This project examines the ways in which several texts written in the late twentieth century by African American and Caribbean writers appropriate history and witness trauma. I read the representational practices of Toni Morrison, Ernest Gaines, Paule Marshall, and Fred D'Aguiar as they offer distinct approaches to history and the resulting effects such reconstituted, discovered, or, in some cases, imagined histories can have on the affirmation of the self as a subject. I draw my theoretical framework from the spaces of intersection between diaspora and postcolonial theories, enabling me to explore the values of the African diaspora cross-culturally as manifested in the representational practices of these writers. This study creates an opening into recent discourses of the African diaspora by comparing texts in which the effects of history rooted in diaspora are explored, both in how this history cripples with the impact of trauma and how it empowers dynamic self-actualization and the resistance of the status quo. I argue that in these novels, challenging hegemonic historical narratives and bearing witness to the past are necessary for overcoming the isolating and disempowering effects of trauma, while affirming diasporic consciousness enhances the role of communal belonging and cultural memory in the process of self-actualization.

With a statistical rise in visible, audible and cultural minorities in Canada, the importance of recognizing the relationship between immigrants, culture and identity as constructed in collective discourse becomes paramount. Through hermeneutic and sociocritical paradigms, this research applies a constructionist approach to qualitatively analyze representations of cultural identities in Canadian and Quebec films projecting intergenerational conflicts within immigrant families. From these analyses, five tendencies were elicited: guilt, displacement, in-betweenness, reflections on Canadian society, and heterogeneous perspectives. While deconstructing cultural identity portrayals remains crucial, it is equally important to study these systems of meaning within production. The research is extended through the appendaged short film,Tracing Shadows, a glimpse into the voices of the Ukrainian diaspora in Canada. Both textual analyses and the filmic creation demonstrate the symbiotic connection between society and culture, nurtured within collective identity narratives’ depictions of time and space.

This thesis explores the appeal of Israel and Zionism for Ashkenazi Jews in Canada. The origins of Diaspora Zionism are examined using a genealogical methodology and analyzed through a bricolage of theoretical lenses including post-structuralism, psychoanalysis, and critical race theory. The active maintenance of Zionist hegemony in Canada is also explored through a discourse analysis of several Jewish-Zionist educational programs. The discursive practices of the Jewish National Fund and Taglit Birthright Israel are analyzed in light of some of the factors that have historically attracted Jews to Israel and Zionism. The desire to inhabit an alternative Jewish subject position in line with normative European ideals of whiteness is identified as a significant component of this attraction. It is nevertheless suggested that the appeal of Israel and Zionism is by no means immutable and that Jewish opposition to Zionism is likely to only increase in the coming years.

This thesis explores the appeal of Israel and Zionism for Ashkenazi Jews in Canada. The origins of Diaspora Zionism are examined using a genealogical methodology and analyzed through a bricolage of theoretical lenses including post-structuralism, psychoanalysis, and critical race theory. The active maintenance of Zionist hegemony in Canada is also explored through a discourse analysis of several Jewish-Zionist educational programs. The discursive practices of the Jewish National Fund and Taglit Birthright Israel are analyzed in light of some of the factors that have historically attracted Jews to Israel and Zionism. The desire to inhabit an alternative Jewish subject position in line with normative European ideals of whiteness is identified as a significant component of this attraction. It is nevertheless suggested that the appeal of Israel and Zionism is by no means immutable and that Jewish opposition to Zionism is likely to only increase in the coming years.

This paper presents investigations on integration of Chilean Diaspora in Sweden. Largegroups of Chilean refugees arriving in the 1970s and 1980s in multiple waves. Sweden wasknown as a country with a very generous refugee policy allowing numerous entries to stay.Reflections are made on the refugees in the different waves, the legal view on refugee statusand the division into political and economical refugees. Interviews with Chileans how theyintegrated are included. The questions analysed are if there is any differences in integrationprocess between first and second wave and what the impact was of the first wave beingpolitical and second wave economical refugees. The paper includes a short summary of thehistorical events leading to the flow of refugees, theories behind integration and why languageand identity is important factors in the integration process. The political refugees in the firstwave had a significant influence on the awareness among the Swedish population on thesituation for Chileans after the military coup.

This thesis, aims to provide an analysis of the perception of homeland of the Armenians in Istanbul and Armenians in Armenia of Anatolian origin in order to identify the meanings attributed to the concept of homeland in the formation of their identity. Based on the in-depth interviews, this thesis focuses on transformation of the homeland and questions where is &ldquo / home&rdquo / , &ldquo / homeland&rdquo / and &ldquo / diaspora&rdquo / . The analysis is based on data collected during fieldwork conducted in Istanbul, Turkey during the months of November 2011 to February 2012 and Yerevan, Armenia during September 2011.

This study deals with the issue of migrants and their use of media to facilitate integration and negotiate nostalgia, identity and other social factors that ensue during the analysis of six selected Nigerian migrants in Stockholm. By means of a two-step ethnographic approach the empirical material is obtained from documented media use logs and semi-structured interviews of six Nigerian informants in Stockholm. This study sets out to discover the social factors that influence or shape the media practices of Nigerian migrants; furthermore, to understand the concept of nostalgia, integration and more descriptive concept of media use from the perspective such as: the number of years the participants have lived in Sweden, gender and ethnicity. The results show the motivation behind the media use of participants with emphasis on how Nigerian migrants use media in terms of type of medium used and frequency of use. Additionally, results show how social factors such as: ethnicity, gender, education, work and the number of years lived in Sweden play a role in influencing the media practices of the selected Nigerian migrants in Stockholm while likewise exhibiting a difference in the media practices of participants who have lived in Sweden for the same number of years. In conclusion, results display how the in number of years lived in Sweden in addition to other individual factors played a role in the media use of the participants. The results also show how the participants use media to negotiate nostalgia and ethnic identities.

Much has been written about how the city of Berlin, Ontario – long a centre of Germanic industry and culture in Canada –changed its name to Kitchener in 1916 in the face of anti-German sentiments. Studies by Geoffrey Hayes and Ross Fair have particularly identified how a more acceptable form of German identity evolved in Kitchener after 1918, emphasizing the Pennsylvania Mennonite origins of many of the area’s first non-native settlers, instead of the continental German identity of much of the citizenry. But what of the Second World War, and the wave of German immigrants that came to Waterloo Region in its aftermath? Through what means did this community of immigrants establish its identity, and come to terms with the legacy of wartime Germany? How did the German community continue to evolve and react to political and social currents reverberating in Europe? This study addresses these questions by examining a number of episodes in the twentieth century that both celebrated and divided local German communities. Three examples will be discussed to help elucidate the concept of complex German identities in Kitchener-Waterloo. The formation of the Deutsche Bund Canada at the time of the Second World War, the creation of Oktoberfest in Kitchener-Waterloo in the late 1960s, as well as the visit of David Irving to Kitchener in 1992 represent events in the history of the area that lend themselves very naturally to further examination. While German immigrants have historically been regarded as a cohesive community, unified by attributes such as a shared language, it will be argued here based on these three examples, that Germans in Kitchener-Waterloo are comprised of unique groupings of ‘Germans’, whose identities vary depending on attributes such as geographic origin and time frame of emigration.

The goal of this project is to investigate the development of ethnic identity among different Black ethnic groups in the United States. The three different Black ethnic groups that will be investigated are: 1) African immigrants, 2) African-Americans, and 3) Diasporic African immigrants (Caribbean, Afro-Brazilian, etc.). These groups were selected because they broadly encompass the bulk of the range of people of African ancestry in the United States amalgamated under the term “Black.” Through thematic analysis of in-depth interviews, this project explores the impacts of immigration status, discrimination and inter-group relations (between different Black ethnic groups) on the ways that members of different Black ethnic groups form their ethnic identities. This analysis reveals that place, ethnic pride, and inter-and intra-racial relationships all affect the ethnic identity development process differently across Black ethnic groups.

The thesis examines how language, culture and family structures interrelate and affect the process of migration. Vital is how women from a different ethnic background integrates during migration and in a dialogue context with us as researchers and native Swedes. The thesis is interdisciplinary and analyzes empirical data through a qualitative method by using the perspectives gender, ethnicity and identity. The empirical material consists of 7 interviews, which have been transcribed and then broken down in to quotations. Thesequotations have then been analyzed using the perspectives mentioned above. Throughout the thesis the imperative significance of language to enable communication between people of different ethnical backgrounds, and how these processes may develop, plays an essential role. The conclusion reached through the thesis is that a person’s identity is adaptable and that language plays a vital role in a person’s group identification. Specific systems and rules are created in group constellations to decide who can be included in a particular group. This thesis shows that group constellations between ethnic Swedes and individuals from a different ethnic background has a large impact on the language.