How the migrant constructs and reproduces space through memory: Collage, montage and translation

The experience of migration is an ever lasting process, where the migrant searches his own place by lurching between two places. When a person gets drifted away from his place, he has to deal with concepts like belonging, identity and outsiderness his whole life. Neither the people in his origin, nor the ones in his destination area will accept him anymore. Even if he decides to return one day, it is not possible to reverse this situation. Because the one who returns, is never the same as the one who was gone. The migrant, who is in search of the place he belongs to, tries to hold on to both of the places he is lurching between. The spaces he carries in his memory, are constantly being constructed and reproduced simultaneously with this search. Memory is not a static structure such as a warehouse, archive, or cabinet. The memory of the immigrant contains a dynamic process in relation with the contexts of space: Memory is a living thing. In the introductory part of this thesis, which follows the question of how spaces are constructed and reproduced in the memory of the migrant, the purpose and method have been determined with the description of the problem. A lot of people think that migrants belong to nowhere, but a lot of migrants are stating that they feel like they are at two places at the same time. What is the source of this feeling? Is it memory? If it is, how are spaces stored in the memory of the migrant? Does the migrant reproduce the spaces in his past through his memory? How does this reproduction occur? Is reproduction a sufficient description for this process? Which path should be followed to evaluate and make sense of these reproductions? In the second part, the relationship of the concept of memory to space has been described within the scope of migration. This relationship has been discussed with contexts such as belonging, identity, familiarity, alienation, relocation and hibridity. The structure of the migrants memory, which constructs itself from the micro scale to the macro scale has been identified. The concept of memory can have many different meanings depending on the research area. That is why it is important to define the concept of memory in relation to this research. When the point in question is the memory of the migrant and its spatial relationships, there are two facts to consider: Context and scale. Both of these facts are important when it comes to the transformation of foreign areas to place for the migrant and the reproduction of spaces in his memory. Studies in this area are being carried on certain contexts which are mentioned in the previous paragraph. The cause of this is the physical seperation which the migrants experience and the relationship they develope with the new space over time. The scale as a second phenomenon, confronts us in different ways when the topic is migration. The migrants can carry just a few posessions with them when they begin their journey, but they actually transport more than just some objects: The carry with them their homes, villages or cities, too. Migration can occur in the same country or overseas in different distances, but a migrant can move from a village to a city or from a city to a village, too. On the other hand, the process to make place for the migrant who departed with just a few posessions occurs from the micro scale to the macro scale. First, there are some objects he carried, after he creates a home and finally the process reaches on to buildings and the city. In the third chapter, the construction methods of the migrants memory have been examined through the productions of migrants in art, literature and cinema. In this chapter, the construction methods of the memory like fragmentation and scale shift, combining of contradictions and transformation while being transported have been examined through their contextual frameworks and scales. In the memory of the migrant, these methods take shape depending on the contexts of migration and its scale. While some of them interfere in micro scale, others are related to mezzo or macro scale. The first intervention in micro scale is fragmentation and the change of context. We remember past spaces as fragments taken apart from each other and these fragments gain new contexts in relation to present conditions. The second one is the shift of scales and the transmission betweent the part and the whole. We can remember a space from our childhood bigger as it is in reality or we can remember it smaller when it evokes claustrophobic feelings. But this construction has an impact not just on the micro scale, but also on the mezzo scale. The discontinuity in time and space on the other hand can be observed in the mezzo scale. Real life is continous in terms of time and space, but memory is not. We can remember places with great distances just next to each other or a memory from our childhoond an one from our adulthood can meld. The combining of contradictions, which is also the reflection of the migrants identity which consists of two different places, has an impact on mezzo and macro scale. On the other side, transformation while being transported affects the macro scale only. Migrants transport and transform cultures, languages and places with themselves. The migrants remove borders while they carry and transform these traces and experience a transformation of themselves, too. The areas where this construction methods resemble and differenciate from each other have been determined in the fourth chapter. Then, a new conceptualization has been proposed within the framework of collage, montage and translation concepts. Conceptualization creates the possibility of communication between different disciplines. But it is important to eliminate uncertainty, and this is just possible when the resemblances and differences are defined carefully. Spatial reflections of the migrants memory have been examined with the conceptualization collage-memory in the micro scale, with montage-memory in the mezzo scale and with translation-memory in the macro scale. These conceptualizations have been opened up to discussion with fragments of the story of a migrant family. Because the story of a single family actually points to the common experience of all migrants. The collage-memory conceptualization concentrates on migrant homes and the posessions in it. The objects which the migrants carries with them, contain actually meanings in different scales. But the meaning or the context changes over time. Placed in a whole different place with different objects and creating a new home gives the posessions new meanings. After that, they start to have three different meanings: One is the meaning related to its root, one is the new one gained and the third one is the meaning in the new configuration – just like a collage. Observing migrant homes as a collage, makes it possible to trace all the meanings. The montage-memory conceptualization is about buildings which are reproduced in different ways by the migrants memory. Different fragments from the root of the migrant and his destination are are being gathered together. This is a consequence of the discontinuity of time and space. The past and the future, the root and the destination are being assembled together just like a montage. This montage results in a whole new meaning, apart from the old ones. Because the montage of two scenes results not in an addition, but in a multiplication. Montage can change the past, present and future. The translation-memory conceptualization on the other hand, refers to the city and reproductions of it. Migrants transform cities, but they change also the form of it: They write texts or novels about them or they use images of cities to reflect their identity which is partly constructed through the actual space. This is a translation of the city. But while doing this, the migrant has to choose what to carry and to the new form and what to leave behind. In the conclusion part, the spatial reproductions of memory have been reconsidered in relation of their construction methods and the position of the migrant in the whole process has been discussed. Every conceptualization has its own traces how the migrant searches his home and where he finds it.