Imagining Futures in Paper Homes. Ambivalence, the ‘Politics of Becoming' and the Everyday Life of Temporary Immigrants

This paper asks whether changes in the patterns of migrant mobility have been accompanied by, or indeed have generated, the affective register of ambivalence as a way of coping with life as temporary, nomadic and often unwanted peoples. Migration is increasingly temporary in nature, with an attendant loss of access to the channels of full incorporation to formal citizenship and belonging. As a result, immigrants experience insecurities in meeting the basic needs of life as well as in the long-term projects of imagining a new life in host societies. This paper proceeds with a focus on the fluid contexts of immigrants’ everyday lives, negotiating the complex pathways of globalised labour markets, national migration regulations and the localised experiences that constitute place and home making. Ambivalence can be conceived as a rational response to the uncertainties faced by immigrants: temporary and precarious work; second-class citizenship; marginality and invisibility. At the same time, ambivalence can also be understood as a more widespread emotional response, observable under the conditions of late modernity in confluence with economic globalization; a response heightened through the immigrant experience, though perhaps not distinct only to the immigrant experience. Drawing on the concept of a ‘politics of becoming’ as a rejection of the zero sum game approach of mere inclusion or subsumption of rights claims and identity politics (Honig 2009), the paper argues for a more holistic conceptualization of social change with, rather than through migration. That is, the immigrant experience is one among many contemporary modes and experiences of change. The paper draws on original qualitative data from interviews with temporary migrants in the Asia Pacific region, focused on the fluidity everyday life and securing work, subsistence and on imagining futures. The interview material offers insights from temporary migrants to the possibilities of a ‘politics of becoming’.