Narratives of migration: Emotions and the interweaving of personal and cultural identity through narrative

Abstract

In this article we examine the role of narratives of migration as sense-giving devices that interweave cultural and personal dimensions in identity construction. The data shown come from a research project in which we comparatively analysed Andalusian (Southern Spain) internal migrants’ and non-migrants’ arguments about their cultural identity displayed in a focus group task. In that study we found that migrants used mainly personal narratives as rhetoric tools. In this article, we focus on the thematic and structural traits of these migrants’ narratives. The analysis illustrates that narratives of migration share some common features. They start with a canonical state, living in the homeland, visualised as a ‘lost paradise’; that is broken by the migration movement. The whole process is emotionally evaluated with a strong affiliation and commitment with the motherland. We finally conclude that narratives comprise a privileged instrument in making sense of life turning-points such as those faced in migration.