Migration after empire: postcolonial masculinities and the transnational dynamics of subalternity

Abstract

Drawing on a qualitative study on migrant men recently arrived in Portugal, this paper examines how the experience of migration leads to the rebuilding of masculinity. The experiences of discrimination and strategies of resistance are linked to the history of Portuguese colonialism and the ways men hailing from contrasting colonial and postcolonial geographies within the Portuguese Empire (Brazil, Mozambique and Cape Verde) discover their subordination in the Portuguese context. We advance two central ideas. Firstly, we engage in an active historicisation of transnationalism and defend the postcolonial character of migrant masculinities. Rather than neutral or a-historical, transnational experiences of migration are better interpreted through the lens of specific histories of colonialism and postcolonialism. Secondly, while recognising the centrality of the hegemonic model of masculinity, we argue that the conceptualisation of masculinity as a complex structure of material and symbolic capitals permits to avoid one-dimensional accounts of subordination and dominance. Furthermore, the notion of capital is helpful for tying together the microenactments of masculinity and the macro-historical dynamics of colonialism and postcolonialism. Expanding the notion of postcolonial masculinities implies working with renewed tools suited for analysing how subordination is perpetuated through colonial devaluation or contested via the mobilisation of certain capitals.