It is crucial that the migrant should be able to find space to construct an identity that can accommodate what he or she once was and is now supposed to be: an identity that is somewhere in-between. This is true also for those who now find themselves actively marginalised/minoritised in societies where they have long been settled.
Are we prepared to acknowledge that the in-betweenness of migrant identities, in the literal and metaphorical sense, both calls up, and calls into question, existing referential notions of cultural authenticity and traditional, stable identity?
Fanon whose writings made the post-colonial perspective possible: ‘In the world through which I travel, I am endlessly creating myself … And it is by going beyond the historical, instrumental hypothesis that I will initiate my cycle of freedom’ (1986: 229–31).
Narratives for a New Belonging — Roger Bromley
My understanding:
For immigrants, when you come into contact with a new culture, you can easily feel lost in the first place, and you will also be caught in a cultural gap. You should try to combine two different cultures and use your own understanding to create new cultural products. This can be private, but when private interest becomes a trend, it becomes a new creation.
The most direct expression of personal interests, tastes, and habits is through people’s daily rituals or the sense of ritual in important cultural activities.