I am working on a project to find explanation as to why most migrants and sometimes transnational families prefer to bury their dead in origin countries. what could be behind their choices? Sometimes you find that the said migrants can barely afford a decent living in the host country but when one dies they sacrifice everything to repatriate the remains.
In South America, specially Colombia, repatriate the remais is out of question. I believe that there is a catholic imperative behind that cultural background. There is no difference between the corpse ant the person because dead is accept as a transition, not as the end. As a consequence, there are rituals that give social meaning to the individual loss.
One of the main reason for an expatriate to repatriate the remains is that a majority of the family is in their native country and they would like to have the last glimpse of the person and also for other religious reasons.
So is it safe to say that religion is a paramount factor in influencing the choice to repatriate? In the South Africa-Zimbabwe migration corridor it is very common to see people repatriating their dead. These people actually go through a lot of trouble in the process because some of them are often undocumented and suddenly when one dies they are forced to follow formal procedures in order to repatriate successfully. So in light of this how important is religion and cultural beliefs given that people would risk everything in order to do right bytheir beliefs?
Hi Divane, yes you are right the phenomenon of repatriating the dead to the country of origin is rampant among migrants and transnational families. The simple explanation for cultural and religious reasons, but I think it goes beyond the desire of the family and relatives in the native country to have a glimpse of the dead. In some cases, it is also driven by the value of honour and respect to the dead that those who repatriate the dead hold. In our study of Africans in Australia, we many of the decisions around the dying and the dead were found to be based on religious and cultural values that the community hold. See one of my papers, End-of-life experiences and expectations of Africans in Australia: Cultural implications for palliative and hospice care, Nursing Ethics;Mar2014, Vol. 21 Issue 2, p187
Thank you Ritumbra, this gives a different perspective and much valued contribution.
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