Beyond authoritarianism: Migration, uncertainty and a sense of belonging among public intellectuals

Exiled scholars, writers and artists enact a diversity of roles in global professional and cultural settings. From a sense of justice and opposition to the regimes in their home countries, which they are escaping from, they live in a situation of uncertainty, ambivalence and inbetweenness within several social arenas. Findings from ethnographic fieldwork pertain to perceived opportunities, social dynamics and identifications among these intellectuals. These intellectuals find themselves in a state of considerable frustration, because they do not wish to return to their home countries, while at the same time they are witnesses from afar of ongoing oppression. At the same time, they are viewed as hampering the hierarchy of nation-state undertakings. The regimes in their home-states are governing from non-pluralist cultural manifestations, and they attempt to restrain the interlocutors’ self-realization and needs. However, this only fortifies reactions linked to political awareness, an alternative sense of belonging and the struggle for relative cultural freedom. They are instrumental in contesting authoritarianism from a point of experienced necessary social change to identify and potentially delegitimize the home-state hierarchical systems. By making use of performative and aesthetic practices and their cultural and professional opportunities, they circumvent the regimes; this, in turn, entails a flexibility of weaving in and out of categories and structures. A primary identification is a notion of the global nomad, as they choose the uncertainty of global settings with like-minded individuals in preference to the regimes. Despite the upsurge of authoritarian governments across the world, alternative prospects may also be increasing to enable individuals such as these interlocutors to criticize and transcend repressive mechanisms.