Crossing the Threshold

Abstract

In countries like the United States, many immigrants and children of immigrants have embraced sentiments of nationalism and patriotism, leading to what many have called a crisis of identity. This crisis, particularly for people of color, often, if not always, comes from the imaginary lines of separation between race and religion. The question, then, is, how are these borders negotiated? This paper draws from fieldwork conducted as a master’s student. This paper explores the notions of space, diaspora, transnationalism, and diasporic transnationalism drawing from the works of Chandra Talpade Mohanty and Lorgia García Peña, among others, in two parts. First, this paper examines borders as they exist domestically in the United States and considers the role of a home's threshold as a ‘border’ of negotiation between public and domestic identity. Second, this paper considers the ways borders are simultaneously imagined and blurred in a global community diaspora.