Travelling cultural patterns and the establishment of diasporas

Abstract

This study applies the viewpoint of transnational spaces and exchanges of cultural patterns to the term of diaspora, based on fieldwork in diasporas in Hungary. The effects of travel, along with ethno-homogeneous and transnational relationships on cultural survival, integration and production of transnational spaces are analysed. In the process of migration, hybrid realities come into existence by the activities of migrants, travellers, resettled people and also by the behaviour of the host society. Cultural elements and information are exchanged through transnational connections, cultural translations and observation of each other. The diasporas’ main characteristic is the reflexivity about cultural differences and this reflexivity is one of the reasons why the diasporas many times lock themselves in. However they are not hermetically isolated. Central to a diaspora is a concentrated space of cultural elements brought from home and a space for being in an essential culture; furthermore it is the place for practising religion and traditions. Nevertheless on the borders of diasporas there are places of cultural barter and spaces of transnational contacts. Some of the diasporas open up for each other and make some intercultural contacts by trading “the exotic” – for reasons of creating a livelihood and neo-integration. Global networks of diasporas and travellers are special actors generating hybridity. These are exchanging cultural elements between home and diasporas as well as among ethno-homogeneous diasporas.

The findings of this study also establish that networks of ethnically and religiously homogeneous communities are created by using the host society’s institutions and spaces. We may consider these networks and communities as innovative and creative elements, and in their peripheries there are stages of cultural exchange. Hybrid identities are formed continuously in the course of travel, and their formation helps in the settling process and in building an existence. We can hardly imagine post-modern society and social spaces without intercultural entities such as what the diasporas naturally develop around themselves and which are inseparable from any interpretations of travel.