Pamela Feldman-Savelsberg (Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Carleton College, USA):

Birth and Belonging in an African Diaspora: global webs and local
exclusion from Cameroon to Berlin

Identity and difference, belonging and exclusion are central to current debates regarding immigration, integration and health care reform in "immigration countries" as well as to conflicts over rights and recognition in sending countries. Childbearing is an important way in which individuals establish and experience membership in culturally defined groups. For mothers and their children, the circumstances of birth--whether one is born in one's place of origin or abroad; into wealth or poverty, health or disability; to married or unmarried parents, of similar or different culture and citizenship, and of legal or illegal immigration status--all condition belonging and its antonym, exclusion. This talk explores how Cameroonian migrants to Germany use childbearing to shape the ways they and their children belong to families, to cultural communities, and to countries. It looks at the nexus between birth and belonging in three interconnected settings: at "home" in a rural Bamiléké kingdom, within the Bamiléké domestic diaspora in Yaoundé, Cameroon's capital city, and among Bamiléké transnationals. Linking research on domestic and transnational diasporas and on the politics of belonging with the politics of reproduction, the talk provides first insights from a newly-launched project among Cameroonians in Berlin.

Der Vortrag findet im Seminarraum des Seminars für Ethnologie,
Reichardtstrasse 11, um 16.15 Uhr statt.