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Is the classic diaspora transnational and hybrid? The case of the U krainian C anadian C ongress
Author(s) -
Mokrushyna Halyna
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
nations and nationalism
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.655
H-Index - 44
eISSN - 1469-8129
pISSN - 1354-5078
DOI - 10.1111/nana.12032
Subject(s) - diaspora , transnationality , hybridity , identity (music) , gender studies , sociology , collective identity , transnationalism , ukrainian , ethnic group , interpretation (philosophy) , political science , anthropology , law , aesthetics , politics , philosophy , linguistics , computer science , programming language
Scholars studying migration processes through the transnational prism have expanded the concept of ‘diaspora’ with a new meaning as a transnational, hybrid identity and condition, which has displaced the classical interpretation constructed around ethnicity and territory. By analyzing the activities of the U krainian C anadian C ongress, which represents the organised U krainian community in C anada, an old‐type diaspora, this paper argues that transnationality and hybridity have always been the inner attributes of diaspora identity and experience and stresses the importance of an essential characteristic of diaspora: the conscious effort to maintain a distinctive collective identity. Only if a community succeeds in maintaining its collective identity throughout multigenerational change can it qualify as a diaspora. These two dimensions – the self‐consciousness of diaspora as a distinctive group and the survival of its distinctive identity through multigenerational change – set diasporas apart from transnational communities.