Summary: Therersquo;s a growing ldquo;transnationalrdquo; feeling among Muslim migrants in Europe. Because they are so often people who belong to neither the old countryrsquo;s culture, nor the new countryrsquo;s ideas, these migrants have begun to form a kind of transnational culture of their own. Indiana Universityrsquo;s Cigdem Balim, a senior lecturer in the department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures, studies Muslim transnational communities. A defining characteristic of such communities, she says, is that they move between nations and continents. For example, Muslim immigrants may live in England but have family roots in Pakistan; or a person is born in Germany to a Turkish family, is a German citizen, speaks German, but family ties to Turkey serve as a constant connection to his/her ethnic roots. Balim is one of many academic researchers who believe that Muslim transnationals develop their own culture. ldquo;For example [a culture] which is neither German nor Turkish ndash; a hybrid, if you like, is a culture in which they are very comfortable in actually,rdquo; she says. The Shared Experience: Migration Despite originating from diverse regions around the world, Muslim transnationals form a common culture through the shared migration experience. Referring to author/researcher Azade Seyhan, Balim describes this cultural formation: ldquo;Out of the ashes of many migrations and changing places and continents and countries and languages come this beautiful phoenix bird, which is their very own transnational culture and a way that they can interpret and move between cultures.rdquo; Of course, transnational cultures, with their peripatetic origins, often leave members searching for their individual identities and cultural roots. ldquo;But at the same time,rdquo; says Balim, ldquo;they have an interesting way of looking and evaluating the culture they have come from, their parentsrsquo; have come from, and the culture that they are born into or live in, which makes, for example, the works of authors, filmmakers and artists/painters very interesting indeed.rdquo; The Issue Of Integration At times, however, transnational cultures can hinder their membersrsquo; ability to function within their adopted societies. ldquo;There are all these different ideas and situations and cultural traits that you have to fit into, and yoursquo;re outside the norm of being in a single-language, single-culture situation of your colleagues,rdquo; Balim says. ldquo;But in the long run it pays off, and the world is getting more and more transnational as people migrate more than before.rdquo; Balim is quick to point out that population migrations are nothing new to the human experience. Itrsquo;s just that, for the most part, past migrations largely went unnoticed, she says, and their cultural impacts were unexplored. Nevertheless, world history is filled with examples of border crossings, Balim says, ldquo;so immigration is nothing newhellip; to humankind.rdquo;
