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Setting New Boundaries – Recontextualizing group identity among the Copt and Rum Orthodox communities in the diaspora.

My research involves the identity of two minority faith groups as migrants in new lands. It seeks to compare and highlight identity negotiating tools and mechanisms used by the Copt and Rum Orthodox (Greater Syrian Greek Orthodox) in the United States, France and the Netherlands. I will be using the framework provided by Cultural Theory that divides societies according to grid and group sentiment into four groups in constant struggle with each other: Individualists, Hierarchists, Egalitarians and Fatalists. The main challenge involving migrants is the extent of cultural demands deemed acceptable or unacceptable by the host society, as opposed to the social and economic demands made by the migrants as individuals. It is my contention that the choice of organization of the group is most vital in relation to the prevalent choice of the host country. In other words, a successful migrant is one whose attitude toward group identity and boundary rigidity is in congruence with that of the new society around him or her.  

Supervisor: Prof. Dr. R.B. ter Haar Romeny