Belonging is the potential of an person to overcome identity with the social environment. Peter Skrzynecki’s poems Feliks Skrzynecki and Migrant Hostel from the anthology ‘Immigrant Chronicle’ explore idea in relation to migrant workers during the content WWII period and are glare of Henri Tajfel’s social identity theory. The picture essay permitted Belongings, believed, presented, challenged transfers the principles to a modern context, illustrating the enduring nature of the struggle humanity encounters in the effort to fit in.
Feliks’ gardening in Feliks Skrzynecki can be seen like a response to the many years movement of forced labour in Germany which in turn left him at the mercy of greater tides in the affairs of humanity. Once in Australia included in the post WWII influx of migrants, Feliks devotes himself to creating an atmosphere which he can control. Stanza one and two establishes a sense of comfortableness familiarity inside the niche this individual has created to get himself. Feliks recognises that belonging is usually gained through the possession of particular socially valued and recognized criteria.
Within an Australian framework, uniformity is manufactured the criteria pertaining to belonging, something which Feliks himself does not worth highly, because expressed in “Did your father ever before attempt to master English? The condescending tone utilized portrays the perceived social value of assimilation and the representation of the unwelcoming contemporary society as seen from a migrant’s point of view. Henri Tajfel’s social identification theory states that a person’s sense of self is dependent on their group membership(s), that in order to boost our self-image we improve the status from the crew to which all of us belong (in group) and discriminate resistant to the groups that individuals do not (out group).
Peter Skrzynecki presents a contrary self-categorisation in the poem Feliks Skrzynecki. “His (fathers) Polish friends often shook hands too violently connotes ethnical exclusivity plus the affinity in the persona with a non-Polish tradition. Child voice serves to highlight the generation divide between Feliks great son as Peter looks for to strengthen his sense of belonging in the new Aussie culture by simply establishing his father and “his Shine friends while the ‘out group’.
On the other hand and concurrently, the personality distinguishes him self from the Australian bureaucracy by making use of derogatory, unoriginal language: “A crew minimize, grey haired department attendant who asked me in grooving bear grunts. This features the difficulty of establishing a sense of that belong when conflicted with two cultural details. The composition Migrant Hostel (Parkes 1949-51) explores the alienation of and bitterness shown toward ‘newcomers’ to Australian society. “Nationalities desired each other away instinctively implies the importance of familiarity, since expressed in Feliks Skrzynecki.
Individuals are more able to get back together their personal identity with all the inherent ought to belong to a bunch in a noted and familiar environment. The emotional and physical security provided by your own ethnic group is definitely evidence of the pre-programmed natural need to type ‘tribes’. The migrants happen to be dehumanised by using a lack of information- “left us wondering and “unaware. The migrants pose a threat to current Australian routine of presence and the build of sociable Darwinism dictates that the fresh threat should be eliminated.
To ensure the individuals to maintain their feelings of belonging, both the groups happen to be in a constant state of competition, therefore the hostility felt by the migrants is because of competing details. Consequently the perception that people must learn our directly to belong spreads throughout society. Belonging is rather than an inherent right of the man, but a thing that is earned through socially valued criteria. Just as Feliks is rejected acceptance by Australian world in Feliks Skrzynecki, also are the migrant workers by “a barrier on the main gate¦.
Pointed in reprimand or shame. The migrants are manufactured feel prisoners, subverted to authority and “needing its sanction to have their lives. Due to their alternate cultural id migrants are excluded and alienated via society, exposing that t concept of that belong is seriously based on major culture. Items: felt, shown, challenged is exploring perhaps the many conflicting however thought provoking aspect of belonging, that of the struggle between society’s expectations of conformity and the individuals search for a exceptional sense of identity.
The photo dissertation is created of photos taken by subjects persecuted for choosing not to belong to the popular perspective of culture. In the post 9/11 context, where picking not to belong can result in municipal wars and racial persecution, this sychronizeds need to participate in society and an individual’s own search for identification are harshly conflicted. Specific torment and dislocation has experience by thousands of people as they become the casualties of an internal jihad of values and instinct.
The control exerted during these people is known as a gross hyperbole of the control portrayed in Migrant Hostel and represents the dire consequences of the inability of the individual to reconcile personal identity using their social environment. The ability is definitely affected by the nature of the individual’s context. The ideas regarding belonging disseminated in Things: felt, presented, challenged will be such that a lot of milieu tend not to foster specific thought although rely only on conformity as a basis for belonging. Any deviance from this framework results in persecution and in intense cases, genocide.
To a smaller extent, Philip Skrzynecki skilled these emotions of oppression and conveys the mental isolation involved in the process of immigration and retention. Migrant Hostel reveals the perception that we must generate our right to belong as well as the opposition encountered by competitive groups. Feliks Skrzynecki further explores idea, looking at the consequence of conflicting social identities on an individual and the affiliation with competing ‘in’ and ‘out’ groups. Hence belonging is determined by the ability to overcome personal identification with interpersonal environment.
