Migration recollections - memory lines at the border

Memory implies both continuity and change, the stable frame of location, but also the process of change and dislocation. Such transition is particularly relevant for approaches in migration memory - they require understanding of context and meaning for identity in bearing the distance between locations (origin and host societies) and in securing purpose of destination in order to achieve continuity, in two dimensions, identity of origin and identity of becoming (or new belonging) which need to be simultaneously accommodated and integrated. By agency of migrants and conditions and regulations of access into receiving societies, these dimensions are markedly connected at the border. Borders are found along the path of displacement, transition and orientation. Whether reception policies include cultural awareness or civic education approaches, strict vetting or a whole range inbetween, the transition needs to be documented and governed also from the perspective of the migrant. A memory which is uprooted from its initial location or migrating to a new environment needs aids to support coherence for identity. The way in which migration and its transition process are realized and managed leaves a defining imprint on the mode the migrants represent and commit the change to memory; both the image of the transition and the idea of a future destination (aspirations, ideals) are mapped into memory next to the embedded initial location. Society of origin and host society are both locations of memory; at the moment of transition, the former lies with self experience, the latter with a projected dimension of self. Borders are sites of memory, but of memories divided: polity memory and migrant memory. The role of any integration policy is to allow and make them meet purposefully, and not to widen the gap between them.