Migrancy, Gender and the -illusion of paradise: The Abysmal Haven in contemporary migration literatures

Abstract

This paper interrogates the hyped belief that migration to the West is tantamount to easy riches and success among African immigrants in Abdulrazack Gurnah’s Pilgrim’s Way and Chimamanda Ngozi’s Americanah. The paper compares experiences of male and female migrant characters to cross question the myth of “Western paradise.” While literary studies exist on the plight of migrant characters in host nations, this comparative reading has received inadequate attention. With the advent of globalization, some migration scholars aver that through hybridity, migrants from the global South to Western metropolis form linkages by hybridity to take advantage of economic opportunities for personal development. Migration to the United States and Europe has been viewed as the appropriate prescription to the plight of refugees and economic immigrants as long as they opt for the middle space to negotiate their existence in the foreign nations. Emerging writers and scholars in migration however interrogate this notion and view migrancy as deliberate choice by migrant characters to place themselves under misery and subjugation by the dominant groups in host nations. To these writers and scholars, migration to Western cities is not the prescription to immigrants’ predicament but rather a predisposing factor to worse problems such as otherness, economic exploitation and pathological conditions. Using postcolonial theory, the article provides new evidence that demonstrates abjection, squalor and pathology to overturn the myth of eternal bliss among migrant characters