Immigration and Identity Politics in a Postcolonial World: Review of Recalling the Indies: Colonial Culture & Postcolonial Identities

Abstract

Transnational migration is a striking feature of our tentatively postcolonial world, whether in contemporary Europe, Australia or the United States. When immigrants bring with them a different religious heritage or ethnic background and insist on maintaining an identity that contrasts with the secular, liberal and individualistic value systems of the Western world, immigration poses distinct challenges to contemporary multicultural societies. The history of hybrid Asian-European immigrants from the former Dutch East Indies (Indonesia) in Australia adds yet another layer of complexity to these issues of cultural integration and social cohesion. In her discussion of a book edited by Joost Cote and Loes Westerbeek, entitled Recalling the Indies: Colonial Culture & Postcolonial Identities, Frances Gouda explores the (dis)continuities between the colonial past and the postcolonial present and the ways in which nostalgia and historical memory influence the ambivalences and in-between identities of Indo-Dutch immigrants in contemporary Australia.