Death and the Migrant

Front matter

Bodies, Borders and Care

Yasmin Gumatatnam

Death and the Migrant Bodies, Borders and Care

Contents

Illustrations Acknowledgements Preface

Elephant Pass(t)

1 Death and the Migrant - An Introduction Diasporic dying Hospice-tality and the geo-social Mortal chorographies The book

Index

77 78

81 82 87

91 94

99 101 103 105 109

115 116 120 124 127 129

133 138 142 143

147 149 152

155 158

163 183 193

Illustrations

Thank you to the copyright holders for their permission to reproduce the images used in this book.

Grandmother

Hands

Olga and rosary

Opioids

St Christopher’s Hospice

Cicely Saunders and David Tasma’s window David Tasma’s grave

Cicely Saunders’ diary

David Tasma

Balkanizing taxonomy, light boxes Balkanizing taxonomy, jars

HIV, sub-Saharan Africa

Air diffuser in hospice ward

At home

Shakti

Washing bodies

Home furnishings

Cicely Saunders with patient

124 139

Acknowledgements

Many people have contributed to this book. Thank you to: Bob and Marjorie Bailey, Joanna Bornat, John Burnside, Denise Brady, Neera Deepak, Nigel Dodds, Helen Findlay and Majliss Care, Dagmar Lorenz-Meyer, Nela Milic, Colin Murray Parkes, Patricio Rojas Navarro, David Oliviere, Ann Phoenix, Nicola Rattray, Heather Richardson, Stephen Rumford, Suzanne Scafe, Vic Siedler, Gail Wilson, Michelle Winslow, the staff at St Christopher's Hospice and King’s College (London) Archives, Caroline Wintersgill and Mark Richardson at Bloomsbury.

I am truly, madly, deeply indebted to the enthusiasm and generosity of Libby Sallnow and Nadia Bettega, both of whom gave me and the book considerable time. Nadia’s images have transformed and lured my writing. Nigel Clark always believed in what I was trying to do, walking and talking with me through ideas and stuck places and allowing me to filch from his library. My thinking has been stretched and invigorated by students and colleagues in the Sociology Department at Goldsmiths. I was able to finish the book because of a term of study leave. Heartfelt thanks to Mariam Motamedi Fraser and Nirmal Puwar for their spirited dialogue and friendship.

My family, dispersed to all sides of the globe, are a continual reminder of the deep bonds, surprises and losses of migration. My head and my heart are so often all over the place. Sometimes I wish that the world really was getting smaller. Real love and virtual hugs to the Gunaratnams, Sourjahs and VanReyks; to David, Tracy, Carl and Darrell, and to my parents. Zac, thank you for the lessons in football, love and ethics. I will keep practicing.

This book would not have been possible without the people who gave me their time, trust, and stories. I will not forget. Thank you.

I am grateful to the publishers for their permission to reprint versions of ‘Auditory Space, Ethics and Hospitality: “Noise”, Alterity and Care at the End of Life’ in Body and Society, 15 (4) (2009), 1-19; “Learning to be Affected: Social Suffering and Total Pain at Lifes Borders’ in The Sociological Review, 60 (Issue Supplement. $1) (2012), 108-23. My poem The Bed in The Prince and the Pee was originally published in Caroline Malone, Liz Forbat, Martin Robb and Janet

Acknowledgements xi

Seden, eds. Relating Experience: Stories from Health and Social Care. London: Routledge and Open University, 120-1.

The author and publisher would like to thank the following for permission to use copyright material:

John Burnside for the poem ‘Geese’ from Asylum Dance Jonathan Cape, London, 2000.

Irit Rogoff, “The Exergue - “All is Fair in Love and War”. Dictionary of War, June 2006-February 2007, http://dictionaryofwar.org/node/415.

Michel Serres. The Troubadour of Knowledge, trans. Sheila Faria Glaser and William Paulson, University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor, 1997.

Every effort has been made to trace all the copyright holders. If any acknowledgements have not been made, or if additional information can be given, the publisher will be pleased to make the necessary amendments at the first opportunity.