Expatriates in Papua New Guinea: constructions of expatriates in Canadian oral narratives

• Main Author: Upton, Sian Reiko
• Language: English
• Published: 2009
• Subjects: Canadians > Papua New Guinea > Case studies.; Expatriation > Case studies.
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/8296

Despite social scientists' interest in globalization, mobility, the effects of colonialism, and the intercultural situations that result, little attention has been devoted to expatriates as a contemporary transnational group. This thesis is an enquiry into the ways eight individuals define themselves as expatriates, through their oral narratives of life in Papua New Guinea. The paper focuses on expatriates' characterizations of themselves in terms of: their communities; their relationships with locals; their status as foreigners in post-colonial Papua New Guinea; arid their experiences of mobility. Set against social scientific notions of expatriates and contemporary ideas of mobility and its relation to identity, expatriates' personal narratives indicate that scholarly depictions are too simplistic to access contemporary expatriates or the complex situations in which they live.