Migrant literature

Migrant literature, that is, writings by and to a more less extent about migrants, is a topic which has commanded growing interest within literary studies since the 1980s. Migrants are defined here as people who have left their homes to settle in countries or cultural communities which are initially strange to them.

Although any experience of migration would qualify an author to be classed under migrant literature, the main focus of recent research has been on the principal channels of mass-migration in the twentieth century. These include: European migration to North America or Australia; migration from former colonies to Europe (Black British literature, British-Asian literature, French Beur literature); situations of ethnic cleansing such as the mass migration of people from India to Pakistan and vice versa at the time of the partition of India; guest worker programs (Turks, Italians or Greeks in Germany and Holland); exile situations, such as that of exiled German dissidents during the Nazi period.

Migrant literature often focuses on the social contexts in the migrants' country of origin which prompt them to leave, on the experience of migration itself, on the mixed reception which they may receive in the country of arrival, on experiences of racism and hostility, and on the sense of rootlessness and the search for identity which can result from displacement and cultural diversity.

Colonialism often creates a setting which results in the migration of large numbers of people, either within the colonies or from them to the "imperial centre" (Britain, France etc.). Consequently, migrant literature and postcolonial literature show some considerable overlap. However, not all migration takes place in a colonial setting, and not all postcolonial literature deals with migration. A question of current debate is the extent to which postcolonial theory also speaks to migration literature of non-colonial settings. The presence in central Europe of Gastarbeiter communities, for example, is not a result of colonialism, yet their literature does have much in common with, say, British-Asian literature.

A number of categories have been developed for discussing migrant literature. Some of these are the standard categories of post-colonial theory, while others have been worked out precisely to cope with non-colonial settings.

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