DemCP colloquium - TILMAN LANZ (UG) & STEVEN BYRNE (Universiry of Limerick): "'Resonance Migration' in Southern France"

Research colloquium of the Centre for the Study of Democratic Cultures and Politics

Tilman Lanz (University of Groningen) & Steven Byrne (University of Limerick)
'Resonance Migration' in Southern France

Abstract

A few centuries ago, sunset migration emerged against the backdrop of the formation of a European bourgeoisie. Today, sunset migration is a global phenomenon. Most locations in the world today welcome lifestyle migrants for their relative affluence and cosmopolitanism. In this paper, we use Rosa’s concept of resonance, to analyze various aspects of sunset migration in Bessèges, a small town in southern France’s Cevènnes region. The concept of resonance is well-suited to the study of sunset migration because these specific migration processes are steeped in civic desires and idealistic projections towards a new world, migrants are so eager to move to. Our research shows, however, that turning resources to resonance in sunset migration is a process fraught with many possibilities for failure. In this text, we make some suggestions on how to manage this process to ensure a greater chance for success for this specific type of migrants. In its conclusion, our paper also offers some suggestions from our empirical work to improve the concept of resonance.

About the speakers

Tilman Lanz is a European Anthropologist researching the connectivity of migrant and national minorities to mainstream societies in European contexts. This research is directed towards understanding complex local-global processes among different types of minorities. It investigates the conjuncture of migrant minorities integrating into new local, national, and transnational contexts together with local minorities simultaneously aiming to connect themselves with the wider, global world. In both instances, research is focused on understanding how this linking can be established while, simultaneously, retaining heritage identities. In this context, Lanz has studied factors such as religion, national identity, economic status, or lifestyle choices in their influence on migrant or local identities. His work is driven by a strong belief in the emergence of a European civil society that will transcend existing national and linguistic barriers while also maintaining local and transnational diversity. Some of his recent work has focused on regional efforts for self-determination, as in Liquid Catalonia (2021), the role of migrant religious identity in Force of Islam (2008), language, identity and integration in Two-Way Integration of Minoritized Speakers (2020, with E. Juarros and R. Pera-Ros), or the role of urban centers for minority formation in Minority Cosmopolitanism (2016).

Steven Byrne currently holds a postdoctoral position in the School of Allied Health in the University of Limerick (Ireland). He completed his BA in Economics and Sociology, MA in Sociology and PhD in Sociolinguistics (all UL). He has previously taught in the Dept. of Sociology, the School of Modern Languages and Applied Linguistics, the Dept. of Politics and Public Administration and the Centre for Teaching and Learning at the University of Limerick (UL). He is currently a senior researcher in the Research Group on Intercultural Spaces, Languages and Identities (GREILI) at Pompeu Fabra University (Barcelona). His research interests include sub-state nationalism, social movements, the Catalan secessionist movement, minority languages and multiculturalism. He has published his work in the Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, Ethnopolitics, Social Semiotics and Torture: Journal on Rehabilitation of Torture Victims and Prevention of Torture and the International Journal for Iberian Studies. He has also published one book “Independence, Language and Identity in Modern Catalonia: A Study in Socio-Cultural and Socio-Political Allegiance” with Sussex Academic Press and has recently completed an edited volume titled “Identity and Nation in 21^st Century Catalonia: El Procés”.