Abstract

Migrant experiences accentuate general aspects of the human condition. Therefore, this volume explores migrant’s movements not only as geographical movements from here to there but also as movements that constitute an embodied, cognitive, and existential experience of living “in between” or on the “borderlands” between differently figured life-worlds. Focusing on memories, nostalgia, the here-and-now social experiences of daily living, and the hopes and dreams for the future, the volume demonstrates how all interact in migrants’ and refugees’ experience of identity and quest for well-being.

Anne Sigfrid Grønseth is a Professor in Social Anthropology at the University College of Lillehammer, Norway, where she directs the Research Unit of Health, Culture, and Identity. Her recent publications include Lost Selves and Lonely Persons: Experiences of Illness and Well-Being among Tamil Refugees in Norway (Carolina Academic Press, 2010) and Mutuality and Empathy: Self and Other in the Ethnographic Encounter (co-edited with Dona Lee Davis, Wantage: Sean Kingston Publishing, 2010).

“This is a comprehensive collection – addressing mind and body. The ethnography is of a very high quality, and the collection is beautifully edited by Sigfrid Grønseth… Overall, an important and valid contribution not only to anthropology but crucially to anyone who wishes to understand our global world, characterised by the promise of shared human identity and shared human rights, defined by difference and variation but still scarred by stigma and fear of the other.” · Journal of Population Ageing

“The authors of this volume remind us how important it is to see migrants as humans, because human nature within them is not lost despite the economic, cultural or social limitations that they are experiencing. It is a book for scholars who are dealing with various migration issues either in quantitative or qualitative manner, which emphasises that behind numbers or labels there are individual stories, experiences and hopes.“ · Anthropological Notebooks

“This edited collection, focused on migrants from different backgrounds and various locations in Europe, makes for an engaging read with well-argued essays. Conceptualising migrants as people living in-between, researchers analyse different experiences related to migrants’ movements across space… The theoretical approach and diversity of cases offered by this volume recommend it for a broader readership beyond migration studies.” · Social Anthropology/Anthropologie Sociale

“It is refreshing to find a volume that both shows commitment to ethnographic detail and aspires to lift consideration to a broader level, reaching back to the nihil humani a me alienum puto perspective, but with new and nuanced narratives to give that perspective a special appeal.” · Pamela Stewart and Andrew Strathern, University of Pittsburgh

“This is an original and persuasively argued volume on the everyday lives of contemporary migrants in Europe. Living up to its title, the edited volume makes us aware of the fact that narratives of ‘migrancy’ and movement tell us much about the human condition more generally.” · Claudia Liebelt, Universität Bayreuth