4 Culture and Identity in Motion

Negotiating identity and cross-border ties

Migration changes more than where people live: it can reshape belonging, cultural expression, and relationships. Its effects reach migrants, their families and communities of origin, and the societies where they settle. Experiences are not uniform or automatic; they differ with generation, language, social class, legal status, local attitudes, and the circumstances of migration.

Identity can become more prominent in some respects, take on new affiliations, or change how people describe themselves. In addition to connections to places of origin and settlement, people may identify with a neighborhood, religion, language group, profession, or generation. These identities can shift over time and in response to events in either place, and need not compete with or exclude one another.

Transnationalism describes sustained social, cultural, economic, or political connections across national borders. Migrants may keep in touch with relatives, join celebrations remotely, share news and ideas, travel, send money or goods, or participate in associations linking places. Communication technologies can make these ties easier to sustain, while family and community networks shape opportunities and belonging. People who remain in a place of origin can also be affected.

For example, a family living abroad might celebrate a holiday with relatives by video call, adapt recipes using locally available ingredients, and teach children words and stories from the family’s heritage. These activities maintain connections while creating practices suited to a new setting; this is an illustrative example, not an experience shared by all migrant families.

Cultural practices change through contact

Cultural practices—including food, clothing, music, religion, celebrations, and family customs—may be maintained, adapted, combined with other practices, or set aside. Migration creates opportunities for cultural exchange, but exchange is not necessarily equal. Social power, discrimination, access to institutions, and the value assigned to different practices all matter, and migrants make choices within these conditions. Communities in both places may change in response.

Cultural change is not simply a choice between preserving a culture unchanged and abandoning it to become like the destination society. A practice may acquire new meaning in a new setting, a community may emphasize a tradition more strongly after migration, or new forms may emerge through contact between groups. Migrants’ cultural and civic contributions can affect places of origin and destination, though barriers may prevent those contributions from being recognized or shared.

Language, belonging, and generations

Language is both a means of communication and a resource for expressing identity and maintaining relationships. Learning a destination language can help migrants participate in work, education, public life, and local networks. Maintaining a heritage language can support communication across generations and with relatives or communities in a place of origin. People may use different languages or varieties in different settings, or combine them in everyday conversation.

Language change is not a simple measure of whether someone has kept or lost a culture. Children and grandchildren may understand a heritage language better than they speak it. Some families use it regularly, while others rely more on the dominant local language. Schools, workplaces, community organizations, family choices, and whether a language is valued or stigmatized can all influence its use. Supporting multilingualism can help people connect across generations and participate in wider society.

Communities in places of origin and destination

Migration reshapes communities in places of origin as well as destinations. Cross-border ties can carry money, knowledge, cultural practices, and news; return visits and return migration can bring new experiences and expectations. These influences may affect relatives and neighbors who have not migrated. Outcomes vary: migration can create opportunities and strengthen connections, but it can also separate families or contribute to unequal access to resources.

In destinations, migrants may build community through family networks, religious institutions, cultural associations, businesses, and local neighborhoods. These networks can provide practical support and a sense of belonging, as well as connect residents across borders. The wider community changes too: schools, workplaces, services, and public culture respond to new languages, skills, traditions, and relationships.

Inclusion depends not only on migrants’ efforts to adapt, but also on the receiving society’s openness and institutions. Mutual adaptation involves both migrants and host communities, rather than adjustment by migrants alone. Across places of origin and destination, people and communities participate in reshaping identity, cultural practice, language, and relationships; effects vary with social conditions, institutions, relationships, and power.