Racism in the construction of identities in first-person migrant narratives
The present thesis constitutes qualitative study that utilizes collections of first-person migration narratives with an anti-racist intention. Specifically, it examines migrants’ narratives as tools for identity construction and explores which migratory identities are constructed within the texts under examination. Additionally, it investigates to what extent these identities reproduce social discrimination regarding migrants and how phenomena of liquid and internalized racism emerge through these identities. The narrative analysis was conducted using Bamberg’s (2011a) model of three dilemmas. The interpretation of identities was based on a study by Archakis, Karachaliou, Tsami, and Lazanas (2023). Specifically, we attempted to correlate the identities that emerged with the categories of distinction and assimilation in the aforementioned study. It is claimed that the identities detected in the present thesis reflect racist representations. The study reveals the presence of internalized racism and of assimilation among migrants, as evidenced by their perception of the host country as a “homeland” and their positioning towards the dictates of the dominant discourse, as well as their acceptance of the role of victim. Moreover, we found that the collections of narratives examined, albeit pro-migrant, paradoxically reproduce racist stereotypes. Therefore, the emergence of these categories of racism in collections of migration narratives that ostensibly aim to be anti-racist indicates ambiguity, thus liquid racism is detected (Weaver 2011).