● Introduction

Attitudes and commitments as regards overseas Mauritians? aspirations to return home have changed irreversibly or dwindled substantially in recent years. This trend is also indisputable among larger ethnic communities, including immigrants from the West Indies and Indian subcontinent. The findings of Mohammad Anwar (1979) that returning home is a myth appear to be a widely agreed conclusion in relation to the majority of overseas immigrants. This is again confirmed by a recent investigation Dench, Gavron and Young (2006). Therefore, it is safe to say that the changed decision is also applicable to Mauritian immigrants in Britain and France. The worldwide seismic social change in recent years strongly suggests that the original conclusions with regard to the original objectives of immigrants must have also been affected: work hard, save money and return home to invest. If this assumption is correct, some parts of the findings of my own surveys, Mauritian Immigrants in UK (1988), which showed that 81% of the respondents expressed a strong desire to return home, and A Comparative Study of Mauritian Immigrants in London and Paris, (1991), which showed that 74% of the informants shared a similar aim, are perhaps no longer valid.

● Contributing factors

Investigations have shown that there is a number of reasons for the reversal of the early decisions. The principal one is that no sensible long-term immigrant wishes to jeopardise the existing circumstances that he is familiar with in his adopted country to those in the country of emigration, which have been radically transformed. Another example reinforcing this trend is evident in the falling on deaf ears of the Mauritian government?s appeals for professionals and those involved in business to return home and make a contribution in its ambitious development programmes. Open any Mauritian newspaper or magazine catered for the overseas immigrant Mauritian community one will not fail to find houses and lands, which once were earmarked for use on returning home, on sale below their price value or on generous payment facilities. Many of those who have taken the risk of returning home find themselves back at Heathrow Airport within a year, complaining about the new circumstances, which have made re-adaptation difficult and even impossible.

?At home, in the country of emigration, many of the immediate relatives and those close to them have died of old age or are fast falling in number. The relationship with the older members was sincere and strong.?

● Impact of globalisation

Invariably several sociological factors have the potential to influence one?s decision. Once I wrote a paper entitled The Gradual Exit of Mauritian Immigrant Pioneers in UK (2005) arguing: ?To die at home, where one?s umbilical cord was buried, is not a phenomenon only observed among Mauritian pioneers, but also among others uprooted from the land of their birth.? This is another conclusion that is no longer valid in relation to Black and Asian immigrants in the widest sense. The shrinking of the world through improving technological surge and the human family coming together via globalisation and shared concerns about war and peace, poverty and progress appears to be transcending the narrow concept of national frontiers and nationalities. One should come to countries of former great imperial powers like Britain and France to see for oneself how assimilated have been peoples of various origins and cultural backgrounds into the country of migration. The overwhelming majority of them have made it their home, psychologically encouraged by a strong feeling of being more comfortable and secure. A growing number of even the first generation of Mauritian migrant pioneers seems to have felt themselves as strangers in the country of their birth rather than in adopted country. It is fine for a brief holiday, they argued when asked. This is a fact not only confined to the first and subsequent Mauritian generations: it also goes beyond their contemporaries among the Afro-Caribbeans and Asians.

No recent survey, The New East End: Kinship, Race and Conflict, on ethnic minorities, which has already been mentioned above, has put this point across more succinctly than this one: ?Like many of this (Faruk) generation, he had originally not intended to settle in Britain, but just to earn some money to improve his family?s position in Bangladesh. The money he sent back from his wages had not only to support his mother but was also used to buy land. It was a family investment. But he had assumed that one of his sons would go back to farm it, and this had not happened.?

The brokenhearted old immigrant, who has failed to keep to his home returning aspiration, lamended (ibid.):

?I worked hard and bought twenty-three acres of land. Now nobody is there to look after my property. I had high hope of my son. I paid for him to become a graduate, and at the end of it he is not good for anything. So now I have rented out my land, and the house is locked. I have three big houses in the village, and I wanted my children to go back and take charge of all I have.?

Faruk?s disappointment seems to strike a common cord with many across the immigrant communities, which have set down roots in this country since the 50s.

● A community in transition

There was a period when a Mauritian died overseas, particularly among the more comfortable ones, arrangements were almost routinely made to have his or her corpse sent home for burial or cremation. In honouring the wishes of the deceased, the high cost for the transfer of the body never entered into the decision. This was too sacred a desire even among the less successful immigrant family to question. As a professional social worker and the Welfare Officer of Mauritians? Welfare Association, I personally was involved in the arrangements of a few deceased Mauritians, whose family sought to send the corps home for cremation or burial.

This is no longer the case. Many of the earlier Mauritian settlers who emigrated in the 50s, 60s and early 70s have died or are dying through old age. They were the ones who were emotionally attached with family members in Mauritius and had big dreams about the triumphant homeward journey, with professional qualifications or savings to invest in real property and commercial enterprises. Those who are still alive are literally awaiting the sound of the last post. At home, in the country of emigration, many of the immediate relatives and those close to them have also died of old age or are fast falling in number. The relationship with the older members was sincere and strong. It was reinforced not only by virtue of being blood relatives, like siblings and other immediate relatives, but also by remittances sent regularly and other means of support flowing outward from the country of migration in time of need of crisis. Money, presents and other generous gestures helped in the real world of human relationship to sustain and nurture the motivation either to return home one day or be buried or cremated in Mauritius.

With many of the close relatives who died in Mauritius as well as Britain, the strength of family relationship has weakened considerably. Another important factor that has contributed to this sorry outcome appears to be that there is now no need of financial support from overseas relatives. The affluent Mauritius, where employment is in relative abundance and standard of living has rocketed, seems to have dealt the fatal blow to the psychologically symbiotic relationship between close overseas families and their equivalent in Mauritius. The occasional telephone calls made in time of crisis appear to reflect more as a duty rather than anything resembling family ties. By the next generation, I foresee that relatives on both sides, overseas and Mauritius, will only be occasionally mentioned on the fringes of conversation, never minde with affection. This is an inevitable outcome among long-term immigrants, as also conspicuously evident in the case of our own great-grand parent and their relatives in India and elsewhere.

There has been a persistently growing view among even the dwindling first generation of Mauritian immigrants, let alone the successive generations, that home is where they have already settled down. It is no longer in Mauritius. Diminishing contact at home for reasons already explained, the sweeping impact of social change, which has radically transformed Mauritian society, is probably the main factor for the literally few original Mauritian settlers and their successors to cultivate greater appreciation for, and increasing patriotism of, the countries of migration either UK or France. To remain close to children and grandchildren born and bred overseas is another important factor that cannot be lightly dismissed for the preference over Mauritius.

However, there is still some concrete evidence that a sprinkling of Mauritians, driven by some lingering emotional nostalgia for Mauritius, is still struggling with the dilemma as to where they want to spend the remaining of their last days. Undecided, some of them choose to return to their native homeland. I have observed that many among them having hardly put their feet solidly down on the Mauritian soil when they literally take the next flight to Heathrow Airport. Unable to re-adapt themselves on the dramatically transformed island, they arrive back with dozens of excuses, some genuine and others imaginative. Having spent a long period in Britain or in France, one must admit that settling down in Mauritius is a Herculean task, which many have tried to overcome but few have succeeded.

● Changing nature of ethnicity

Born of Mauritian immigrant parentage in Britain, the children and grandchildren pragmatically see themselves, through the system of socialisation, as British, French or others. Well integrated in the social structure, the second and third generations, unlike their parents and grandparents, correctly do not describe themselves as immigrants. For the time being, however, the overwhelming majority of them acknowledge their ethnic origin. This is politically seen as important, living in a country that has embraced the ethos of multiculturalism. But ethnicity has in no way deterred the growing trend of inter-communal marriages and mixed marriages among the young Mauritians of both sexes and from all sub-ethnic groups. In view of its small size and insiduously weak cultural heritage resulting from the weakening impact of the colonial culture, the Mauritian community of the future is bound to witness its own disintegration or be absorbed into the other stronger communities.

● Like our forebears

Many of the activities, cultural or ritual, performed in the Mauritian community are reminiscent of those bringing with them in their cultural luggage from Africa or India. With priority and concern shifted to Britain or other countries of migration, overseas Mauritians have been focusing since sometime on matters capable of generating greater emotional comfort and psychological security in the adopted country itself. They have been doing just as other immigrant groups. There are dozens of associations founded in the Mauritian community reflecting the religious and cultural interests of the various Mauritian sub-communities.

As regards entertainments and means of sustaining community solidarity, many events, both religious and cultural, are organised. In the summer period discos by competing groups provide entertainments to their fans and supporters. The nostalgic songs, music and dance, particularly the sega, stir the old Mauritian immigrants into shaking the rigid joints of the bones of their hips and the young try in vain to compete with them. The Mauritian Day, arranged annually in midst summer, is a major event, lifted by an intensely carnival atmosphere, like a mini Afro-caribbean carnival, in the Mauritian calendar in London. It is there that the luminescent confluence of the Mauritian culture comes to its full display in the songs rendered in different home-spoken languages and dance performances, like the sega and the dance of the bhojpuri-genre, enriched by a combination of African and Indian origins.

However, the credit for keeping the Mauritian spirits alive must go mainly to the Mauritian pioneers. Increasingly fewer younger ethnic Mauritians seem attracted by the cultural and traditional activities for their elders. Educated and socialised in the country of their parents? migration, they cannot be blamed for their attitudes. Indicators are already showing that the few new generations of Mauritian origin seem to participate in religious and cultural activities or visit Mauritian events more as an opportunity for a day out or to satisfy their curiosity rather than to wholeheartedly support them.

«There is still evidence that a sprinkling of Mauritians, driven by some lingering emotional nostalgia, is struggling with the dilemma as to where they want to spend their last days. Undecided, some choose to return to their native homeland.»

● The widening horizons

However, Mauritius still appears to present a dichotomous influence on many of us: although the older settlers feel that it is not a place to live, this destination still has some mesmerising hold on our nostalgic emotions. Ironically, observation also shows that there is a growing desire in the Mauritian community to skip Mauritius as often as possible as a holiday destination. The continuous erosion of attachment with the island, motivated by a sense of growing pragmatism and widening interests, has inspired a curiosity to see other places, such as the Continental countries, the East European countries, the USA, Latin America and the Middle East. The diminishing interest in the homeland can also be seen in the increasing choice of a growing number of Mauritian settlers visiting Mauritius: they seem to preer to choose a beech house or a hotel rather than to stay with the family, unlike in the past. Having cultivated a growing westernised culture, better off overseas Mauritians seem to give preference to personal comfort rather than to living in discomfort with relatives. With diminishing shared concerns, given time, the final rupture of the alienating kinship is inevitable in the near future.

● Conclusion

The decision initially taken on such a difficult journey as migration is unforeseen in its outcome. So it has happened with Mauritian immigrants. Using similar examples, there is ample evidence to prove it. Our ancestors left India on their indentureship only for five years. But changed circumstances have resulted in the overwhelming majority of them to re-evaluate their original decision. In the process they had made Mauritius their home. Rapid social change in the modern world necessitates regular review of one?s plan. Given the fact of the shared concerns of the world through the march of technological progress, countries and nationalities are merging through globalisation. Under the circumstances, it is also inevitable that Mauritian immigrants have reassessed their situation. Returning home is a myth. Home, for the overwhelming majority of overseas Mauritians, is where they have settled, which is either in Britain, France or in other countries.

References

Mohammad Anwar, The Myth of Return: Pakistanis in Britain, Heinemann, London, 1979 Geoff Dench, Kate Gavron and Michael Young, The New East End: Kinship, Race and Conflict, Profile Books Ltd., London, 2006

Sam Lingayah, Mauritian Immigrants in UK, MWA, London, 1988 Sam Lingayah, A Compartively Study in Mauritian Immigrants in London and Paris, EOI and MWA, London, 1991 Sam Lingayah, The Gradual Exit of Mauritian Immigrants in UK, 2005

by Dr Sam LINGAYAH