Cultural Migration Research Articles

The prehospital care experiences and perceptions of ambulance staff and Eastern European patients: An interview study in Lincolnshire, UK

BackgroundEU enlargement after 2004 was a major factor in increasing Eastern European migration to the UK. This population requires access to high quality public services generally, and ambulance services more specifically. To understand how Eastern European migrants use ambulance care, this study explored the perceptions and experiences of ambulance staff and the Eastern European patients themselves. MethodsWe undertook qualitative semi-structured interviews across Lincolnshire. Purposive and maximum variation sampling ensured that participants were knowledgeable about Eastern European patients’ use of ambulance care and were demographically diverse. Data were analysed using framework analysis. ResultsThere were interviews with 15 ambulance staff and 12 Eastern European patients. A staff interviewee problematised “Health Tourism”, which suggests that migrants deliberately exploit state-funded healthcare. However, most disagreed. Patient interviewees often undertook medical travel to access healthcare in response to perceived healthcare problems in the UK. Medical travel increased the likelihood of ambulance staff encountering foreign medication. Variable quality of, and access to, professional interpreters prompted patients to rely instead on informal interpreters. Patients did not register with GPs perhaps due to limited understanding of how the NHS worked. This led to inappropriate use of ambulance services. Recommendations for service delivery improvements included: Eastern European language information on how and when to use ambulance care; improving GP registration; and greater engagement between the ambulance service and Eastern European communities. ConclusionsFrequent medical travel can limit how Eastern Europeans acculturate to the NHS and anchor roots in the UK. Acculturation is about how migrant cultures adjust to the host country. This is not assimilation, where they dilute their cultural identity. Language and communication barriers, as well as inadequate availability and quality of interpreting services, can impede patient-staff dialogue in time-critical emergencies.

Gender, Islam and nativism in populist radical-right posters: visualizing ‘insiders’ and ‘outsiders’

ABSTRACT Sayan-Cengiz and Tekin explore the visual communication strategies of Western European populist radical-right (PRR) parties in disseminating nativist, anti-migrant and Islamophobic agendas through gendered visual representations. It is widely argued that the PRR homogenizes and dichotomizes both ‘native’ and Muslim migrant cultures through an ostensibly liberal discourse of respect for women’s rights and freedoms in order to mainstream their exclusionary position towards Muslim migrant communities. However, there is a void in the literature in terms of accounting for how visual communication strategies are used in this process. The authors here argue that looking into the visual representations of Muslim migrant and ‘native’ bodies in the PRR parties’ visual communication materials is crucial for understanding the PRR’s gendered cultural constructions of both Muslim migrant ‘outsiders’ and native ‘insiders’. Focusing on the campaign posters for the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) in Germany, the Rassemblement National (RN) in France, and the Partij voor de Vrijheid (PVV) in the Netherlands using a social semiotic approach, their study suggests that Muslim migrants are represented as alien Others, but that there is also a significant difference between representations of migrant women as ‘victims’ and men as ‘aggressors’. On the other hand, ‘native’ women are represented as the embodiment of authentic national identities, as either reproducers or defenders of the nation. ‘Native’, heterosexual men do not often appear in the posters, pointing to the position of power that they hold in the PRR’s imagination. That is, they are the designated spectators and addressees of visual communication materials, rather than objects of representation.

Genetic history and stock identity of beluga whales in Kotzebue Sound

We investigate the recent history and stock identity of beluga whales (Delphinapterus leucas) in Kotzebue Sound in the Chukchi Sea, a region long frequented by large numbers of belugas in summer until their near disappearance in the 1980s. Wide variation in numbers since then suggests a complex recent history that hinders recovery efforts. Analysis of teeth sampled during the historical (pre-decline) era using ancient DNA (aDNA) methods found that the original Kotzebue Sound whales were differentiated for mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) from other summering concentrations across the Pacific Arctic revealing a demographically distinct subpopulation where long-established migratory culture likely facilitated population divergence. Analysis of microsatellite (nDNA) and mtDNA markers in belugas from the contemporary (post-decline) era revealed that whales from other stocks likely visited Kotzebue Sound, including during two low ice years when relatively large numbers of whales were present. Some mtDNA lineages were found only in Kotzebue Sound, with one recorded in both the historical and contemporary eras. Exclusion tests found a number of whales in Kotzebue Sound during the contemporary era that had nDNA genotypes unlikely to arise in other contemporary stocks in the Pacific Arctic. Our findings indicate that the Kotzebue Sound belugas comprised a unique stock of which a few remnants likely still co-occur with belugas from other larger stocks. We recommend that the US government work through the co-management process to greatly reduce or eliminate the taking of belugas, especially adult females, likely to belong to the Kotzebue Sound stock, until they recover.

The Dominants of Contemporary Political Culture and the Transformation of Political Governance

Contemporary political governance is increasingly dependent on the trends of global globalization, changing in the context of global migration and constantly creating and changing multinational communities. This article aims to analyze the existing policies of social inclusion that form the basis of political culture, which plays a significant role in the system of modern political governance in the era of globalization. The aim of the paper is to substantiate the importance of changing the political space for creating a policy of diversity and inclusion, aimed at forming a modern political culture that meets the current trends in governance in the era of globalization. The major research issue of this paper is the question of which points of political culture are the most transformative for the modern political system. The article analyzes the dominant features of modern political culture, which should be paid attention to both in theoretical analysis and in making managerial decisions. The research method is an open-ended written expert survey — 23 experts took part in the survey; the volume of the material obtained as a result of the survey is 48,000 words. The analysis and processing of information was carried out using the methods of systematization, problem-management design and the method of identifying problem dominants. Expert interviews allowed us to identify a number of measures that the political authorities can take to strengthen the transformational potential of political culture. These include the creation of political initiatives and easily accessible opportunities for political integration; the development of an inclusive and tolerant society through the reallocation of resources to help various kinds of minorities, aimed at helping them understand and use their rights and responsibilities; and the development of creativity and innovation as the basis of a new type of political culture. The results of the analysis of expert interviews complement modern international research on the formation of a new political culture and its impact on the formation of the political system. As a result of the research, the author comes to the conclusion that modern political culture assumes controlled diversity, and this is the basis for the transformation of the political system in the near future. The main dominants of political culture are the strengthening of the importance of the local and, in particular, the strengthening of the importance of the urban environment; the development of the political culture of migrants; inclusiveness of political communities, especially at the local level.

The Russian Far East — China: Ways and Prospects of Interaction in Academic Musical Culture

The article examines regional folklore as a field of interaction between academic musical culture in the Far East of Russia and China. The beginning of the systematic study of the academic musical culture of the Russian Far East is associated with the formation of the regional creative association of composers of the Far East (Union of Composers), which is succeeded today by the Far Eastern Branch of the Union of Composers of Russia. The article notes the multi-ethnicity of the region and the special role of the “dialogue of cultures” in the composers’ works. The author analyzes the culture of indigenous peoples and the East Slavic migratory culture of the Russian Far East, as well as the original culture of the countries of the Asia-Pacific region outside the Russian borders. There is highlighted the commonality of some features of the traditional Far Eastern folklore of Russia and China. The article considers the concept of “academic musical culture”, which includes the composers’ works successively connected with the foundations of Western European music formed in the period of the 17th—19th centuries, the composers’ works of the 20th century, including modern techniques, the musical performance, musical performance infrastructure, educational space and academic musicology.The paper highlights the composers of the region, the main focus of their work, the researchers of the academic musical culture of the region, whose works are significant in understanding the processes of development of modern national musical culture. The article covers the Chinese academic compositional works known in Russia, as well as the range of scientific interests of Russian researchers-orientalists and researchers of musical culture from China.There is recognized the need for cultural understanding of the stated problem through the study of academic music art, traditional music culture, music science, and music education. The author interprets the role of music and computer technologies in musical culture and education in the Far East of Russia and China as the most important component for interaction in the field of academic musical culture, focuses on the problems of informatization of modern music education.The article draws a conclusion about the unique experience of composing in China based on the traditional music of the Russian Far East. The pentatonic basis of Chinese music is especially distinguished as being close to the modal organization of the music of Far Eastern ethnic groups, which is also the basis of the folklore music of Russian Far Eastern composers. The author sees such a palatal proximity as a basis for the interaction of the cultures of the Far Eastern region. The article recognizes this aspect as important from the point of view of creating an integral multicultural space based on the principles of humanism.

Migrant Culture Maintenance: The Welsh in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 1870–1930

Abstract This article provides an analysis of the nature of the Welsh ethno-linguistic community in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The study considers culture maintenance and suggests that Welsh ethnic integrity was undermined by a variety of forces, primarily: occupational diversity, widespread bilingualism, high levels of exogamy, and the cessation of immigration from Wales. The article further posits that assimilation was aided by the desire of the Welsh to join mainstream American society and the generally accepted perception that they were, indeed, ideal immigrants.

Syrians in Sweden: Constructing Difference Regarding Gender and Family

Abstract In this article, we look at the discourse used by the Swedish state in describing non-European migrants, among them Syrians, and how this has constructed cultural divisions between ‘native’ Swedes and Syrian migrants. We reveal how non-European immigrants are depicted and treated by the state as coming from ‘patriarchal’ and ‘collectivist’ cultures and are therefore in need of development. We then connect this framing of migrant culture to how honour-related violence is constructed by the state and public institutions and explain how such a framing of violence is problematic. We also look at how some Syrian migrants have in turn employed stereotypical language in their depiction of Swedish culture and the Swedish state. Engaging with existing work on ethnic groups and boundaries, we find that this boundary-making process by both migrants and the state produces a perception of difference among groups.

TINJAUAN ‘URF TERHADAP BUDAYA EKONOMI DALAM USAHA FOTOKOPI PERANTAU MINANGKABAU DI YOGYAKARTA

One of the efforts to meet the needs of the Minangkabau people that they achieve is through migration, as in the economic culture of Minangkabau immigrants from Nagari Atar Batusangkar, Padang Gantiang District, Tanah Datar Regency. About 99% of the imigrants were found in the field involved in Photo Copying businesses scattered in the city of Yogyakarta. The hope is that people's behavior in fulfilling the economy can continue to run well and in accordance with Islamic law. This study aims to explain how Urf's review of the economic culture of Minangkabau migrants in Yogyakarta using a qualitative descriptive research methodology. The results of the study conclude several things, among others: First, according to records in 2015 the number of Minangkabau residents in Yogyakarta reached 10,000 people or around 350 families, and those who run photocopy businesses are 80 families or 155 tablets. Second, the Economic Culture in the photocopy of the Minangkabu Community in Yogyakarta is referred to as 'Urf in Islamic law, because it fulfills several conditions' Urf and the law is mubah. Third, related to economic culture can furthermore be one of the studies that offers siding to the local community's economy which has basically been an economic support since the past in an effort to promote life, as well as' Urf which can then be used as a method and source of Islamic law in its development. economy because it conforms to Islamic principles.

Kajian Proporsi Wajah Wayang Potehi Perempuan di Gudo, Jombang dengan Proporsi Rasio Emas

Since long time ago, people of the archipelago have interacted with various foreign nations and it led to the integration of local cultures and migrant cultures and resulting some new cultures. One of them is Potehi Puppet, a puppetry originated from China then developed in Java. The purpose of this study is to find out and describe a face proportion of female character of Potehi Puppet in Gudo, Jombang. The method that used is quantitative research by measuring some female characters of Potehi Puppet using Golden Proportion theory and calculate the mean of the measuring result also interview to the chairman, Toni and puppeteer of Hok Ho An (Potehi group in Gudo), Sonny and direct observation. Golden Proportion theory is not used to judge but used as tool to find out the mean of face proportion measuring. The result showed that there is an acculturation between Chinese and Javanese culture in visual, language, story, character and their characteristics and the artists behind Potehi Puppet. Potehi Puppet characters are distinguished majority by symbols on their clothes and accessories especially female characters. Some characteristics of female Potehi Puppet that Toni’s engravers made which quite different with female Potehi Puppet that made in China. It shows that artists background (Javanese) influences their Potehi Puppet work.

Gravity Model dalam Place-Making Pola Interaksi Spasial di Pulau Kalimantan

One of the challenges faced in the development of a city comes from population problems. This is related to the increasing number of population each year which is relatively high and the population distribution is not evenly distributed. The island of Kalimantan has special characteristics in terms of culture of migrants as well as in dealing with population problems, especially due to the phenomenon of migration. Population movement causes uneven distribution of the population and affects population growth in an area and has an impact on regional development. As a result, the population is only concentrated at a certain point in the region or in areas of high attractiveness. On the island of Kalimantan, there are several regions that are administratively and demographically attractive compared to other areas in the vicinity, such as Kota Samarinda, Balikpapan, and Bontang in East Kalimantan Province and Kota Banjarmasin in South Kalimantan Province. Spatial interaction analysis can estimate the attractiveness of a location compared to other locations in its vicinity, so that it can be seen that the pattern of population movements that tend to lead to areas of higher attractiveness. The results of an empirical study using a gravity model indicate that the population factor in the origin and destination areas and distance affects migration on the island of Kalimantan. The results of the study indicate that distance has a negative effect on migration, while the population of origin and destination areas has a positive effect on migration. In addition, job opportunities, facilities in the city, and accessibility also affect migration. Overall, the areas with the highest attractiveness used population variables and were the main destinations for residents to move to Kota Samarinda, Balikpapan, and Bontang in East Kalimantan Province as well as Kota Banjarmasin in South Kalimantan Province. Using the job opportunity variable also shows the same pattern using the population number variable, where the main purpose of residents to move is in these 4 cities.

Representations of Asia in Western Australian Public Library Collections

ABSTRACT This research examines Western Australian (WA) public library collections and the representations of Asia in these collections. Serving the needs of the general public within a certain geographic area, public libraries collect materials in all formats and genres based on institutional priorities related to community or user needs and interests. This paper presents findings from a 2019 survey and series of interviews with librarians from WA public libraries to find out more about their collections by examining two types of materials: (1) items about Asia and, (2) items in Asian languages. The key findings are as follows: (1) relatively little attention is paid to cultural representations of the community in the development collections in WA’s public libraries (2) LOTE (Languages other than English) materials make up a small percentage of WA public libraries’ overall collections; and (3) representations of Asia within the collections are associated thematically with migrant support, travel destinations, cool Asia, and food cultures. This study makes a contribution to research and practice in this area by employing an interdisciplinary approach using cultural studies, library and information studies frameworks, introducing new ways of thinking about these collections and how library materials connect to cultural identity.

African migrants in Cabo Verde

This article outlines the results of study among main migrant groups of Cabo Verde, nationals of Africa. Ethnographic expedition for studying contemporary ethnic processes worked on the archipelago in December 2019 - January 2020. A comprehensive research method was used, along with examination of written and statistical sources. Interviews with informants and experts and mass-survey of African migrants using representative sample was carried out.It turned out that before XX century there were no African migrants on the archipelago, and up to 98-99% of the population were Cabo Verdeans(creole) - descendants of African slaves that were brought on the islands up to the middle of XIX century. Modern migration from African countries started only in the beginning of XXI century, but migrants viewed Cabo Verde as a staging point for further resettling into Western Europe and Northern America. In 2010, total number of African settlers achieved 10 thousand people. In the mid-2010s, government passed new laws that heavily restricted migration and the stream of new people from Africa drastically declined. Now African immigrants make up less than 2% of the total population. This study allowed to find out the age and gender composition of immigrants, language processes, degree of adaptation to local culture, social and educational level of migrants, the degree of development of integration and assimilatory processes and other questions allowing to draw conclusion about the subsequent development of immigrant groups in the country.

Ishtyle : Accenting Gay Indian Nightlife by Kareem Khubchandani

Reviewed by: Ishtyle : Accenting Gay Indian Nightlife by Kareem Khubchandani Sony Coráñez Bolton (bio) Ishtyle: Accenting Gay Indian Nightlife by Kareem Khubchandani. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2020. Xxiv + 262 pp. $34.95 paper. ISBN: 978-0-472-07421-1. Kareem Khubchandani's Ishtyle: Accenting Gay Indian Night Life is a performance studies ethnography centering the subcultural lives of queer South Asian (mostly) men in Bangalore and Chicago. Using an innovative form of participant observation that speaks to Khubchandani's positioning in these communities as a drag artist (whose nom de guerre is LaWhore Vagistan), he elicits spectacularly rich ethnographic descriptions that read against the presumed heteronormativity of "Bollywood tropes, narratives, and choreographies" (xiv) while also embracing the queer meanings that are inherent to them as they [End Page 507] play out Indian nightlife—indeed, "drag [is the] research method" (xiv). His is a refreshing study written with verve and rigor that should be widely read and embraced in Asian American and queer of color studies. Khubchandani defines "ishtyle" as a "form of vernacular performance" or "accented style" emerging in response to the social normalizations of multinational capitalism. Ishtyle "enables alternative affective, erotic, and social transactions by accenting the night with vernacular articulations of Indianness" (2). Such "accents" are so conceptually powerful because they "not only wield the performative force of history they have acquired in repetition to conjure gender, race, and class, but [also] their kinetic force physically 'punctures' space and time to bring bodies into new proximity and relation" (9). In other words, ishtyle is a repertoire of stylized acts, speech, and sartorial flair that forges queer community through its ontological difference from mainstream cultural formations shaped by Orientalism and white supremacy. At base, this is a book about subjectivity and agency—subjecthood that you cannot miss (and wouldn't want to) for how flamboyant, queer, jocular, witty, and irreverent it is. Chapters 1 and 2 focus on the politics of accented styles under respectability regimes in Bangalore. Chapter 1 analyzes the contradictory cultural impulses of Hindutva normativity that draw on British colonial antecedents and the anxieties around westernization under economic modernization. Chapter 2 takes up the unenviable though brilliantly ironic task of analyzing the politics of social dance under legal mandates in Bangalore outlawing it between 2006 and 2014. Chapter 3 speaks to the complicated politics of interracial desire centered on the Boystown "gayborhood" in Chicago. A centerpiece chapter of the study in general, it substantiates the overall claim that Indianness and its queer brownness are a performative node around which we can come to a more nuanced understanding of race, sexuality, nation, and desire not limited to South Asian diasporic subjects. I was struck by the attention given to the fungibility of brownness that causes misrecognitions between Latinx and Indian bodies—an interchangeability that was a welcome and profound contribution that exceeds the seemingly narrow parameters of "gay Indian nightlife." I found this so valuable because it provided a deep and powerful justification to foreground interracial encounter rather than perpetually affixing queer subject-making to a central signifying whiteness. Through vim, humor, and candor emblematic of an intellectually rigorous "ishtylized" ethnography, Khubchandani implores us to prioritize "axes of desire" that "center queer interracial intimacies" that displace the "sexual racism and unrequited desire from white men" (100). Sign me up. Chapter 4 speaks to the author's own grassroots efforts to build queer Desi community in Chicago through the serialized party Jai Ho! Here the analytical framing of ishtyle is extended to theorize its "capacity … to unsettle whiteness [End Page 508] and its accompanying Orientalism in gay nightlife" (111). While I do not doubt ishtyle's ability to potentiate such a critique, I was curious about a tendency to overly romanticize queer migrant cultures, particularly vis-à-vis settler colonialism. The author reflects on the "ability to emplace migrant subjects, not as settlers with possessive attachment to land but as performers who have permission to feel at home every once in a while" (111, emphasis mine). This opens up a productive conversation on the ways that queer migrant culture generally in settler colonial countries might present implicit and deeply structural contraventions to indigenous sovereignty. I wish...

Korean-language Textbooks (Hangul) Published in the USSR (1920-1930)

For the first time, a review of the educational Korean-language literature published in the Soviet Far East is presented in Russian and foreign historiography. A diverse and wide range of books disposes to scientific analysis as an historical source on the development of the Korean language, culture, and education of Korean migrants in the territory of the USSR during the formation of the Soviet government and the Korean community (Soviet Koreans). These books, which were published in the Korean language in the USSR, are a cultural monument. They keep and broadcast multi-valuate information (from scientific to aesthetic) for the Korean community. These books maintain a collective memory of the Korean community in the USSR (Russia), and are an example of the interaction of Russian and Korean cultures.

Ethnocultural Identity of Migrants from the Eastern Regions of the former USSR in the Light of “Clash of Cultures” Theory

The article presents some results of the project, the purpose of which was to study the processes of definition and (re)construction of ethnic identity and its relationship with the language and culture of Asian migrants from the former USSR. The results are analyzed in terms of differences in cultures and values as the most important part of culture. This once again tests the universality of the theories of “clash of civilizations” and “clash of cultures” by S. Huntington and R. Lewis. The author comes to the conclusion that, first, cultural identity, unlike ethnic identity, is subject to transformation and at the same time it is stable. Secondly, the difference of cultures (“Eastern” and “Western”) exists and is perceived at the level of cultural values and norms, but it is not of a conflict, antagonistic nature. The conclusion explains the reasons for this in the light of the above-mentioned theories.

The “Passing Clouds” of Nationalism in Anthea Nicholson and Kapka Kassabova: Cross-Border Recollection of Political Trauma

Nationalism re-emerges from contemporary cultural debates under a panoply of controversial perspectives. In some of them like, for instance, the contemporary fields of border studies and the study of migrant cultures and writing, it fairly often takes the shape of an effort to strengthen hierarchies, hold differences together into ideologically ‘sterile’, supposedly homogeneous units, and to delimit overflowing identities. What binds a great many such contemporary reassessments is the urge to retrace or excavate past experience of nationalism, especially in cases when its purportedly beneficial properties of sheltering nations are brought to such ends as dictatorship, autocratic and authoritarian rule. The present article ruminates on those violent forms through the medium of two literary works authored by contemporary writers in its attempt to analyse the traumatic, but also prolific potential of re-membering past oppression. The study is concerned with their responses to an excessively violent political form of selfproclaimed nationalism which are worth considering because of their borderline status. Both Anthea Nicholson and Kapka Kassabova fall into the category of migrant writers. Of Georgian and Bulgarian descent, both writing in English, each one of them retraces a remembered and oppressive past experience in an effort that aims to reconstruct the contemporaneity of their countries of origin. Alongside specific contextual details, the investigation meditates on the common features of their fictional responses to a shared past. A meaningful outcome of their retracings is the critical distance that forms between remembered experience and the contemporary state of their birth lands which illuminates in a creative way the problematic achievement and development of state sovereignty.

Para Além do Comércio de Comida Tradicional: O Empreendedorismo Étnico de Refugiados [São Paulo-SP, Brasil

This article discusses symbolic aspects of the trade of traditional foods of different ethnic origins, led by enterprising refugees in the city of São Paulo, and has as its object of study the sale of the so-called ethnic / traditional foods in small enterprises in that city. The methodology used is qualitative, through a theoretical reflection, based on works from the Social Sciences and articles from exploratory surveys, conducted based on Capes Journals, Scopus and Google Scholar. The articles used address concepts such as ethnic commerce, ethnic food, cultural heritage, dietary practices, among others, which allow the analysis of ethnic entrepreneurship led by refugees in São Paulo and associates it with phenomena that allow us to establish a reflection on why they choose to undertake this area. as food relates to the memories, culture and identity of migrants.

Home and Away vs Netflix: Inter-generational and Intersectional Asian Australian Viewing Patterns

ABSTRACT This article presents findings from interviews conducted with first and second-generation Asian Australian audience members as part of a project on the histories of television and migration in Australia. The data presented here is (a) testament to the agency of migrants in choosing what to watch beyond what might be expected on the basis of primordial markers such as ethnicity, and shows that factors such as generation of migration and education status play a significant role; and (b) differences in patterns, as well as influences between generations within a family unit. This means that the influence of cultural elements from parents or grandparents’ generations, as well as the impact of technology on younger viewers appears to be more marked. Additionally, in the case of the first generation, there is a noticeable desire to watch mainstream Australian content (such as Home and Away), where this usually changes to a longing to be ‘represented’ for subsequent generations. These trends, while not based on a representative sample, give us an indicative glimpse into shifts in migrant media cultures, and reinforce the need for an intersectional approach to audience studies. What this analysis contributes is the importance of foregrounding the relationality of viewing practices, especially in a migrant family setting.

The Migrant Position: Dynamics of Political and Cultural Exclusion

The lives and labour of migrants are increasingly shaped by political precarity and rightlessness in an unevenly globalized world. We argue that ‘undesirableness’ rather than mobility is constitutive of the ‘migrant’ position. Besides underscoring the asymmetrical power relations that define the position of the ‘migrant’ vis-à-vis the receiving state and society, an optic of ‘undesirableness’ also foregrounds the governmental techniques deployed to produce the figure of the ‘migrant’. We suggest that the framing of migrants as ‘unwanted’ is pivotal to the European non-entrée regime, which parallels cultural exclusion through an Orientalization of the discourse on migration. The immutable cultural alterity of the (Muslim) ‘migrant’ is thus presumed to pose a perennial threat to Western ‘liberal’ values. Two assumptions undergird this narrative of the ‘undesirable’ migrant as the quintessential ‘Other’ of the European Self: cultural determination of behaviour in migrant communities, and incompatibility of ‘migrant cultures’ with those of ‘host’ societies.

Landscapes of appropriation and assimilation: the impact of immigrant-origin populations on U.S. cuisine

ABSTRACT Although assimilation theories acknowledge that the host society adopts aspects of migrant culture, empirical work continues to focus on the assimilation trajectories of immigrants. This study represents the first effort to investigate, on a national level, whether Asians and Hispanics exert a cultural influence on local populations. We assess this possibility by using ethnic restaurants – both national chain and local establishments – as a test case. County-level data is pooled from the decennial U.S. Census, the American Community Survey, the Economic Research Service, the Voting and Elections Collection from CQ Press, and Reference U.S.A. to investigate the association of interest; Nielsen Marketing data is used to further supplement analyses. Results indicate that Asians and Hispanics may indeed influence local community expressions of culture – both in terms of restaurant availability and the extent to which those outside of the co-ethnic community engage in restaurant ownership. Moreover, we find compelling evidence that assimilation may be stronger in locations with advantaged majority populations. In combination, this manuscript offers innovative theoretical perspectives as well as preliminary evidence to suggest assimilation is indeed a multidirectional process.