As Heidegger (1971, 154; emphasis added) puts it, “A boundary is not that at
which something stops but, as the Greeks recognized, the boundary is that from
which something begins its presencing.” Borders are not merely geographical
limits; they signify a lot more. Identities are related to these borders in various ways. With
immigration, these borders come to new places as well. Virtual borders are quite visible in
countries that have accommodated different cultures, languages, and religions. These
borders may become blurred when two cultures coexist peacefully, or they may become more visible, more concrete when they are on hostile terms. It is individuals who represent,
mostly inadvertently, the distinctiveness of their respective cultures, but in a necessarily
composite society, these borders no longer remain rigid because of the inevitability of
exchanges and negotiations through social interactions. Exchanges between two cultures
transform the identities and result in blurred borders becoming fuzzier.
The geographical location, combined with race, ethnicity, religion, etc., constitutes
apparently inseparable elements of an individual’s identity. When one migrates to a new
country, perhaps one becomes conscious of these various elements because of the fear
that one’s original culture is at risk. On the other hand, often, it is also observed that
immigrants, in order to be more acceptable to their new place, try to come to the
mainstream. Tacit negotiations continue to take place resulting in a generation confused
with identity and a victim of conflicts within. A boy born in the US to South Asian and
Canadian parents, for example, inherits elements shaping his identity from parents and
also imbibes from where he is being brought up. This dynamics of cultural interaction
leads, at a social level, to peace and amicable adjustments, but at the individual level to a
search for one’s identity.
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