Living not at home

In two previous posts I discussed how an elective migrant may sustain their separateness from the country where they're resident. Another separation is the one between the elective migrant and the country that they left.  I've heard versions of this separation from many migrants. Most were from the UK but also from the US, Germany, Holland. The description usually forms part of a narrative of progress: the country the migrant left is cold, deficient, failing, terminal; the country they are in now (Portugal) is an improvement, a step up, a warmer and more affirming place. Location as self-fulfilment.  ‘The rest of Europe can't take the UK seriously any more.’ ‘I don't miss it. I only go back to see friends. I wish they could all move here; I keep encouraging them.’ ‘I only go back now for funerals.’ ‘It was our home but we weren’t really at home. The good ‘ol boys and their politics. It’s so divided.’ ‘I realised that people in Germany are just unfriendly. In the street...

As he wanders the streets of Porto one night, the hero of Ilse Losa’s novel thinks about the relationship between a foreigner and the buildings that they find themselves amongst. He thinks about how buildings link people to history. And he thinks about the struggles and the glories that a nation waves about like banners: the foreigner may ... like them, find them curious, but the foreigner is not moved or proud. When it’s your own country reciting its struggles and glories, you feel moved, or you feel riled. The public statues to villain-heroes, the songs about the fight for decent working conditions, the noise made about some wars, the silence around others. It’s like family – every discussion has been worked through before. It takes persistence to shift the well-worn patterns, to find new responses to the old arguments.   But when the glories held up before you are those of another country, their power fades away. For the foreigner, the immigrant, these glories are not the re-ap...

Sob Céus Estranhos é um romance de Ilse Losa. Losa era um refugiado judeu alemão. Deslocou-se em Portugal em 1934. O romance tem lugar no Porto logo após a 2ª Guerra Mundial. O personagem principal é um jovem alemão chamado José. Ele ja viveu na cidade durante uns anos e fala a língua. Tem amigos à sua volta, mas mantém o distanciamento de um imigrante.  Leio devagar quando o texto está em português. Até agora, o romance mostra os passeios nocturnos de José enquanto a sua mulher está em trabalho de parto no hospital. A dada altura, durante a noite, ele pensa num amigo e pergunta-se se o deveria visitar. Ele lembra-se dos edifícios em redor da casa do seu amigo: As casas velhas, estreitas, arbitrariamente altas e baixas, de dia pitorescas com as fachadas de azulejos e os balcões de ferro, distinguindo-se agora apenas pelo contraste das dimensões, talvez evocassem alguma coisa do passado, quem sabe? Mas a um estrangeiro, como ele, não diziam nada, não lhe inspiravam essa nostalgia ...