Preliminary Programme

Millions of Irish and Italians migrated throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries to countries all over the world in search of a better life. The Irish state, through constant commemoration, often represented Irish emigrants as exiles escaping colonialism and its legacy. In addition to embracing this official version, the popular memory of migration frequently associated the emigrant experience with economic struggle. Both memories invited frequent comparisons to other people that suffered similar imperial and economic difficulties. By contrast, the Italian state could offer no such nationalist narrative to explain the massive exodus from its territory. As a consequence, the Italian state remained reluctant to commemorate the country's emigrant past because it served to underline Italy's inability to provide an adequate standard of living for its citizens. Nonetheless, a popular memory still existed; but this focused predominantly on the Italian state's failure to support its citizens when abroad.

Unlike Ireland's archive of suffering, which was open to all who could relate to the Irish experience, the Italian archive could only be referenced by Italians. Ironically, these distinctions became discernible in immigration debates that took place in both countries in the 1990s. In Ireland, pro-migrant actors consistently evoked the memory of past Irish emigration to induce sympathy amongst Irish people for migrants. Comparing newcomers to natives harboured notable feelings of solidarity and similitude between the two. References to Italy's migration past - of emigration and internal migration - were conspicuous only by their near-absence from Italian immigration debates. The infrequent comparisons between immigrants in Italy and past Italian migrants meant that anti-immigrant rhetoric highlighting the inherent physical and cultural differences between the two grew in resonance. This in turn led to the growth in popularity of anti-immigrant political parties and the gradual adoption of more hard-line views on immigration among mainstream parties.

This presentation will draw on parliamentary and media debates to expound and justify these assertions. (Show less)

This paper is based on a UK-wide study about new immigration and social cohesion that was in part predicated on understanding how previous immigrations are perceived/experienced and how this informs the contemporary moment of immigration. The study also assumed that in order to comprehend the relationship between social cohesion and new immigration, research about new arrivals has to be integrated with understandings about the long-term settled population. The usefulness of the term ‘long-term settled’, rather than ‘indigenous population’ or ‘host
community’, is that it encompasses all those not categorised as new immigrants and directs attention to the history and influence of different phases of immigration to the United Kingdom and the inherent heterogeneity of the ‘British people’. The paper considers material drawn from in-depth life narrative interviews in six sites across the UK and outlines the differing ways in which previous immigrations are referenced and represented in discussion of contemporary migration. (Show less)

This paper will explore the multifaceted nature of Irish perceptions of America. To the Irish mindset, the land across the great western sea, America, has been viewed as either a heaven on earth or Orbis Alia, the realm of the dead. By a close examination of the social, economic and religious background of emigrants leaving Ireland, notable perceptions of America, both real and imagined come to light. From the legendary Celtic myth of the passage west as crossing over to the other world, through 18th century Ulster-Scots visions of America as ‘a Bonny Land’ full of almost unspeakable riches, to mid-19th century Irish visions of exile which witnessed ‘American wakes’ for the soon departed, to later visions of caisleáin óir (castles of gold) and entering through ‘the golden door’, the west and America in particular have been represented as virtually everything from heaven to hell to the Irish psyche. Through the study of traditional opinions, coupled with an examination of correspondence from America to would-be emigrants, the paper works to explore the continuity as well as the changing perceptions of America in Irish eyes. (Show less)

The purpose of this paper is to engage with theoretical issues of postcolonial condition and experiences of asylum-seekers and refugees’ integration (African migrants, Portuguese speaking Africa countries – Luso-African) in the West Midlands, in particular Birmingham. My theoretical focus is upon the relationship between postcolonialism and integration. I argue that, in order to understand refugees’ experiences of integration into British society, an understanding of their colonial memory, based upon an understanding of the intellectual narratives of postcolonial literatures, is a prerequisite. As such, this paper contends that the colonial past is important for our understanding of asylum-seekers and refugees, at least in part because their image and representation in the media is infused with the imagery of the past. I also argue that the asylum-seekers’ integration into a community is hampered by their past colonial experience and what is more the host community’s perception of them is based upon the UK experience as the former coloniser. Significantly, problems of integration result from a dualism which is established between the ‘periphery’, where the colonised are, and the ‘centre’, where the coloniser are located. The gap between the two is still wide and they remain suspicious of each other.

The paper views the colonial past as an integral part of the problem of integration for asylum-seekers and refugees in the UK. The debate on integration is linked to the geography and culture of the colonised countries. Much of the debate is driven by the question of difference, cultural characteristics and historical roots which go back to the colonial past. (Show less)

A good deal of contemporary public history in the United Kingdom is concerned with the exploration of cultural diversity. Whether the subject is cities, classes or peoples, cultural diversity appears as a key theme, its recognition important not just for reasons of historical accuracy, but also as a method of promoting positive social identities and community cohesion in Britain. These kinds of arguments now regularly appear not just in political and educational debates, but academic ones too. In sociology and politics in particular, but also now in history, there is a recognised need to develop a social memory of migration to Britain. However, attempts to radically transform social memory in Britain are not new.

This paper explores what I loosely term cultures of history in post-war England. It explores the productions of segments of the past by people who were identified as, or came to understand themselves as, members of minority ethnic communities. These were first and second generation migrants who cumulatively produced a remarkable range of historical texts, performances, commemorations and representations. Their work ranged across a number of disciplinary fields and institutional sites. It appeared in hundreds of published and unpublished studies, on television and radio productions, in exhibitions and textbooks and it provided the basis for thousands of public meetings and seminars, and the development of alternative and supplementary system of education for young people.

The paper summarises some of this extraordinary memory work and then evaluates its significance and legacies. It argues that the selection, reproduction and inscription of historical memories was a contested process but one which had very significant political, educational and cultural consequences. In identifying, exploring and understanding of those consequences may help us to better understand the potential and the limitations of memory work. (Show less)