Wherever I Lay My Hat, That's My Home

In following up on the piece of 23 September (I Don't Belong Here), I'd like to thank Colin for his considered comments. The nub of these concerned the notion that existing or old definitions do not necessarily obtain any longer - specifically, in respect of so-called expatriate integration. In citing Arthur C. Clarke, he referred to the idea of a society in which, inter alia, one's allegiance is to a place where one feels ideologically "at home". Philosophical this may be, but it is helpful in directing the debate regarding integration into altogether more fertile territory.

Integration implies a transformation into a state of some permanence in that the expat adopts, pretty well lock, stock and barrel, the mores of his new country, or Mallorca from our perspective. This permanence is not just a case of "being there" but also a permanence in the mind, a new way of thinking or the discarding of previous influences. My argument the other day was that the media are complicit in preventing this, and therefore a state of permanence or integration is unattainable. Whatever role the media may play, I'm not sure that either integration is the right description or indeed that what it implies is wholly desirable.

When one talks in socio-political terms of a "narrative", one refers to a form of "story" with which an idea, ideology or philosophy is conveyed. The integration "narrative" is too precise; it ignores a whole raft of issues, be they psychological ones, be they religious, political, cultural or merely personal. I spoke the other day to a friend in Holland. She has lived there for 17 years; she has a Dutch husband and a daughter. What was integration for her? It was the whole shooting-match, of language and assumption of a different culture, displacing that with which she had grown up. She neither felt integrated, nor did she wish to be. Tellingly, were she to be integrated, she would no longer be who she is or was. I have a friend who has lived in Barcelona for about 30 years; he is married (to a Peruvian woman as it happens) and has a daughter now at university. He is fluent in the language, but his "integration" does not extend to not reading a British daily newspaper or to not regaling me with emails brimful of cricket, football and of old mates and our pranks in England. I once asked if he'd taken to supporting Barça. No effing way. He's still a Derby man and still sounds every bit a Derby man. By the same token, there are many here who, despite many years residence, display similar disregard to obvious statements of integration. As the clichéd maxim would have it, you can take the boy (or girl) out of London (or Derby or wherever), but you can't take London out of the boy. And this is surely the point. One defines oneself by who one is, not necessarily by where one lives. Integration, in its fullest sense, is undesirable as it requires psychological, cultural and personality dislocation. Clarke's notion of feeling "at home" does perhaps come closer as a narrative for the expatriate, and this "at home", in one's mind, can be whatever one chooses, be it the route of more or less everything British or most things Mallorcan.

The political desire for and hence narrative regarding "integration" is founded on the notion, pretty much, of total assimilation. In Britain, one has the dichotomy of integration and multi-culturalism residing alongside each other in the political narrative. The two states are essentially mutually exclusive. The assimilation of British immigration is an issue way beyond where I want to go here, but the same narrative does not really apply to expats coming to Mallorca. The fluidity of movement, especially from Britain into Spain, does not suggest permanence; the expat may come for a period and then decide to return. Moreover, the choice of moving from Britain is rarely one of economic need, as is the case with much immigration to Britain; it is essentially a lifestyle decision, even for those who do come to work. The consequence of this is then one of convenience. The expat, shielded by the existence of a ready-made community, readily-available media and readily-bookable flights "home" if wished, can cherry pick what he or she wants from the Mallorcan way of life; there is little urgency or pressure to do otherwise. To quote Colin - "with this sort of perspective (that of Clarke's "at home") one could have as much or as little ‘integration’ as one wanted without attracting opprobrium". And to take another cliché - home is where the heart is. Clarke's home is Mallorca if that is where the heart is, but the head determines how Mallorcan that home becomes.


QUIZ
Yesterday's title - Billy Bragg. Today's title - which British singer had a number one?

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