Globalisation and Diaspora – What Lost Identity?: The Diaspora and Globalisation

(a) I adore being given expensive presents.

(b) I love having my breakfast brought to me in bed.

(c) I enjoy being taken to expensive restaurants.

(d) I love having my photograph taken.

(e) I hate being asked my age in public.

Being + past participle is used when the subject receives the action. Having + object + past participle is used when the subject arranges or experiences something done by others.

(b) A hybrid identity that blends home and host cultures

The essay argues that globalisation does not erase cultural roots; instead, diaspora communities retain elements of their home culture while adopting features of the host culture, producing a blended or hybrid identity.

Globalisation and the Loss of Cultural Identity in Diaspora Communities
(5 marks)

Globalisation refers to the growing interconnectedness of economies, societies and cultures through trade, technology, migration and communication. In the essay, this process is shown to have a double-edged effect on diaspora communities: while it helps them stay in touch with their homeland, it also weakens the very traditions that define their cultural identity.

1. Cultural homogenisation. Global media, fast food, fashion and entertainment spread a dominant, largely Western consumer culture. Younger members of diaspora communities grow up surrounded by this culture and often adopt it in place of their ancestral languages, dress, food habits and rituals. Local distinctiveness gives way to a uniform global identity.

2. Language loss. Globalisation promotes a few dominant languages such as English as the language of education, employment and the internet. In diaspora families, the mother tongue is used less and less, and the third generation may not speak it at all. Since language carries stories, songs, values and religious practices, its loss directly erodes cultural identity.

3. Weakening of community institutions. Traditional gatherings, festivals, religious ceremonies and community organisations that once held the diaspora together lose their importance as people become busier and more mobile. The essay notes that rituals which were once central to belonging are reduced to occasional, symbolic events.

4. Generational and identity conflict. Children of migrants absorb the host country’s values through school and media, while parents cling to the old ways. This gap creates confusion and a sense of belonging nowhere — a “hybrid” or rootless identity in which neither culture is fully owned.

5. Homogenised global culture. As the essay points out, globalisation tends to produce a single, standardised world culture. Diaspora communities, being minorities, are especially vulnerable because they lack the numbers and institutions to resist this pressure.

Conclusion. Globalisation does not erase culture overnight, but by privileging a dominant global culture, weakening the mother tongue and loosening community ties, it steadily erodes the cultural identity of diaspora communities. The essay suggests that the loss is real, though some communities manage to preserve their heritage through conscious effort.

Home and belonging for diaspora individuals, and how globalisation complicates them (5 marks)

The concept of home and belonging

For diaspora individuals, "home" is not a simple physical place but a layered idea. The essay presents home as:

• A remembered place — the original homeland is carried in memory, language, food, festivals and family stories, so it remains emotionally real even when physically distant.
• A felt condition rather than a location — belonging is experienced through relationships, shared customs and recognition by others, not merely through holding a passport or a piece of land.
• Split and multiple — diaspora individuals often belong partly to the host society and partly to the ancestral homeland, so they live with a "double consciousness" and a sense of being neither fully here nor fully there.
• Negotiated over time — the second generation, born abroad, constructs belonging through inherited culture and new local ties, so home becomes something they build rather than simply inherit.

How globalisation complicates these notions

Globalisation both eases and unsettles diaspora belonging:

• Easier connection — cheap travel, the internet, social media, satellite television and remittances keep migrants in daily contact with the homeland, so distance no longer means separation. Home can be "visited" daily online.
• Cultural mixing — global flows of media, goods and ideas create hybrid identities; diaspora individuals adopt elements of many cultures, so a single, fixed "home culture" becomes hard to define.
• Weakened roots — rapid mobility and repeated migration mean people may never settle permanently anywhere, producing a permanent sense of displacement or "in-betweenness".
• Contested belonging — host societies may still treat migrants as outsiders (through racism, citizenship laws or nationalism), while the homeland may see them as "too foreign," so belonging is questioned from both sides.
• Economic pull — global labour markets draw skilled workers away from the homeland, deepening the diaspora while also making the homeland depend on remittances, which ties identity to economics as much as to culture.

Conclusion

The essay thus shows that globalisation makes it technically easier to stay connected to the homeland, but it also fragments the idea of a single home. Belonging becomes plural, fluid and constantly renegotiated — a matter of memory, choice and recognition rather than of geography alone.

The essay argues that globalisation pulls diaspora communities into a dominant global culture, so that they risk becoming a people who have "lost" their identity. A critical reading shows that this is partly true but not inevitable.

The argument for lost identity. Globalisation spreads a shared culture of media, fashion, food and, above all, the English language. Diaspora families live as minorities inside it. Children learn the host language at school and online, and the mother tongue weakens by the second or third generation. Festivals, rituals and community gatherings shrink to occasional events, and the young feel they belong fully neither to the homeland nor to the host country. The essay presents this "in-between" state as the lost identity.

Preservation versus adaptation. The two pull in opposite directions.

• Preservation gives security, memory and a sense of continuity, but it can isolate people and make the young feel trapped in the past.
• Adaptation brings jobs, acceptance and success in the host society, but total assimilation leaves people feeling empty and cut off from their roots. Parents often stress the first and children the second, which creates conflict inside the family.

Is the loss inevitable? Not entirely.

1. The same globalisation that threatens culture also helps to keep it alive: video calls, social media, online news, remittances and cheap travel keep migrants in daily touch with home.
2. Communities resist loss by teaching the mother tongue at home, running language classes and cultural associations, and celebrating festivals publicly. Nepali communities abroad, for example, keep Dashain, Tihar and Nepali schools alive.
3. Identity can change without disappearing. Many diaspora people build a hybrid identity that combines both cultures, which is a new form of identity, not an empty one.

Evaluation. The essay is right that globalisation puts heavy pressure on minority cultures. However, it is too pessimistic if it treats identity as fixed. Identity is not only inherited; people also choose and rebuild it. Loss is likely where a community makes no effort, but it can be resisted through language, education, family practice and community institutions.

Conclusion. Globalisation endangers diaspora identity but does not destroy it automatically. Whether identity is lost or reshaped depends on the conscious effort of individuals and communities to hold on to their roots while living in the wider world.

doing

Stop + gerund means to give up an action. The speaker wants to quit doing homework late at night because of the mistakes: I need to stop doing my homework late at night.