Mapping Immigrant Imaginations: Comparing North Africans in Montréal and Marseille

Project Information

Im.magine

Grant agreement ID: 101032326

DOI

10.3030/101032326

Project closed

EC signature date 6 April 2021

Start date 1 October 2021

End date 30 September 2024

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Total cost

€ 244 385,28

EU contribution

€ 244 385,28

Coordinated by

FONDATION NATIONALE DES SCIENCES POLITIQUES
France

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - Im.magine (Mapping Immigrant Imaginations: Comparing North Africans in Montréal and Marseille)

Reporting period: 2023-10-01 to 2024-09-30

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The Im.magine project studies the imaginative worlds of international migrants, from the perspective of their relationships to place and space, their understandings of their own migration and settlement trajectories, and the meanings they draw from complex biographies of dislocation. The project strives to shed light on the often neglected symbolic lifeworlds of international migrants, by offering theoretical and empirical insight into the complex cognitive and emotional processes that underpin migrant social subjectivity. Such an approach is particularly relevant in a global social and political context in which international migrants and the act of migration are depicted in increasingly alarmist terms, at times leading to the dehumanization of migrating actors. A primary objective of the Im.magine project is thus to offer a window onto the complex and varied emotions, mental processes and social and spatial perceptions that constitute the "less visible" - but existentially important - building-blocks of migrant subjectivity.

Im.magine particularly applies this approach to the case of contemporary North African (Algerian, Moroccon, Tunisian) migration in two different urban contexts: the metropolitan areas of Montréal (Canada) and Marseille (France). First, it develops a theoretical stance on dualities and reflexivity inherent to migrant subjectivity, drawing on the concept of the imagination in the humanities and social sciences. Second, it considers this theoretical framework in light of comparative case-studies of North African migration to Montréal and Marseille. Third, by means of triangulated oral, spatial and visual ethnographic methods applied to biographical interviewing with North African migrants in each city, it looks for evidence of how these migratory imaginations are articulated in individual migration narratives.

The conclusions of the action include:

-applying theories of the imagination explored in the philosophical and anthropolgoical work of Cornelius Castoriadis and Benedict Anderson to person-centred migration narratives, thus enhanhcing the empirical applicability of abstract conceptualisations of the imagination in case studies of migration;

-offering more conceptual rigour and clarity to the imagination concept as it pertains to the symbolic lifeworlds and concrete experiences of international migrants;

-challenging "narrative" approaches to interview-based qualitative research and creating more avenues for more "lyrical" stances, both in fieldwork instruments, data analysis, and writing on international migration topics.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

Work performed over the reporting period (October 2021-October 2023): Review of relevant literature, development of conceptual and theoretical framework, fieldwork activities in Montréal including participant recruitment outreach, ethnographic interviews with 26 individuals from Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia; drafting of research articles and book prospectus.

Work performed over the final period of the action (October 2023-2024) includes:

-fieldwork activities in Marseille, such as participant recruitment outreach and ethnographic interviews with another 26 individuals born in Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia;
-continued review of relevant literature, both in the areas of theories of the imagiantion, North African migration, and broader migration studies;
-publication of one article and developing drafts of two articles, while continuing work on a book manuscript;
-numerous scientific dissemination activities, including participation at international conferences and smaller workshops as well as the organisation of an international workshop related to the research of the action.

The Im.magine project has achieved results in theoretical, empirical, and methodological areas.
Theoretically, it is bridging a gap between various definitions of the imagination concept (in philosophy, social psychology, geography, sociology, etc.) and its weak conceptualisation in migration studies.
Empirically, the project is leading to original findings on the complex identity and biographical narratives of an under-researched group with a unique positionality in Montréal in relation to mainstream Québécois or Canadian society. As French-speaking (but also Arabic and/or Berber-language speaking) minorities in Canada from formerly colonized Muslim-majority countries, their trajectories are entangled in complex postcolonial legacies, both with respect to their country of origin and their place of residence.
Methodologically, the project is enriched by a triangulated interviewing methods, by means of classic face-to-face biographic interviewing, developed orally, "walking interviews" with unique spatial dimensions, and participant-drawn mental-mapping, which provides insight into participants' combined symbolic and concrete relations to space and place.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The Im.magine project is leading to innovations theoretically, empirically, and methodologically. Theoretically, by identifying key aspects of the imagination concept from the humanities and social sciences such as duality and reflexive thinking, coupled with action orientations and emotional states, which together have been insufficiently considered as building blocks of migratory imaginations. The empirical part of the project is coherent with this conceptual apparatus and makes use of various ethnographic methods - biographical interviews, "walking-interviews", and mental-mapping to foster the articulation of varied forms of "everyday" discourse that can be linked to these concepts and broader theories around the imagination, meaning-making, and social subjectivity. Finally, a methodological innovation worth highlighting is the contribution to the field of "lyrical sociology" and poetics of sociology, as an alternative, or at least a complement to the standard and dominant genre of "narrative sociology" in both qualitative and quantitative strands of the discipline. The Im.magine project is extremely well-equipped to further the agenda of lyrical sociology given the non-linearity and exploratory nature of the ethnographic methods it uses. Moreover, this is also as a result of the researcher's prolonged reflections around fieldwork as an experience in and of itself (and not merely a means of data collection) through a relational and emotionally reflexive approach to interviewing and interacting with research participants.
In terms of intended societal implications of the Im.magine project: to foster greater awareness and understanding around complex migratory phenomena, including the emotional and psychosocial processes that underpin any experience of international mobility, dislocation and resettlement. If we, as a society, can better appreciate migrating actors as individuals worthy of human dignity, with complex social and geographic ties, capable of creatively fashioning a "mobile biography" across their place of origin and place of residence - and not as "victims" of desperate situations or suspicious outsiders - then we might be closer to radically reimagining who "belongs" in a given society and pathways toward greater global solidarity.

Fragment of a sculpture by Bruno Catalano obtained via Shutterstock,