History shows the assimilation of smaller ethnic groups who form small minorities. The larger minorities have higher chances of keeping more remnants of their culture intact as their being larger gives them an identity of their own whereas the smaller minorities will usually assimilate into the larger minorities eventually.
Being a member of a Pakistani diaspora, I often think that as the generations go by, our descendants will lose track of their Pakistani origin. If they live in a country with a small Pakistani diaspora, they will eventually lose ALL trace of their Pakistani origins, compare that to a country like the UK with a large Pakistani diaspora. The new generations of the diaspora there too is assimilating into British culture but still retains elements of Pakistani influences in facets of everyday life.
So is there a correlation between the diaspora’s size in population and influence and the amount of 'cultural survival".
I think everyone’s family has gone through a similar experience in the past. For example my grandparents generation(paternal side) and great great grandparents generation(maternal side) came from a completely different culture (The culture of Baramulla, in the Kashmir Valley) and due to socio-economic conditions and repressive policies on Muslims they migrated to the Punjab and became successful entrepreneurs there(in Amritsar).
Similarly thousands of Muslim families from Kashmir migrated to the Punjab and formed a cohesive Kashmiri community.
The elder generations zealously guarded their Kashmiri traditions, but the Kashmiri culture lost influence on the newer generations with each passing identity. Now the new generation possesses only remnants of Kashmiri culture, which is insignificant compared to the influence of ‘new cultures’ on us.
Nevertheless, despite this loss of culture we are still seen as Kashmiris because others still see us as Kashmiris. That is due in large part to Kashmiris being a large community within Pakistan in its own right so they can exercise influence socially and politically as one group. They can politically retain their identity. They are still Kashmiri in name, with a few bits and pieces of the culture still hanging on.
Similarly the British Pakistani community is gradually losing attachment to Pakistani culture with each passing generation, but because they are such a large group in terms of population and influence in British society they are recognised by other Britons as being ‘Pakistani’ in origin. So they still retain that connection to Pakistan. I don’t know if this will be the case for smaller Pakistani diasporas like the one here in Australia, as they are such a small group with few influences, if any, in Aussie society.
What do you think?