Friday, September 19, 2008

Transnational social spaces

Transnational migrants experience multiple life-worlds. First-generation migrants carry with them the culture of their old country--their homeland. Since most of their socialisation started in the old country, the force of the old culture is stronger with them that with their sons and daughters who were born in the new country--the so-called second generation and those that come after them. The second generation and beyond form multiple life-worlds. Inside their homes, they are exposed to the old culture of their immigrant parents. Outside, they experience the culture of their parent's adoptive country, which they normally would treat as home, as it is their birth country. They form social spaces that accommodates both the old and the new.

"Old and new mentalities and practices overlap in a single space, and through migrants' linkages, both worlds overlap in communities of origin, too." (Christine Harzig and Dick Hoerder, 2006, in "Transnational Identities and Practices in Canada, edited by Vic Satzewich and Lloyd Wong, UBC Press).

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