Postmigration

1. Why did you choose this topic?

Migration is a hot topic of public and scholarly debates. Yet, often such debates get stranded in polemics that sensationalise migration as either threat or celebration – and as an entirely new or urgent phenomenon. Postmigration studies have emerged as one possible response to this deadlock. Within the humanities and social sciences, the concept addresses migration as integral to the history of Europe and its contemporary societies structured by previous and ongoing migrations.

2. What new perspectives does your book offer?

We explore how the developing field of postmigration studies can engage with arts and culture as formative aspects of contemporary Europe. Initially, we offer an overview of analytical strategies including conceptualisations of ›the postmigrant generation‹ and ›postmigrant society‹. Touching upon both pitfalls and potentials of the infamous usage of the prefix ›post‹, we also discuss the critical reception of the concept of postmigration and its ties to postcolonial theory.

3. What makes your topic relevant for current research debates?

In a time where several societies seem to be increasingly obsessed with migration, we survey the postmigrant perspective's potential to analyze different but interrelated developments in relation to culture and migration as they unfold in various national and geographical contexts within Europe. By way of its many contributions, the book expands on ongoing debates concerning the concept of postmigration while also discussing its transnational origin in relation to current positions.

4. Choose one person you would like to discuss your book with!

In the book, we lay out how the theoretical foundations of the concept of postmigration can actually be traced back to UK-based cultural studies of the 1990s. For this reason – and since a majority of the artistic and academic work concerning postmigration has emerged in Germany –, it would be exciting to discuss the book with figures from a British post-Brexit context: figures such as Paul Gilroy, Sara Ahmed, Marsha Meskimmon and, of course, Stuart Hall, had he still been alive.

5. Your book summary in one sentence:

The book introduces the developing concept of postmigration and how it can engage with arts and culture as formative aspects of European societies.