Auto-Ethnography of Imagined Diasporic Lives Self-Reflexive Analysis of the Left Behind Perspective in a Migrant Family

ABSTRACT This paper discusses the imaginary about migrant kin destinations and the lives of the family members left behind. It reflects on the mechanisms of connection to places the subject has never been that knows through stories told by people whom themselves have never been but have experienced separation and loss as remaining behind in a family characterized by a history of emigration. Through self-reflexive auto-ethnography, this article focuses on the development of virtual ties to imagined places through the establishment of emotional geographies in the second generation left behind. The paper engages with the theorization of two stages in the lives of those who remain in the homeland: (In)-decision to stay, (Re)-solution to stay, which can result in Hesitation about staying in second generation left behind and eventually can lead to an Exit-action. Applying the concept of ‘familial habitus’, it demonstrates how in belonging to a family affected by displacement, stories about distant kin operate as living entities that form bonds with people, places, events with which the subject is unfamiliar. The social remittances provided through visits back can enhance the left behind exitus and emancipation opening for a potential liminoid experience of break with the limitations of patriarchal culture.