See abstract below.
Contemporary Narratives of Migration: Seeking New Directions
Recent years have seen migration become increasingly contested and debated, in Europe particularly since the so-called migrant crisis of 2015-2016, and in the United States in relation to the Trump administration 2017-2021. This study is a reaction to the aftermath and ongoing negotiation of both periods, focusing on contemporary migration narratives that examine and address experiences of migration in European or American contexts. The primary material ranges from personal experiences of migration for professional purposes, to perspectives on what it means to be undocumented without access to citizenship, to novels that provide fictional representations of migrants and their complex lives. Multiple literary forms are included, such as nonfiction, memoir, novel, and essay. Findings suggest that we need a new way of conceptualizing migration narratives, one which takes into account the balancing between personal stories of migration on the one hand and political and ideological narratives on the other.