Abstract
Studies of migration rely heavily on the use of identity categories. Yet the uncritical use of such categories has had serious negative consequences for the understanding of migration and related social processes. This chapter examines the tendency to treat often ill-defined identity categories as reflecting an external reality, and the danger of ignoring the fact that people’s identities are multiple, situational, prone to change, and affected by a variety of political power-holders.
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Notes
- 1.
We further develop some of our perspectives on the politics of identity categorization in censuses in Kertzer and Arel (2006).
- 2.
Duster (2005: 1050) reminds us of Whitehead’s warning.
- 3.
Statistics New Zealand, n.d.
- 4.
In the original article Hicks and I used the pseudonym of ‘Monhegan Indians’ for the Narragansetts.
- 5.
Wimmer (2007: 15) also makes this point.
- 6.
This formulation of the religion question brings up many of the same issues of reification of social identities that apply to the use of ethnic categorization.
- 7.
Quoted by Mora (2014: 9). This account is based on Mora’s article.
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Kertzer, D.I. (2017). The Perils of Reification: Identity Categories and Identity Construction in Migration Research. In: Decimo, F., Gribaldo, A. (eds) Boundaries within: Nation, Kinship and Identity among Migrants and Minorities. IMISCOE Research Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-53331-5_2
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