Migration Depicted In The Short Story 'Squatter'

Journeys allow individuals to fulfil a deeper understanding of a sense of identity by encountering personal struggles, and being faced to overcome cultural barriers. While this process may be difficult to undergo, it provides the individuals an insight to a more preferable future and world to live in. In the poems from Peter Skrzynecki’s Immigrant Chronicle, the poet communicates how individuals are able to grow a further sense of identity and discover perceptions of new cultures by the demanding challenges that they are forced to subdue. The poems ‘Migrant Hostel’ and ‘Ancestors’ reveal that the world is changed by an individual’s perception and attitude. A lack of understanding or desire to overcome these obstacles can cause the journey to

Belonging to place/culture is a major concept in ‘Migrant Hostel’ to show how the migrants use their background as a sense of affiliation and belonging. This can be seen through the use of a in “Nationalities sought each other out instinctively like a homing pigeon circling to get its bearings” This example shows how the migrants felt isolated and alone when they first arrived at the migrant hostel. As they came together the “sought each other out” through the use of nationally and culture which made them fit in and feel excepted into the place.

Belonging is shaped by the experiences he or she encounters with others, and within the two poems ‘Migrant Hostel’ and ’10 Mary Street’ by Peter Skrzynecki, and the film ‘Looking For Alibrandi’ directed by Kate Woods, the characters’ personas are moulded by their endurances of alienation and barriers from mainstream society due to their personal and cultural differences.

Throughout the course of the book, A Long Way Home, Saroo Brierley, the author, encounters a series of traumatic experiences that lead to bittersweet moments. Unlike a normal child’s infancy, Saroo was physically and mentally consuming. Through his experience, we are able to get a glimpse of the many struggles and hardships young children live in India daily. His petrifying experiences of living on the streets, Liluah, and Nava Jeevan finally lead to his safe haven of being taken by the Brierley’s.

A lack of belonging can destroy a sense of placement in society. This statement is thoroughly explored in the poem, ‘Migrant Hostel’ by Peter Skrzynecki, investigating the concepts of alienation and dislocation through the migrant’s lack of acceptance by the Australian citizens. The migrants are also unable to find a fixed home, and therefore feel no sense of stability or permanence. This transitory nature is best identified in the simile, ‘We lived like birds of a passage/Always sensing a change/In the weather’, where the comparison to birds emphasises the absence of a home. It is clear that the migrants feel unable to adapt to Australian society, constantly moving and never settling. The migrant’s exclusion is further highlighted in the lines,

Skrzynecki’s insightful poem “Migrant Hostel” explores the notion of impermanence and uncertainty in an individual’s experience where stability is essential to develop an identity and sense of belonging. The poem illustrates the disorientating nature of a migrant hostel where the people within yearn for sanctuary in the Australian community. This idea is instantly reflected through the negative connotations in “no one kept count” representing a sense of anonymity in the atmosphere through a lack of individual significance. The enjambment and juxtaposition of the “comings” and “goings” highlights the transient and uncertain nature of the hostel environment where they were “left wondering who would be coming next”. The intrinsic desire of human nature to develop meaningful bonds with people that share similar adversities is displayed through simile and symbol of a “homing pigeon circling to get its bearings”. Furthermore, the alliteration in “memories of hunger and hate” convey their previous experiences hindering their search for harmony and permission into the broader community. This notion is further

In response to an essay by Salman Rushdie, author Scott Russell Sanders critiques Rushdie’s assertion that “to be a migrant is, perhaps, to be the only species of human being free of the shackles of naturalism” (Rushdie). Sanders believes that constant movement and migration results in “disastrous consequences for the earth and for ourselves,” and he argues that settling is essential for humans (Sanders). In this passage, Sanders uses and inductive structure beginning with broad examples of American romanticism of transient lifestyle, and ends with his thesis, leading the reader down a path directly to his counter of Rushdie’s claim. Furthermore, Sanders provides historical examples to logically show the benefits of “making a home in a restless world” (Sanders).

Many writers explore the notion that cultural differences may inflict feelings of disconnection for their central characters. This is shown in the two texts ‘Neighbours’ and ‘Migrant Woman on a Melbourne Tram’, as both protagonists struggle to cope with their newly exposed environment. Despite this, we learn that it can be resolved through the acceptance of one another, yet others may remain to dissociate themselves from society.

Rudolph Fisher in the story Miss Cynthie and City of Refuge does a great job by exploiting the different characters of the Great Migration. For example, for immigrants that has just arrived to Harlem Fisher highlights Miss Cynthie and Gillis. For immigrants that are established in Harlem Fisher highlights two characters headed in two different directions; one is David an established artist, second is Uggam a person involved in illegal activities. All of these serve the purpose of reporters for the reader to get a deeper knowledge of the life during the Great Migration.

Have you ever moved to a new place or moved around trying to find a better life? Lennie and George moved multiple times in the book Of Mice and Men, and so did Pasha in the article “Syrian Migration”. There are many causes and effects of how migration can change your daily life.

When adapting to a new culture, many find it hard to assimilate into their new world while still holding on to their past life. Finding yourself in a new place with a new language and unfamiliar faces is challenging for immigrants. Jhumpa Lahiri, an immigrant herself, sheds some light on the Indian culture in her book, Interpreter of Maladies. She conveys many challenges that immigrants face when moving away from their homeland in a myriad of short stories. These short stories introduce similar themes of immigration and adaptation through different experiences. Two of Lahiri’s short stories, “A Temporary Matter” and “Mrs. Sens”, do a great job in showing similar challenges of cultural differences in two different ways. They introduce characters

People who tend to migrate a lot are less applicable of understanding and appreciating new ways of life. In response to an essay by Salman Rushdie on the benefits of moving, Scott Russell Sanders, in his essay “Staying Put: Making a Home in a Restless World,” claims that people should not immerse themselves into places but rather into ideas and values and also that people should care for the earth rather than for their egotistic desires. Through his use of a nostalgic tone and implied metaphors Sanders critiques Rushdie’s claims about the negative impact of migration and he also demonstrates why it is better for people to immerse themselves to their location rather than old beliefs and habits.

These constant reminders of differences as well as stereotyping made it incredibly hard for Gouvrnel, Wei-Lei and all migrants to belong somewhere other than what their physical appearance may indicate. By Gouvrnel recalling this story to the readers it make us think and learn about the impact and implications migrants have to face when coming to Australia and the teasing, bulling and hardships they were forced to face. On multiple occasions she recalls being in tears and asking herself why she “couldn’t move back to Delhi,” difference in physical appearance and were we originate serve as indicatory of difference that can result in very stereotypical grouping, making assumptions purely based on looks as well as exclusion, preventing migrants from feeling as if they belong.

Leaving one's own country and moving to another is one of the most difficult journeys anyone can make. In one's home country, he or she has a place, an identity that is

Inspired by the contrast in clothing between flesh showing Melbourne women of the 1960’s and the black-clad, veiled women of Southern European migrants “Migrant Woman on a Melbourne Tram” through a variety of poetic techniques explores the concept of isolation, confusion and unfamiliarity experienced by a migrant. “Impossibly black” the woman finds herself in a tram struggling to navigate the streets of Melbourne with a scrap of paper in hand only with an address and destination that she cannot comprehend. The repetition of the word “impossibly” is the most noticeable verbal element that highlights the quality of the migrant standing out against the crowd therefore creating a contrast between two very different cultures. Disorientation experienced by someone who is suddenly placed in an unfamiliar way of life or a set of attitudes also known as a culture shock is an experience that is common to migrants. This is seen as the woman “hunches sweltering” to express a sense of discomfort and the lack of ease that the woman feels due to the culture shock that she cannot understand.