Maintaining national culture abroad. Countries of origin, culture and diaspora

Within the framework of the INTERACT project, this paper aims to shed light onto a specific facet of the role of sending countries in migrants' integration processes: culture. Culture is analysed as one of the tools that both migrants and countries of origin resort to in order to maintain reciprocal ties after migration. Following a brief presentation of the anthropological and sociological definitions of culture and the consequent notion of 'cultural identity' on which the analysis builds, we study the concrete implementation of these dynamics. In particular, our attention is deployed at three levels: the level of migrants' everyday practices (including the use of the origin language); the policy level (pertaining to both diaspora and integration); and the association level (cultural centres in particular). Through the study of several transversal examples, we consider the broader issue at stake in this paper: the possible connection between migrants' performance in the culture of their country of origin and integration processes. We take into account the European legal framework within which both migrants and national governments function, and the influence it has on discourses and national and international policies addressing integration issues. We reach the conclusion that no causal or univocal link can be established between cultural practices and integration, for several reasons: a variety of factors are at play in integration processes within multi-cultural urban spaces, including socio-economic issues and power relations, which are crucial; culture itself is a changing and combined set of behaviours which determine dynamic and multiple belongings and which need a comprehensive approach; and identities shape the interaction among cultures - which is why we finally state the usefulness of the notion of 'ethnicity'.