Making Space a Home: Role of Homeland-Based Cultural Practices in Homemaking of Tamils and Somalis in Norway

Abstract

This article looks at the relationship between homeland-based cultural practices and the homemaking process of first-generation members of the Tamil and Somali diaspora communities in Norway. There are around 13000 Tamils and 25000 Somalis currently living in Norway, adopting practices and habits that are culturally rooted in the lifestyle of their country of origin. This article does not see country-of-origin orientation and home in Norway as opposites, but rather as complementary processes. Thus, this article argues that homeland-based cultural practices of Tamils and Somalis are part of their homemaking in Norway to establish a space of comfort. The main empirical base of the paper is grounded in 40 interviews of first-generation immigrants, 25 of Tamils and 15 of Somalis.