al. 1999). What this literature has not done sufficiently is to explain the implications of the temporariness of migration with respect to these dynamics. The EURA-NET research sought to shed light on the everyday experiences of temporary migrants in the European-Asian transnational social spaces. Answers were sought to the following questions: (1) Why do people migrate on a temporary basis and not permanently? (2) What are the daily experiences of various types of temporary migrants? (3) How does temporariness affect their migration experiences? (4) How does temporary migrants’ transnationalism appear in the European-Asian transnational social spaces?

Introduction: Limitations to Temporary Mobility

Over the past several years social sciences have experienced a mushrooming fascination with issues of global mobility (e.g. Cresswell and Merriman 2011; Urry 2000; Vertovec and Cohen 2002). There are several journals which focus on issues related to the theme and also debates on whether the term transnational is appropriate to describe current situations at all. Mobility has become a buzzword of our times, and there are numerous perspectives to mobility – almost to the extent of cacophony. Mobility can mean many things to social scientists: large-scale movements of people, objects, capital and information across countries, transportation, travel / commuting, movement through public space, small scale mobility in people’s everyday lives, to name a few interpretations of the concept. Such intersecting forms of mobility occupy centre stage within contemporary developments in societies, since they reorganise social institutions, family life and lives of individuals. But one question lies central to all these phenomena, namely: How can a transnationally mobile life be sustainable in the longterm? It is therefore important to consider who moves, why and under which conditions (see Brah 1996, 182) – and under which limitations. Mobile individuals might be, for example, tourists, refugees, career expatriates or either lifestyle or labour migrants. All these mobile groups and individuals have different positions, motivations, roots and routes but are nevertheless transnationally mobile. Mobility as the overarching concept for this thematic issue is understood

Envisioning Eden. Mobilizing Imaginaries in Tourism and Beyond

to the land, connectedness, family, community and reciprocity, ancestral spirits and not least of reconciliation. Though Christian churches in many cases and to different extents reject and challenge aspects of Fijian culture and tradition, Ryle also shows how a contextualization and local integration of Christianity takes place. These processes are highlighted through the book’s perceptive and fine grained analysis of rites of reconciliation and funerals where relations, both between the living and between the living and the dead are nourished. Chapter 6 offers a particularly intriguing analysis of Catholic Charismatic rituals of healing and reconciliation. Here Ryle convincingly shows how traditional understandings of illness, healing and well being as embedded in social relationships are incorporated into such rituals where emphasis lays on both vertical (human-divine) and horizontal (human– human) connectedness, the latter being created through different practices of tangible bodily relationality (such as prayers for healing during which the participants kneel and touch the altar and each other). In addition the book offers a vivid picture of the complex and intimate intersections of politics, Christianity and tradition in Fiji. Ryle describes how notions and re-definitions of tradition have strongly influenced politics and social life after independence from colonial rule. And she demonstrates how conservative Protestants have used an old-testament theology to promote an exclusivist, Christian political identity and attempt to make Christianity the official religion of the state in an otherwise multiethnic society with a significant non-Christian minority. The final chapter (Chapter 7) of the book discusses the role of the churches in processes of reconciliation after three military coups (in 1987, 2000 and 2006). My God My Land is a well written and accessible book whose main strength lies in its thorough and perceptive ethnography and in the author’s nuanced understanding of the complex and multifaceted role of Christianity (or Christianities) in Fijian social, cultural and political of life. The book will appeal to readers with an interest in Fijian and pacific history and society and more broadly in themes such as Christianity and cultural contextualization and religion and politics. Martin Lindhardt University of Copenhagen – Ethnology # Martin Lindhardt