Materiality of immigrant identity: Polish immigrants in South Africa

• In Event: Deconstructing Mediated Myths of the Marginalized

Abstract

Recent studies in communication argue for increasing attention to the material and its relationship to the symbolic practices. In this paper, we examine the interconnection between the material and the symbolic by focusing on the strategic claims to belonging and inclusion of Polish immigrants in the post-apartheid South Africa. While specific material conditions of immigration enabled assertion of cultural difference in a positive sense, they simultaneously enabled claims to invisibility from black Africans.

Authors

• Jolanta Drzewiecka, Washington State University

• Melissa Steyn, Univ of Cape Town