Diaspora

Displacement brought about by immigration often leads to enduring loss and nostalgia for an imagined homeland. The search for physical and psychological space and a sense of belonging is continually negotiated by diaspora communities. This chapter explores the experience of an immigrant in the transnational Sikh diaspora. It uses an innovative methodology, bilingual-bicultural life history, to narrate the story from an insider perspective. The features of the methodology are explained and the findings use both Panjabi and English words to capture the nuances in meaning which can be lost through monolingual narrative. The findings focus on the overarching theme of diaspora as ‘unbelonging’ and how this is experienced through living parallel lives, moving between multiple identities and facing racism.