Negotiating the Complexities of Bi-cultural Existence

Abstract

Multiculturalism fundamentally necessitates the recognition and accommodation of heterogeneity, diversity, difference, and plurality, within which immigrant populations endeavour to retain their native cultural specificities, frequently resulting in the formation of fractured identities. Consequently, the immigrant subject confronts a multiplicity of selves, leading to a vacillation between multiple cultural affiliations, often culminating in an overarching sense of non-belonging. Contemporary diasporic discourse meticulously chronicles the doubly liminal, fluid, and evolving terrains of diasporic existence. Migrant authors, in particular, have extensively explored the potentialities inherent in the “border zone”, a conceptual space where the migrant identity intersects with that of the host culture. This exploration necessitates a critical process of discernment, involving decisions regarding the preservation or discarding of elements from the indigenous culture, alongside an analysis of migrants’ responses to their adopted homelands. The aesthetic of dislocation, as articulated by writers of South Asian origin, powerfully evokes the anxiety, anguish, and epistemic violence that frequently characterise cross-cultural mobility and its resulting displacement. This multicultural trajectory of thought ultimately posits the possibility of simultaneously inhabiting two or more distinct cultural worlds, a condition often accompanied by the emergence of a hybrid sensibility equally conversant in both native and foreign contexts. Indeed, significant variations are observable within immigrant cohorts concerning the degree of ethnic cultural value retention, behavioural adaptations, and the extent of accommodation achieved with the demands of the host culture. These diverse facets of the immigrant experience, brought into sharp focus by cross-cultural encounters, underscore the shared lived realities of diasporic communities, collectively constituting the diaspora ethos. Consequently, “diaspora” emerges as a crucial conceptual tool, effectively highlighting the manifold standpoints generated by migration and displacement. Furthermore, it illuminates an inherently ambivalent politics of both self-positioning and external positioning, as well as processes of self-identification and external identification.