Can the migrant speak? Voicing myself, voicing the other

Abstract

Voices of immigrants heard in local academic spheres are largely mediated through those of academics or researchers whose representation of the other is necessarily interpreted and understood through their privileged and powerful veils. This paper will draw on Spivak’s paper, “Can the subaltern speak?’ that refers to the work of the Subaltern Studies group committed to the postcolonial challenging the power and knowledge of the Western academic in speaking for the subaltern. Spivak’s discussion is particularly relevant to the increasing research interest in the local migrant. It calls for the epistemic responsibilities of researchers in persistently critiquing their textual representations of the migrant and the dangers of academic translation of migrants’ subjugated knowledges. In doing so, it will discuss the problematic interrelatedness of the migrant and the academic and researcher referring to the work of theorists that have instigated sensitivity to the general disregard of migrant knowledge as non-knowledge. The voice of the migrant in this paper is heard through a local migrant’s story that accentuates the need for a deconstructive approach to knowledge production in investigative research processes.