Identity, Migration and Transnationalism: Expressive Cultural Practices of the Toronto Alevi Community

Abstract

Based on my observations and in-depth interviews over a ten-month period, this article explores the efforts of Toronto's Alevi community to maintain a separate identity in their adopted country, while attempting to integrate their families into Canadian society. Major issues in my study include the question of whether, and how, Alevis in Toronto maintain a sense of self-identity and a measure of communal cohesion. Special attention is given to music and dance practices. Such expressive cultural practices provide an analytical tool for understanding the relations between diaspora communities and their home countries. By investigating the Alevi movement in Turkey and Canada from a comparative perspective, my aim in this paper is to explore to what extent the Alevi musical revival in Turkey influences the music practices of Alevis in Toronto.

Keywords:

• Alevi Identity
• Diaspora
• Migration
• Transnationalism
• Music and Dance
• Toronto

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Heather Özaltun and Maureen Jackson for editing, and three anonymous JEMS reviewers for their suggestions on, an earlier draft of this paper. I am also grateful to the JEMS editors for their careful work on my text.