Iraqi Diaspora in Arizona: Identity and Homeland in Women’s Discourse

Abstract

In analyzing the collective experiences of Iraqi immigrants in displacement, facing any hardships, resettling and assimilating into their new environments, and the push factors that help form their own identity, this thesis explores the generational demarcation and the concept of the ‘reluctant immigrant’ in thinking about place attachment and displacement. Sense of belonging to the homeland is a theme in the diasporic narratives of Iraqi women. Immigrants reach out to the imagined homeland in an effort to manage the emotional trauma of exile, while diasporic imagination engages the construction of immigrant identity and political ramifications of this identity in the receiving country. This ultimately allows the individual to construct their diasporic identity in terms of their ongoing relationship with the nation-state and the intersections of class and gender in migration experiences, cultural and religious traditions, and the social struggles of fitting in and establishing a successful livelihood and state of being.