- Title
- A moment of fuzziness : connections between shifting notions of ‘home’ and welfare arrangements ‘back home’ for Black Zimbabwean migrants living under COVID-19 travel restrictions in Australia
- Creator
- Chihota, Clement
- Date
- 2023
- Type
- Text; Book chapter
- Identifier
- http://researchonline.federation.edu.au/vital/access/HandleResolver/1959.17/194059
- Identifier
- vital:18296
- Identifier
-
https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003416210-17
- Identifier
- ISBN:9781000921540 (ISBN); 9781032223445 (ISBN)
- Abstract
- This chapter makes connections between shifting notions of ‘home’ and welfare arrangements to support relatives ‘back home’, among first-generation Black Zimbabwean migrants living in Australia under COVID-19 travel restrictions. Using anecdotal evidence and harnessing elements of constructivist and structuralist theory, the chapter reflects on how a binary opposition between ‘kumusha/ekhaya’ (meaning the place of origin and belonging) and ‘kumasango/ingangeni’ (literally, ‘the jungle’ - and in this context - any other location that is not kumusha/ekhaya) was largely operative for this community, prior to the pandemic. As a sense-making structure, this opposition promoted resiliency as challenges associated with resettling in Australia were assigned to the kumasango/ingangeni category, meaning they could be expected, while kumusha/ekhaya served as the idyllic ‘counterweight’ (i.e. the place of restoration and regeneration, always within reach, when required. The imposition of COVID-19 travel restrictions between early 2020 and late 2021 disrupted and fuzzified this ʼneat’ conceptual structure and instigated recalibrations of the meaning and location of ‘home’ for this community. As further argued, this shift in the relationship with kumusha/ekhaya, which could be occurring in other places hosting the Zimbabwean diaspora, may have long-term impacts on the informal welfare system, which has helped to sustain livelihoods in Zimbabwe for the past two decades. © 2024 selection and editorial matter, Goetz Ottmann and Carolyn Noble; individual chapters, the contributors.
- Publisher
- Taylor and Francis
- Relation
- Post-Pandemic Welfare and Social Work: Re-imagining the New Normal Chapter 17 p. 197-209
- Rights
- All metadata describing materials held in, or linked to, the repository is freely available under a CC0 licence
- Rights
- Copyright @ 2024 selection and editorial matter, Goetz Ottmann and Carolyn Noble: individual chapters, the contributors
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