Becoming different while becoming the same: Re-territorializing Islamic identities with multi-ethnic practices in Hong Kong
Title:
Becoming different while becoming the same: Re-territorializing Islamic identities with multi-ethnic practices in Hong Kong
Author:
Pluss, Caroline
Appeared in:
Ethnic and racial studies
Paging:
Volume 29 (2006) nr. 4 pages 656-675
Year:
2006-07-01
Contents:
The established consensus in sociology is to explain the transformations of the ethnic identities of migrants through processes by which the migrants combine features they share with co-ethnics with characteristics they adopt from other groups of residents. This conceptualization, however, works on the assumption that it is the differences and contradictions between the elements in the ethnic identities of the migrants, and the characteristics of other groups of residents, that motivate the transformations of migrant ethnic identities. Therefore, processes by which migrants adopt characteristics from other residents are understood to typically decrease the migrants' differences from them. This analysis of the ethnic identity transformations of Muslims of Chinese, Indian, Pakistani, and mixed ethnic origin in Hong Kong refutes the validity of this interpretation. It shows that adopting characteristics from non-Muslim Chinese residents supported establishing multi-ethnic Islamic practices which, in turn, accentuated the differences of the Muslims from these majorities.
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