What does migration mean, how does it inform and influence human society, existence, and civilization?
These were some of the questions at the heart of the dialogue, conversation, engagement and workshop. Immigration Form: A Creative Future A symposium held at Magdalene University in Oxford.
The symposium was conceived as an “anti-conference conference” in 2019, and life began in 2019 to prefer conversation, performance, and sharing experiences over rigorous academic papers and presentations.
Back six years later, the deliberations and insights from the first edition brought the book to life.Roashing: Immigrant knowledge, immigration form edit Natalia Dinkariki, Suba Mukerji, Rowan Williams.
For almost 12 hours, various striped immigrants gather together to exchange stories, share experiences, cry out, and scream into memories of places, sounds and smells.
That's what the opening round table on immigration forms was. cHe was urged by Rowan Williams, more famous as the former Archbishop of Canterbury. “The history and culture of immigration reminds us that all cultures are cooperative efforts,” he said, “The problem we face at this point is that many societies are withdrawing to consider themselves as self-contained, self-explanatory, and self-defined reality.”
The second roundtable proceeded under the title “Moving Things,” followed by a fascinating discussion about the “ecology of immigrants,” followed by a poem reading and an interactive workshop.
The two sessions on music and food were very moving and inspiring to the places and people from Syria to Türkiye and India.
Speaking to conversations and experiences, Kenya's academic Natalia Din Kariuki, by convening conferences and co-editing the book, taught her “how central migration to human experience is, in terms of whether it is local migration within a particular country or crossing borders.” To put it further, she said. “Movement has shaped all of our lives. We are exposed to the lives of all, even those of us who are not necessarily immigrants in ways like food, art, music, etc., even if we are not immigrants themselves.”
For Suva Muhaji, who is believed to have coined the term “form of immigration,” he said, “immigration faces our own vulnerability and humanity. It is a mixture of cultures. It changes our lives. It enriches us.
In her comments before the book was released in advance at the end of the meeting, Jo McDonaugh, author Jo McDonaugh Literature in the Era of Migration: British Fiction and People's Movement, 1815-1876 “Moving is no exception, the norm. It shapes our society and environment in a profound way.” She then described the book as “a book of joy in which a true mix of themes and a creative, critical voice gets caught up in conversation.”
Crossing: Immigration knowledge, immigration formedited by Natalya Din Kariki, Suba Mukerji and Rowan Williams, and as the editors put it, “probe the process of creating the meaning they embodies, and how they negotiate in a way that recreates exchanges, agents, and even homecomecoming.”
It can be used as a free e-copy post publication.
