Publication Date: Apr 2012
RRP: $19.95
ISBN: 9781921867163
Format: Paperback
Size: 153mm x 234mm
Pages: 224
Category: Monash Asia Series

Identity, Language and Culture in Diaspora

A study of Iranian Female Migrants in Australia

Maryam Jamarani


‘presents in a clear and accessible fashion research which has made a significant sociolinguistic contribution to acculturation theory, and it increases our knowledge of migration stories specific to the Iranian community in Australia.’ Australian Journal of Linguistics


In a new socio-cultural environment, migrant identities are constantly repositioned. Exploration of this experience aids understanding of the fluid and flexible nature of identity itself. In Identity, Language and Culture in Diaspora, Maryam Jamarani deals with ‘diasporic identities’ and advances a paradigm in which ‘becoming’,
rather than ‘being’, is emphasised.

Jamarani investigates changes in the identity of first generation Iranian Muslim women in Australia. Before migrating to Australia most of this group spent the first twenty years of their lives in the Western-oriented monarchy of Iran and then, after the 1978 Islamic Revolution, lived under the Islamic anti-Western government of the country.
What effects have this distinctive experience had on the linguistic, cultural,
national, gender and religious identity of individuals within this grouping?
Jamarani aims to identify the core values that these women continue to hold
after migration, as well as areas where their values have changed.

Engaging with contemporary theories of acculturation, Jamarani proposes a novel, sociolinguistically enhanced acculturation model, emphasising the significance of the fluid and flexible nature of identity, which holds out the promise of shedding new light on the acculturation process of migrants in general.

This book will be of interest to scholars around the world researching and teaching in the areas of identity, language, culture, gender and migration.