Migration and Alienation

Abstract

This study aims to analyse how immigrants become estranged with each other and their own culture together with migration. The sampling of this study consists of film Nachtreise/Night Traveling, 2002 by Kenan Kılıç. This fictional 63 min.-film focuses on a social reality which is named as alienation. This film shows the immigrants' situation and hopelessness as distinct from the other films (by Umut Dağ and Hüseyin Tabak). The film by Kenan Kılıç presents immigrants' alienation in their post-migration processes and emphasizes the phenomenon of not belonging to their own culture. The film departs from a binary opposition and makes a reference on one hand to people's alienation and their relations, and consequently to the power, center-periphery relations while referring to social problems such as immigration, moving up into a higher class, financial troubles and unemployment on the other hand. It is clearly from this research that as a result of migration, consumerism, technology and the culture generated by a new society, immigrants become estranged with each other and the society.