Sunday, March 16, 2014
Embassy (Omni Shoreham)
By tracing the networks and actors which enable, encourage or hinder the movement of dead bodies across borders, this paper analyzes the different registers through which symbolic and affective ties to national and political communities are constructed and performed. The field of migration studies has generated many insights about the causes and consequences of the movement of living persons, but has overlooked the possibilities that the voyages of the dead offer as an alternative approach to questions about the relationship between belonging, identity, and place. Based on ethnographic research and interviews conducted in Berlin in the summer of 2013, this paper analyzes the phenomenon of repatriation for burial, a practice that is fairly common amongst Turkish migrants residing in Germany. In particular, it focuses on the operations of a number of funeral funds that have been established in Germany to help subsidize the costs of repatriation and burial of Turkish citizens. I argue that these funds play an important role in the organization of social life in the Turkish diaspora by serving as intermediaries between citizens and the state that negotiate the (sometimes) conflicting demands of religious dictates and state law. As a practice that is supported and facilitated by the Turkish government, repatriation also raises compelling questions about the governance of diasporas. Relying on the circulation of the dead, this paper investigates the ways in which relations between authority, territory and populations are managed, rationalized, organized and legitimated at a transnational level.
