Migration, forced or voluntary, has been a subject of interest and concern for scholars and governments in local and international contexts. Beyond the negative narratives that the conversation around migration and mobility evokes, scholars have examined how migrants positively shape the social and cultural settings of their host society. In this study, I extend the discussion on music and migration by exploring the contributions of Nigerian migrant musicians to the cultural and musical spaces in Europe. To do this, I reflect on the musical activities of Silas Edwin, a Nigerian-born musician, through his “Singout Mass Choir Project” in Germany. Drawing from ethnography and theoretical paradigms in migration and intercultural studies as well as ethnomusicology, I demonstrate how the music enterprise of Nigerian migrant musician(s) promotes and sustains the ideas of interculturality in Germany. I argue that Silas Edwin and other migrant musicians utilise music as a framework to offer a kind of ‘social remittances’ to their receiving society hence reconstructing the unpleasant narratives about African migrants broadly, and Nigerian migrants specifically, in global migratory contexts.

In recent decades, migration has been a challenge for communities tied to musical traditions rooted in their own culture and borders. There are many studies on music and migration that explore how music moves with musicians and is employed, adapted and recreated (Baily and Collyer 2006; Ranmarine 2007; Davis, Fischer-Hornung and Kardux 2011; Glick Schiller and Meinhof 2011; Kiwan and Meinhof 2011; Toynbee and Dueck 2011, Gratzer, Grosch, Präger and Scheiblhofer 2023). Unable to rely on a wide availability of musical instruments, migrant musicians have had to adapt to different instrumentation. The specific definition of “arranger”, a keyboard musical instrument, emphasizes that the instrument contains a range of automatic accompaniments known as styles or rhythms. The arranger allows to choose different timbres by providing hundreds of preset sounds. It is easy to select different rhythmic patterns that can be varied in speed and combined with chordal self- arrangements. The extensive use of preset rhythmic bases has led to a natural homogenization of the rhythmic aspect of traditional music of different origins, more or less influencing the specificity of the musical performances. My study focuses on two liturgical and one secular context of migration to Cremona (Northern Italy). Specifically, I will examine the use of arrangers in the Ivorian and Romanian communities (in sacred contexts) and in the Albanian community (in secular contexts). The same musical instrument, alien to all three traditions, becomes fundamental and protagonist in a current musical reappropriation.

Having been involved in the lived experiences of South Asian newcomers and second-generation youth in Toronto, who use music to connect with ancestral roots, engage with communities, protest against inequity, and celebrate diversity, my role as an Equity and Diversity Coach in creative industries adds an observational dimension to the challenges faced by South Asian immigrants in accessing the Canadian music and creative industries. My firsthand experiences and community involvement, for example, discerning the struggles of newcomers with an accent in navigating the English vocal music genre, form the basis for the paper. I show the significance of music and creative practices in the lives of young South Asian immigrants, refugees, and international students residing in Canada. Forming allyship as a first-generation South Asian immigrant, musician, and academic, I highlight their resilience, creative resistance, overall well-being, and endeavours to promote empathy amidst the challenges of resettlement and discrimination. Building on the research of Andrea Emberly (2016) and Andre de Quadros (2023), the paper delves into the participants’ observation data that analyze how music and creative expressions foster communal relationships and aid in survival and growth within newcomer communities. Music and creativity serve as sustainable practices for young South Asians to confront systematic barriers and discrimination in Canada. I explain the role of creative practices in generating opportunities within the Canadian creative industries. The analysis extends to how both physical and virtual performing spaces become essential for healing.

My research considers children’s music-making and the role of families in the teaching and learning of diasporic music cultures. In this paper I share findings from my fieldwork with intercultural arts organisations, primary schools and community hubs in and around the super-diverse city of Birmingham in England. A focus of my research is the music-making of children at weekend supplementary schools who partake in singing, instrumental tuition, dancing and circle games. I also explore the facilitation of music-making with children via a learner-led pedagogical approach I call ‘The Convivial Classroom’, employing Paul Gilroy’s definition of ‘conviviality’ as spontaneous everyday interculturality in diverse spaces (Gilroy 2004). Although ethnomusicology is paying increasing attention to children’s music-making, the voices of children and their families are seldom found in ethnomusicological literature. I use a child-centred approach in my practice and research, and this guided the methodological choices for my PhD. Informed by recent scholarship on participatory fieldwork, I utilised first-person perspective technology to document children’s music-making. A research technique more common within educational research, the use of wearable GoPro camera technology is an important methodological innovation for ethnomusicology. This paper features first-person fieldwork footage illustrating children’s musical experiences and knowledge. As my research examines the familial transmission at play in diasporic music-making, I also reflect on the role of parents in the teaching and learning of international music in Birmingham. With this paper I aim to contribute to discussions on the music-making of children and families, intercultural music education and child-centred ethnomusicological research.