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“Finding Home: Migration, Exile, and 
Diaspora in Our Lives” Introduction

Migration studies is a complex field that seeks to understand the emotional and 

social effects on individuals and communities as well as the broader economic, political, 

and cultural impacts of migration and exile. It studies migrants, countries that the 

individuals migrate to, and the countries and cultures they come from, creating an 

incredibly complicated and ever-evolving field. According to Peter Scholten et al., “It 

is an inherently pluralistic field, bringing often fundamentally different theoretical 

perspectives on key topics” (4). The methods they use range from “ethnographic 

fieldwork with specific migrant communities to large-n quantitative analyses of 

the relation between economics and migration” (4). These different—and often 

contradictory—perspectives create a field of study that is very diverse and complicated. 

It has been extensively developed in a variety of disciplines including, but not limited to: 

sociology, political science, anthropology, geography, and law and economics.

Migration studies developed throughout the 20th century, which is relatively recent 

in human history, given that human beings have always migrated. There are some reasons 

for this, though. According to Asya Pisarevskaya, “Various scholars have argued that 

the growth of migration studies has kept pace not only with the growing prominence of 

migration itself but also with the growing attention of nation–states in particular towards 

controlling migration” (456). Before the introduction of centralized governments, people 

were more free to move and migrate, and these movements were seen as normal—or, 

at least, were controlled less strictly. But with the increasing emphasis on creating 

an organized bureaucratic state during the Industrial Revolution, migration came to 

Natalie Byers, Emma Carlson, Theo Edwards, Victoria Mayeaux —
The 2025 Digital Literature Review Editorial Team



The Digital Literature Review | 5  

be seen in a different light. As wage labor became the dominant form of economic 

transaction during this time laborers (and, consequently, migrants) became subject to 

the ebbs and flows of the economy, and their wages largely depended on the surplus of 

individuals within the available labor pool. Nations, and the people living within them, 

now saw migration as a threat to their hegemony and, therefore, they felt they needed 

to control it. Additionally, discrimination and racism play a key role in how migrants 

perceive themselves and how they are perceived by others. Because we have only ever 

experienced a post-industrial world, it can be difficult to recognize that our perception of 

migration did not develop in isolation but rather emerged from a combination of factors 

shaping the world we live in today. Such complex labor histories and cultural encounters 

established migration studies as an important field of study that even today continues to 

persist and expand.

In this year’s journal, our essayists delve into the field of migration studies by 

analyzing works of literature, song, and film. Readers gain insight into how our world is 

cultivated through film, how literature breaks down barriers and creates understanding, 

and how music is a uniting force that can strengthen and empower marginalized voices. 

Migration studies can contain a variety of academic subjects, and to reflect that, our 

essayists examine the impact of exile, multiple identities, counterstories, and the 

impacts of alienation and racism. Our essays cover a wide variety of topics, but all of 

them have one common goal: to raise awareness of a subject within this field that the 

writers are deeply passionate about. 

Creating a narrative that stays true to the migrant perspective has been something 

that has been co-opted and often whitewashed to make these stories palatable for 

a Western audience. Authenticity, and how to achieve that within these narratives, 

is something that is expanded upon by Jack Vaught in their essay “Counterstories in 

Cathy Park Hong’s Minor Feelings.” They analyze Minor Feelings with multiple different 



6 | The Digital Literature Review Editorial Team

essays along with other critical works to create an incredibly thought provoking and 

effective deconstruction of how to create this authenticity in migrant narratives with 

counterstories. Counterstories are a reclamation of perspectives by migrants themselves, 

giving them the agency to tell their narratives in a way that feels authentic to their own 

experiences and cultures.

Acts of reclamation are particularly frequent in films that contain elements 

of exile and the rediscovery of lost identities. These themes, however, are difficult 

to acknowledge when written into movies that are primarily intended for younger 

audiences. Natalie Byers discusses this in her essay about identity reclamation titled 

“Birds of a Feather: A Comparative Analysis of Rio (2011) and the Migrant Experience,” 

which dives into Rio and its protagonist, Blu, on his journey of understanding who he 

wants to be and who he is. After being taken from his homeland, Blu struggles to combine 

his two cultures and learns to be confident in his evolving identity.

Similarly, Kaira Carter’s essay “Post-Migration and Embracing Identity Multiplicity” 

also engages with themes of identity. In this case, though, Carter analyzes Ibi Zaboi’s 

novel American Street and how the main character, Fabiola, reconciles both her identity 

as a Haitian migrant and her newfound American identity. It engages with American 

Street by utilizing it as an example of how identity multiplicity can be a complicated 

but beautiful thing, where one individual is able to foster a welcoming community that 

accepts them for who they are. Identity is something that is difficult for everyone to 

navigate, but when someone migrates to another nation, identity can become a lifelong 

struggle, and this essay illustrates how American Street engages with this idea.

In the United States, nativism is an ideology that has sprung up countless times 

throughout its history. Nativist ideologies “see the relations between nations and nation-

states as a zero-sum game. They privilege erecting borders, both territorial and symbolic, 



The Digital Literature Review | 7  

against minorities, migrants or refugees, other nation-states and supranational political 

formations” (Anna Triandafyllidou 207). Nativism is almost always combined with racism 

and other forms of xenophobia, and these ideas create a culture of conformity, where 

anything outside of total assimilation is outside the norm. While it has always had deadly 

consequences for those it affects, its impact has rarely been as far-reaching as it is today 

under the current administration, where mass deportations are dislocating families, 

instilling fear, and fueling hatred.

Continuing from this theme, some of our essayists seek to fight back against the 

hatred and xenophobia we see espoused, including Anna Grile’s “The Power of Language: 

Strengthening Chicano Voices Through Song.” This essay discusses a famous band known 

as Chicano Batman and their role in creating a welcoming community through spreading 

messages that can be loved and appreciated by all. The band also seeks to raise 

awareness of key issues faced by Mexican Americans, such as in their cover of “This land 

is your land” (2017) where they seek to question and undermine the nativist ideology 

espoused by many politicians in our world today.

Alienation and othering are two concepts that are heavily misunderstood and 

nearly impossible to fathom for those that have never experienced it. In order to best 

understand the effects and impacts of othering, reading firsthand accounts of people 

that experience it can provide an invaluable perspective. Victoria Mayeaux does exactly 

that in her essay “The Enduring Alienation of Black Bodies and Migrants: A Comparative 

Analysis of James Baldwin’s ‘Stranger in the Village’ and Teju Cole’s ‘Black Body’.” This 

essay compares the writings and experiences of James Baldwin and Teju Cole in a Swiss 

village decades apart to highlight how racism is a deadly reality, especially for migrants. 

This essay brings in contemporary examples and analyzes media portrayals of migration 

to show how these things are still present in our culture and in our institutions. 



8 | The Digital Literature Review Editorial Team

The representation of exile in film is also discussed by Emily King in “Stitch: The 

Creation, The Model Citizen, and The Reality Discovered Through Exile.” This essay 

highlights how we can look at the character Stitch and see parallels of our own world. 

While not trying to conflate the experiences of a fictional character with real people and 

real emotions, King argues that the struggles Stitch experiences in trying to fit in can be 

seen all throughout our world. She argues that this struggle to fit in can persist for a long 

time—and, in many cases, last forever. She also claims that most adults react to Stitch 

with fear, awe, and confusion except for the main character, a young girl who has not 

yet been influenced by the older generation’s harmful beliefs. This interesting analysis 

shows that prejudice is something that is perpetuated by the old and passed on through 

generations. 

The Digital Literature Review is an undergraduate student-run journal which means 

that the process of selecting essays, designing the journal, and promoting it is done 

independently by the student teams in the course. As such, all seven essays published 

here were selected, reviewed, and edited by the Editorial team, the illustrations and 

formatting were done by the Design team, and all promotions on social media and 

otherwise were created and distributed by the Publicity team. This caters to Ball 

State’s investment in high impact practices by supporting undergraduate research and 

professional experience as part of the senior seminar course.

Migration will always be an important reality within our world, and the struggle of 

grappling with one’s identity will persist. Hatred and prejudice remain a thriving problem 

within our society, but by continuing to participate in conversations regarding the 

migrant experience—through open dialogue as well as literature—ideally those sentiments 

will fade away. Our hope is that the essays featured in this year’s edition of The Digital 

Literature Review contribute to this on-going conversation, and that you enjoy reading 

them as much as we did.

https://www.bsu.edu/about/administrativeoffices/vice-provost/student-services/high-impact-practices


Works Cited

 Digital Literature Review | 9  

Pisarevskaya, Asya, et al. “Mapping migration studies: An empirical analysis of the coming 

of age of a research field.” Migration Studies, Volume 8, Issue 3, September 2020, 

Pages 455–481.

Scholten, Peter et al. “An Introduction to Migration Studies: The Rise and Coming of Age 

of a Research Field.” Introduction to Migration Studies, Springer Nature Switzerland 

AG, 2022.


	“Finding Home: Migration, Exile, and Diaspora in Our Lives” Introduction
	Natalie Byers, Emma Carlson, Theo Edwards, Victoria Mayeaux —The 2025 Digital Literature Review Editorial Team

	Counterstories in Cathy Park Hong’s Minor Feelings
	Jack Vaught

	Birds of a Feather: A Comparative Analysis of  Rio (2011) and The Migrant Experience
	Natalie Byers

	Post-Migration and Embracing Identity Multiplicity
	Kaira Carter

	The Power of Language: Strengthening Chicano Voices Through Song
	Anna Grile

	The Enduring Alienation of Black Bodies and Migrants: A Comparative Analysis of James Baldwin’s “Stranger in the Village” and Teju Cole’s “Black Body”
	Victoria Mayeaux

	Stitch: The Creation, The Model Citizen, and The Reality Discovered Through Exile
	Emily King

	Contributor’s Biographies

