Narratives of success among Irish and African Caribbean migrants

Abstract

This paper compares the narratives of two men in midlife who migrated to the UK from Ireland and from the Caribbean as children, in the middle of the last century. We examine how success is narrated over the life course to show how migrants' positioning of themselves differs from the ways in which they are positioned by outsiders, including in policy and public discourse. We conclude that while outsider narratives often polarise success and failure, insider understandings of success are dynamic and culturally and historically situated.

Book of Abstracts

“…2014). These are celebrated stereotypes including those participating in occupations such as music, athletics and football (Brannen et al 2016). Many people arrived in the UK from the Caribbean, as British subjects, after the Second World War.…”