Migration, Place and Identity

Abstract

This project investigates relations between identity and place in a context of migration. The development of what has been called the multicultural society has introduced new perspectives on how we can describe and analyse space and its relation to identity. Places can not be described in one form only, but have to include several forms. The project period is from July 1998 to July 2002. The project derives from a perspective where people with immigrant backgrounds, migrants, non migrants and people from different generations are viewed as cultural and social agents. The empirical ground for the study is Kristiansand, a town in the south of Norway with approximately 70.000 inhabitants. The empirical basis for the study is interviews with individuals, most of them with different ethnic backgrounds, about social practices, biographical life histories and educational background. Through this, the project aims at contributing to a greater theoretical insight into and discussion of the relationship between place and identity. It also aims at giving greater insight into different constructions of place and how space in different ways is a part of everyday life, and especially in the perspective of a multicultural society. The meaning of place and its location in different meaning-contexts is seen in relation to identity and identity projects and identity works. The main questions in the project are therefore how different meanings of Kristiansand as a place are constituted and how this meaning is related to identity.