After my time-out in India, I’m gradually settling back into life in Switzerland. Everything feels more muted here—the light, the colors, the sounds, the people. This return feels like a complex transition—a re-negotiation of my Hybrid Identity.
I know I’m not alone in this. Hybrid identities like mine are woven deeply into Switzerland’s social fabric: nearly a third of permanent residents were born abroad, around 60% of children have at least one parent from outside Switzerland, and already 40% of residents aged 15 and older have a migration background (for more, see my latest blog post on cultural diversity in Switzerland). These numbers suggest that hybrid identities should be the norm, yet they’re still largely absent from what is widely recognized as “Swiss.”
Lately, I’ve been exploring the term postmigrant—a relatively new word for a not-so-new reality. Unlike multicultural, which implies coexistence among cultures; intercultural, which highlights exchange; and transcultural, which celebrates blended identities, postmigrant goes a step further: it normalizes diversity as a default.
Postmigrant thinking moves beyond binaries like “Swiss/native” vs. “foreigner/immigrant” and embraces migration as an integral part of everyone’s story, not an exception. It challenges all of us, regardless of background, to rethink what it means to belong and participate. I’ll be sharing more on this in my next blog post.
In my Movment Research, I’m wrestling with these questions. They feel vast. Who would I be if I could fully express my hybrid identity in my daily life and dance practice here? For example, if wearing my Indian clothes didn’t risk being seen as “exotic,” or if incorporating Indian dance forms into the Swiss contemporary scene felt as natural as breathing? One day, I hope to discover what that could be for me.
“Those who know nothing of foreign languages know nothing of their own.” ― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Maxims and Reflections
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