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Abstract
This article examines how Muslim Meskhetians—a historically displaced and stateless diasporic group—navigate cultural identity in the United States in the aftermath of the 1944 Stalinist deportation to Central Asia and subsequent waves of displacement. Drawing on 30 semi-structured interviews conducted in Pennsylvania in 2025, the study investigates the disconnect between economic and legal integration and a sustained sense of cultural exclusion. The research advances the concept of transterritorial identity to describe the community’s strategies of cultural resilience across geographic and generational boundaries. Focusing on three key dimensions—the paradox of integration, everyday forms of cultural resistance and intergenerational resilience—the article reveals how Muslim Meskhetians preserve language, revive religious practice and reaffirm communal bonds while adapting to a multicultural American context. This study contributes to diaspora scholarship by illustrating how memory, displacement and adaptive cultural strategies intersect to shape a fluid yet coherent diasporic identity.
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Search for other papers by Ekaterine Pirtskhalava in
Current site
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Abstract
This article examines how Muslim Meskhetians—a historically displaced and stateless diasporic group—navigate cultural identity in the United States in the aftermath of the 1944 Stalinist deportation to Central Asia and subsequent waves of displacement. Drawing on 30 semi-structured interviews conducted in Pennsylvania in 2025, the study investigates the disconnect between economic and legal integration and a sustained sense of cultural exclusion. The research advances the concept of transterritorial identity to describe the community’s strategies of cultural resilience across geographic and generational boundaries. Focusing on three key dimensions—the paradox of integration, everyday forms of cultural resistance and intergenerational resilience—the article reveals how Muslim Meskhetians preserve language, revive religious practice and reaffirm communal bonds while adapting to a multicultural American context. This study contributes to diaspora scholarship by illustrating how memory, displacement and adaptive cultural strategies intersect to shape a fluid yet coherent diasporic identity.
| All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 61 | 61 | 61 |
| Full Text Views | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 0 | 0 | 0 |
