Full Description
A recurring theme of the public discourse on immigration in Europe today is that migrants are primarily young people, of working age. Against this short-sighted view, the main contribution of this book is to propose that processes of ageing and dying constitute a critical juncture in the settlement of migrant-origin communities, precipitating novel intercultural negotiations in societies characterized by post-migration diversity. Bringing together seven studies reflecting different institutional and (trans)national contexts, the chapters fall under two main themes. A key issue when facing death is the organization of adequate care for the dying, which may be a challenging task in pluralized settings involving both migrant patients and migrant carers. Facing the end of life furthermore involves the practice of rituals in order to make sense of the transition from life to death. Whether through care or ritual, the studies presented here show that the need to reconcile different cultural, religious and administrative norms relating to death is infused with ontological insecurities which may result in new or renewed interrogations of identities and belongings. This book was originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Intercultural Studies.
Contents
1. End-of-life Care and Rituals in Contexts of Post-migration Diversity in Europe: An Introduction 2. The 'Other' in End-of-life Care: Providers' Understandings of Patients with Migrant Backgrounds 3. The Art of Enduring Contradictory Goals: Challenges in the Institutional Co-construction of a 'good death' 4. End-of-life Care and Beyond 5. Between Civil Society and the State: Bureaucratic Competence and Cultural Mediation among Muslim Undertakers in Berlin 6. The Importance of a Religious Funeral Ceremony Among Turkish Migrants and Their Descendants in Germany: What Role do Socio-demographic Characteristics Play? 7. Staking a Claim to Land, Faith and Family: Burial Location Preferences of Middle Eastern Christian Migrants 8. Uncertain Belongings: Absent Mourning, Burial, and Post-mortem Repatriations at the External Border of the EU in Spain
