Book contents
- Postcolonial People
- Postcolonial People
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Epigraph
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Note on Translations, Archival Sources, Prices, and Language
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 Returnees or Refugees?
- 2 Hotels for the Homeless
- 3 Making Claims and Taking Action
- 4 The Return of the Return
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
1 - Returnees or Refugees?
Defining the Retornados
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 May 2022
- Postcolonial People
- Postcolonial People
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Epigraph
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Note on Translations, Archival Sources, Prices, and Language
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 Returnees or Refugees?
- 2 Hotels for the Homeless
- 3 Making Claims and Taking Action
- 4 The Return of the Return
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
In a sort of conceptual history in action, this chapter looks at the labels attached to the settlers-turned-migrants that were hotly contested. The most prominent among them, retornados (returnees) and refugiados (refugees), inferred conflicting views about the nature of their mobility and belonging and thus evoked divergent emotional and political responses. By disentangling how domestic, foreign, and international actors, notably the UNHCR, fought over these labels, the chapter demonstrates how the mechanisms of the international postwar refugee regime were compatible with and helped reinforce an ethnic reordering of citizenship and the postcolonial nation in Portugal. Conceptually, the chapter argues that historicizing these battles over how to name, interpret, and handle those who were leaving the colonies can provide fresh vistas for the broader scholarly discussion about coerced migration.
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- Postcolonial PeopleThe Return from Africa and the Remaking of Portugal, pp. 26 - 99Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2022