“I Went Back to my Old School”

By examining a case study of skilled African migrants in South Africa, this paper focuses on a neglected geographical area within the international scholarship on migration. Contextualized in the wider scholarship on the personal life experiences of migrants, the current research focuses on the role of personal and social memory as a neglected dimension of the migration experience. Various studies explore memory in relation to migrants’ attempts at preserving cultural identity and fostering home atmosphere in the host country, but this paper draws attention to memory in the homeland context, i.e. the activation of memories through specific performativity during temporary return visits. Many migrants on home visits not only spend time with family, but also return to significant places, most notably—as was found in this research—to their former school, a place associated with memories of childhood and the pre-migration past. The research is based on interviews with 40 participants from different countries across Africa. Drawing on theoretical concepts from the field of Memory Studies, notably the link between memory and place, the research analyses why migrants return to their old school, how the visit precipitates memories and affects their sense of identity. The study found that the multisensory engagement with the material and social environment of the school, a microcosm of their “homeworld,” associated with deep-seated embodied memories is experienced in affirmative and empowering ways, suggesting that it feeds psychological needs and contributes to a sense of identity continuity in the face of migration-related change and challenges.