Diaspora and religion

Abstract

This chapter explores how super-diverse contexts shape diasporic identity formations, and uses a notion of diaspora and diaspora-making as a creative and ongoing process involving relations in the host society, 'homeland' and the international diaspora. It interrogates central contradictions and outcomes related to being both visible and invisible in super-diverse cities, the role of 'passing', and the role of social context in providing both limits and opportunities for diasporic identity formation. By assessing the ways in which diasporic identities are positioned and performed in super-diverse cities, a number of further questions are raised about the potential for agency and the plasticity of diasporic identities at the margins of society. The chapter concludes that the plasticity in diasporic identity formation does not occur without various costs to the diasporic group and individual, as navigating the images and expectations of the host society inevitably requires some sort of erasure of the self.