Forschungsprojekt: Die virtuelle zweite Generation

14th MALAYSIA AND SINGAPORE SOCIETY COLLOQUIUM 2006
UNE, ARMIDALE, NSW
Thursday 30 November - Friday 1 December 2006
BOUNDARIES AND SHIFTING SOVEREIGNTIES: MIGRATION, SECURITY ISSUES AND REGIONAL COOPERATION


Shifting boundaries on the internet
Strategies of 'second generation Indians'  in Germany
Urmila Goel
Visiting Scholar at Asia Centre, UNE, ugoel@une.edu.au


Boundaries are needed to differentiate between ‘us’ and the ‘other’. They emphasise the chosen differences and doing so fix these. The establishment of nation states has created boundaries on the basis of (constructed) national belongingness. These are crossed in the course of international migration in multiple ways. Concepts of natio-ethno-cultural belongingness in general are based on the belief in univocal belongingness to only one national context. One can be either ‘us’ or the ‘other’ but not both at the same time. International migration in the course of crossing geographical boundaries contradicts this logic of univocality. Migrants belong to several natio-ethno-cultural contexts at the same time. This is especially true for ‘migrants of the second generation’, who feel a sense of belongingness both to their place of residence and their ascribed place of ‘origin’ (as well as experience the refusal of belongingness in both).

‘Second generation Indians’ in Germany have created their own virtual space, the internet portal www.theinder.net. This is a space where they and their multiple natio-ethno-cultural belongingness are the norm. It is a space where they are not permanently made aware of the boundaries set them by the logic of univocal natio-ethno-cultural belongingness, where they are not constantly shown that they cannot fit into this norm and where they do not experience racism and othering. The paper will analyse which functions theinder.net fulfis in dealing with the restrictions faced by ‘Indians of the second generation’ through natio-ethno-cultural boundaries. It will show how in this virtual space the boundaries are shifted without however abolishing them.

Presentation as pdf