| Abstract: | One of the defining principles about diaspora populations is accepted as “they have a strong sense of collective memory which relates to the distant Homeland”. However, migrant experiences of our epoch provide a range of evidences to challenge some of the widespread assumptions about nostalgia of homeland which is supposed to be dominating diasporic condition.
On one hand, increasing synchronization between homeland and diaspora by means of contemporary communication technologies has led the migrant populations to update the rusty collective myths about the homeland. On the other hand, immigrant groups which have spent enough time in country of settlement to qualify as “early-comers”, such as the Turks in Sweden, tend to replace the “nostalgia of homeland” with a brand new nostalgia: “nostalgia of the early years of settlement in the country of migration”.
In this paper I will present the experiences of Turks in Sweden in order to reflect on the two-folded transformation re-shaping the nature of nostalgia in diaspora. Their story since 1966 will be utilized to illustrate these effects which necessitate a reconsideration of existing comprehension of the relationship between diaspora populations and nostalgia. |
Ph.D., Lic. Theses
