Representations of Political Kinship: Connecting Through Political Affinities in Contemporary Migration Literature

Upon arriving in a new country, migrants often seek to expand their support networks beyond in-group circles. This chapter examines a strategic solution negotiated in (fictional) contemporary migration literature: elective kinship through political affinities. It provides both a rationale for why this so-far understudied phenomenon could be of particular importance in migration contexts and a taxonomy for comparing its various configurations. Four close readings of selected short stories from Sam Rapithwin’s Mein deutsches Kind serve to illustrate that two types of political kinship—discursive and imagined—play an important role in migrant characters’ pursuit of experiencing connectedness. The chapter closes with a discussion of how these literary portrayals of political kinship may impact readers’ formation of intergroup relationships in real life.