Abstract
With this paper, we aim to look into the issue of identities among the immigrant population living in the West using an integrative multimodal approach. Although this topic has been in fashion for quite some time, most studies analyze either the political or mass-media discourse related to immigrants or reflect on how immigrants see themselves, on the basis of textual analysis of immigrants’ narratives and interviews. Our study takes a different approach and analyzes a video recorded and published on YouTube, focusing not only on the text but also on by analyzing non-verbal manifestations of changing positions on the part of the narrator. In particular, we examine identities/positions that the main protagonist, a Moroccan immigrant named Omar, assumes in the course of the story. We show how one particular gesture (pointing), coupled with other verbal and non-verbal markers, can signal a change of identity/position.
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Notes
Translation is taken from Gintsburg 2009, p. 110).
On limitedness of communicative affordances experienced by migrants while interacting with members of host society, see, for instance, discussion by De Fina & Tseng (2017).
Although we were able to find previous research on the connection between pointing gesture and identity, we will not use its findings as they concern unrelated to our study topic, such as temporal and spatial system in a poorly studied language of Yélî Dnye, Oceania (Levinson & Majid 2013).
This saying was attributed to Tariq Bni Ziyad by the sixteenth century historian Ahmad al-Maqarri. Although it is impossible to confirm whether these words really belong to Tariq Bni Ziyad, they are very popular in the Arab World and are strongly associated with this famous political and military figure from Morocco.
As of 2022 and according to the data collected by the Spanish National Institute for Statistics (INE), the Moroccan diaspora is considered to be the largest foreign diaspora in Spain. The official number of Moroccans with a Spanish residence is 883,243 (Instituto Nacional de Estadistica 2023). This number excludes Moroccans with a Spanish nationality, as well as Moroccans who live in Spain undocumented.
Ennaji mentions, for instance, that the message that migration is a key to successful life is transmitted to Moroccans at various levels, including official mass media. For example, there exist various programs that feature success stories of Moroccan emigrants who now happily live in the West (Ennaji 2014: 31).
We selected FASSI FI ESPAÑA for this study within the framework of MYOUROPE (2020–2023). MYOUROPE is a research project that seeks to contribute to a better understanding of identities and interactions with the host society of immigrants of Maghrebi origin who now live in Spain, through collecting and analyzing the contents of the YouTube channels they rub. This particular channel and all relevant information about it is in public access and can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCN79MTdWCMprS01q1uzK7Vw
While working on revisions for this article in the summer of 2023, we learned that Omar had returned to his channel: in early July, he uploaded a new video titled “I'm back”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFVG0Mb_PM0
Our analysis will be focused on the mechanism behind shifting identities rather than on in-depth qualitative study on the nature of these identities, first of all, on the personal vs social identities.
This practice involves squeezing toxic glue from its tube into a plastic bag and then dipping the whole into the bag or at least the mouth and the nose and inhaling its toxic evaporations. Widespread in many countries, it is very popular in North Africa, where children as young as six can become addicted to it.
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Gintsburg, S., Waisman, O.S. Many Faces of Omar: Integrative Multimodal Analysis of a Story of Migration Found on YouTube: Focus on Positioning. Int. Migration & Integration (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12134-023-01097-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12134-023-01097-7