Frontier Diasporas, Ontologies of Incompleteness, Unfinishable Possibilities: Decolonising Migrant Identity Narratives

In this chapter, I trouble and unsettle those colonial theoretical frameworks that underpin most approaches to language, diasporas, and immigrants. I draw attention to alternative approaches inspired by insights from decolonial politics and Southern perspectives. What would a decolonised view of migrant and diaspora identities look like in theory and in practice? In addressing this and related questions, I propose a project of decolonising that rests on three concepts: “frontier diasporas”, “ontologies of incompleteness” and “unfinishable possibilities of existence otherwise”. Using examples from my previous ethnographic work with African diasporas in metropolitan Victoria and regional NSW (Australia), I suggest that identities of migrants must be understood as open-ended interconnections (frontiers) that expand and contract ‒ in equal measure ‒ reflecting group and individual biographies, ways of being, complex migration histories and (re)imaginings of present and future life trajectories and aspirations.