Theorizing identity in transnational and diaspora cultures: A critical approach to acculturation Sunil Bhatia a, *, Anjali Ram b a Connecticut College, USA b Roger Williams University, USA 1. Introduction In Bharati Mukherjee’s (1989) well-known novel, Jasmine, the female protagonist is an illegal immigrant woman from India. Plotting a linear trajectory, the novel traces the ‘‘progress’’ of Jyoti to Jase and finally to Jane Ripplemeyer as she evolves from a barely educated Punjabi village girl to the lover of a rich Iowan banker comfortable in cooking pot roast and attending Lutheran church quilt exhibitions. This is a narrative of adaptation and assimilation. By decontextualizing and dehistoricizing the migrant experience, Mukherjee offers a tale of serendipity and survival. The Indian immigrant woman is reinvented as cosmopolitan and western, apparently having very little difficulty casting off any trappings of cultural identity. The story of Jasmine parallels much of mainstream acculturation research, where the migrant experience is presented in terms a series of phases that must culminate with a successful incorporation into the host culture. In this article, International Journal of Intercultural Relations 33 (2009) 140–149 ARTICLE INFO Article history: Accepted 26 December 2008 Keywords: Diaspora Acculturation Migration Identity ABSTRACT This paper examines the various ways in which the concept of ‘‘diaspora’’ has important implications for rethinking traditional notions of acculturation in Psychology. In this paper, we argue that the idea of a fixed, invariant, and apolitical notion of acculturation dominates much of Psychology, and as such it needs to be revised and reexamined in light of transnational migration and global movements. Drawing on our previous and current scholarship on acculturation and identity [Bhatia, S., & Ram, A. (2001). Rethinking ‘‘acculturation’’ in relation to diasporic cultures and postcolonial identities. Human Development, 44, 1–17; Bhatia, S., & Ram, A. (2004). Culture, hybridity and the dialogical self: Cases from the South-Asian diaspora. Mind, Culture, and Activity, 11(3), 224–241; Bhatia, S. (2007a). American Karma: Race, culture, and identity and the Indian diaspora. New York, NY: New York University Press; Bhatia, S. (2008). Rethinking culture and identity in psychology: Towards a transnational cultural psychology. Journal of Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology, 28, 301–322], we provide a counterargument to models of acculturation that claim that all immigrants undergo a universal psychological process of acculturation and adaptation. More specifically, we show how members from the Indian diaspora reexamined their acculturation status after the events of 9/11. We use interdisciplinary research to critically examine the role of race in the acculturation process. In addition, we provide a new analytical framework to understand the larger structural forces that shape the acculturation and assimilation process of transnational and diasporic migrants. ß 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. * Corresponding author at: Box 5474, 270 Mohegan Avenue, Connecticut College, New London, CT, 06320, United States. E-mail address: sunil.bhatia@conncoll.edu (S. Bhatia). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect International Journal of Intercultural Relations journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijintrel 0147-1767/$ – see front matter ß 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.ijintrel.2008.12.009