PUBLI : Nichola Khan, Arc of the Journeyman. Afghan Migrants in England, University of Minnesota Press, 2020, 288 p.

Presen­ta­tion

A monu­mental account of one migrant community’s everyday lives, struggles, and aspirations

Forty years of conti­nuous war and conflict have made Afghans the largest refugee group in the world. In this first full-scale ethno­graphy of Afghan migrants in England, Nichola Khan examines the imprint of violence, displa­ce­ment, kinship obli­ga­tions, and mobi­lity on the lives and work of Pashtun jour­neyman taxi drivers in Britain.

Forty years of conti­nuous war and conflict have made Afghans the largest refugee group in the world. In this first full-scale ethno­graphy of Afghan migrants in England, Nichola Khan examines the imprint of violence, displa­ce­ment, kinship obli­ga­tions, and mobi­lity on the lives and work of Pashtun jour­neyman taxi drivers in Britain. Khan’s analysis is centered in the county of Sussex, site of Brighton’s orien­ta­list Royal Pavi­lion and the former home of colo­nial propa­gan­dist Rudyard Kipling. Her nearly two decades of rela­tion­ships and field­work have given Khan a deep unders­tan­ding of the everyday lives of Afghan migrants, who face unre­len­ting pres­sures to remit money to their strug­gling rela­tives in Pakistan and Afgha­nistan, adhere to tradi­tional values, and resettle the wives and chil­dren they have left behind.

This kalei­do­scopic narra­tive is enri­ched by the migrants’ own stories and dreams, which take on extra signi­fi­cance among sleep-deprived taxi drivers. Khan chro­nicles the way these men rely on Pashto poems and apho­risms to make sense of what is strange or diffi­cult to bear. She also attests to the plea­sures of local family and friends who are less deman­ding than kin back home—sharing connec­tion and moments of joy in dance, excur­sions, picnics, and humo­rous banter. Khan views these men’s lives through the lenses of movement—the arrival of friends and family, return visits to Pakistan, driving custo­mers, even the journey to remit money overseas—and immo­bi­lity, descri­bing the migrants who expe­rience “stuck­ness” caused by unres­pon­sive bureau­cra­cies, chronic inse­cu­rity, or struggles with depres­sion and other mental health conditions.

Arc of the Jour­neyman is a deeply humane portrayal that expands and compli­cates current percep­tions of Afghan migrants, offe­ring a finely analyzed descrip­tion of their lives and commu­ni­ties as a moving, contin­gent, and fully contem­po­rary force.

Refe­rence page