A diaspora’s flag is the symbolic representation of that community. The Iranian flag, however, is a contested symbol among the Iranian diasporic community. As this research shows, the Iranian diaspora exhibits its cultural, political, and religious identities through three different Iranian flags. Through qualitative research, entailing months of participant observation and a series of semi-structured interviews, I investigate the underlying reasons for this flag disagreement. Through this research, I argue that an Iranian diaspora’s pre-migration communal history and post-migration environmental factors influence its establishment and maintenance in the host nation. In this study, I revisit the diaspora literature to argue for the complexity of the concept of diaspora. I demonstrate how a diaspora assists the community in restructuring its lost cultural identity and establishing a social space to belong, in the time of the spatial and cultural dislocation. The Iranian diaspora’s flag selection is a symbolic representation of communal establishment and identity formation for the community. The Iranian flag debate indicates a communal divide; it is also an instrument to set social boundaries to develop a community under the symbolic representation of the ancestral homeland. Furthermore, this research explores how the Iranian diaspora uses the Iranian flag as a proxy to indicate socio-communal expectations and intersectional social hierarchies that already exist among the Iranian community. When discussing the flag’s symbolic significance, the respondents relate the flag with three recurring themes of religion, gender, and sexuality. The association of the Iranian flag with these three social factors indicates the communal dynamics of the Iranian diaspora. These communal dynamics establish certain norms and values, but they also redefine each flag based on its socio-political history. The attached meaning to each flag consequently causes tension and disagreement among the Iranian community, which is not solely political. / Dissertation / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / The Iranian diaspora is a young and growing community that came into existence after the Islamic revolution of 1979. In this diaspora, there are three different flags on display, and each flag represents a socio-political ideology. The symbolic application of the flag facilitates this research in exploring the social interaction among the Iranian diaspora residing in the Greater Toronto Area and York Region. Through the examination of the flag debates, I investigate the significance of community building in the new host nation. I critically analyze the communal divide existing among the Iranian community and the flag debate that is a symbolic representation of Iranian group dynamics. The discussion of the flag for many starts a conversation about community development and socio-communal hierarchy. While the different versions of the Iranian flags bring the diasporic communities together, they also indicate social segregation caused by religious, gender, and sexual hierarchies existing among the Iranian diaspora.

In the era of advanced communication and transportation technology, immigrants and their descendents can be reunited with their ancestral land from where they or their forebears once were displaced. Visiting the ancestral land as tourists, or "roots tourism," is a major and easily accessible means through which people can recreate and retain the social ties with their ancestral communities. Roots tourism is loosely defined as a type of tourism in which ethnic minorities visit their ancestral lands to discover ethnic roots and culture. Despite the recent popularity of this type of tourism, many gaps remain in the research of roots tourism especially about its influence on ones' identity and sense of home among second generation of immigrants. Therefore, the purpose of this dissertation is to explore the experiences of visiting ancestral land among second generation immigrants. For the purpose of this study, I focus on experiences of roots tourism among Chinese Americans. By investigating their motivation to visit their ancestral land, experiences and encounters in their ancestral land, and feelings toward the ancestral land and toward the United States after the visit, I attempt to explore how roots tourism influences ways in which second generation define and redefine who they are and where they belong under the transnationalism. Face-to-face, in-depth interviews with forty Chinese Americans revealed that, contrary to the idea that roots tourism generates strong feelings of belonging to one's ancestral land, a majority of the interviewees in this study felt foreign in their ancestral land. Although they felt a certain sense of connection to China or Taiwan, the feeling was overwhelmed by the differences in language, norms, class, culture, upbringing, citizenship, and family and gender composition. Analysis indicated that among forty interviewees, only three interviewees felt a sense of belonging to their ancestral society after their visit, and the rest of the interviewees realized their home is the United States. This study revealed the limitation of roots tourism as a tool to foster an identity and sense of home attached to the tourists' ancestral land. At the same time, the findings also suggest that roots tourism played a significant role to assist the interviewees to develop a positive sense of being Chinese Americans.

This ‘practice-informed’ doctorate research is the beginning of a creative investigation, integration and unification of theory and practice as a method of analysis of ideas about my performances, and the context it emerged from: my experiences of the postcolonial and intercultural relationship between Angola and Britain. It focuses on the trajectories of the self that are ‘re-invented’ as a process of evolution and as a result of migration and dislocation in the British diaspora. It looks deeply at the complex interplay of my practice of body painting, as a symbolic ritual and dance in relation to notions of “origin” and “identity” and other sources of influences. The roots of Angolan cultural traditions and the veneration of the Angolan ancestral spirit when I perform play an important part in my work and this research strives to simplify my ideas of body and spirit, material and aesthetic. However, this research analyses, investigates and interrogates Angolan contemporary arts and artists and the progress of their practice in the Britain postcolonial and intercultural setting. At the core of this research is a comparative interrogation of contemporary art practices, artists and their influences on my work in order to contextualise my own practice and its implications and generative potential. I describe the main artists that influenced my practice (Pablo Picasso, ean- ichael as uiat and ela ansome ni ulapo-Kuti compare my or ith the or s of other non- estern artists oco usco, uillermo me - e a and ani-Kayode) who work with reference to ancient traditions as a fictional and racial identity. Furthermore, it is suggested by Gen Doy that artists working with ancient traditions and producing these types of works in the west are stereotyped and their works are considered backward and unsophisticated; their or s suffered and continue to suffer “discrimination on the grounds of race…” Doy, 2000: 15 n other words, this takes place when these artists attempt to present their works in mainstream western galleries, shows and festivals. I argue that much ancient Angolan tradition has lost its voices through the process of modernisation, civilisation, colonialism and capitalism. The key issue I am addressing is that my performances and the or s of these artists use the body to explore notions of ‘primitivism’ and ‘ethnicity’ and ritual to address personal and cultural concerns. In this light, through the dialectics of practice and theory, this thesis is searching for more attention to be paid to or s derived from concepts of ‘primitivism’ and ‘tribalism’ that are considered inferior ithin the estern parameters of modern art. At the very core of this thesis, propose that the practice of body painting and ‘primitivism’ and ‘tribalism’ are under recognised in the west because of western ideas of racial superiority, civilisation and colonialism (Darwinism).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Washington State University, August 2008. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 250-265).

Människors uppfattning om sig själva och sin omvärld påverkas mycket av medierna de konsumerar, i synnerhet nyhetsmedier, och nu kanske mer än någonsin genom den ökade tillgängligheten. För personer med delad nationell identitet, till exempel immigranter, kan nyhetskonsumtionen både påverka och påverkas av hur relationen till det nuvarande respektive tidigare hemlandet är och utvecklas. Den här uppsatsen bygger på två jämförande fallstudier, båda bestående av webbenkäter och intervjuer, som kartlägger och jämför användarvanor gällande nyhetskonsumtion bland svenskar bosatta på Island respektive islänningar bosatta i Sverige. För att försöka förstå och förklara vilka faktorer som påverkar användningen av nyhetsmedier har en tredelad modell lånats från tidigare forskning (Wadbring & Andersson, 2016) och aningen modifierad använts som ramverk. Resultaten visar att fördelningen i konsumtion mellan det nuvarande och tidigare hemlandets nyhetsmedier är nästintill identisk för både svenskar på Island och islänningar i Sverige, där det nuvarande hemlandets nyhetsmedier dominerar något. Även gällande olika bakgrundsfaktorer följs de båda urvalsgruppernas nyhetsmedieanvändning åt. Förhoppningen är att uppsatsen ska kunna bidra till en större förståelse för det nuvarande respektive tidigare hemlandets nyheters betydelse för människor med delad nationell identitet.

In fact Dersimi people have constructed a visible population in Europe, there needs to be more studies made about the diasporic existence of Dersimis in Europe. Being aware of this need, this study attempts to contribute to the understanding of the existence of Dersimi people through Europe. In line with this, this study focuses on the re-invention of Dersim identity in Berlin around a Dersimi association, Berlin Dersim Community. According to this, the intensive participant observation conducted around the Dersimi association is the main source for this study. In the light of this ethnographic fieldwork, the following findings are found out in this study: Self identification on the basis of homeland identity is a significant phenomena for Dersimi people which unites Dersimi people around Berlin Dersim Community Association. And Dersimi people around the association can be defined as diaspora according to Robert Cohen&rsquo / s usage of the term. Being a part of Turkish labour diaspora in Berlin, Dersimi people have transformed into a cultural diaspora with the passing years abroad.

The 1948 Arab-Israeli War effectively destroyed Palestinian society. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled their homes and sought refuge in foreign lands, where they attempted to reestablish their lives and culture. This thesis examines the role of memory in shaping a Palestinian diaspora identity and uses Mahmoud Darwish’s book The Buttefly’s Burden to identify important aspects of the collective Palestinian experience. As the Palestinian national poet, Mahmoud Darwish provides authentic representations of the Palestinian struggle to reconcile the loss of their homeland. Examining Darwish’s work, this thesis explores four significant sources of Palestinian memory and identity: exile, absence, occupation, and the land. Through these sources, Darwish is able to recreate Palestinian society in his lyric and poetic genius.