Diaspora and Identity: A Critical Study of the Pakistani Diaspora's Identity Crisis in Kamila Shamsie’s Home Fire

Abstract

With the dawn of globalization, the concept of swift mobility and migration has faced numerous issues in its wake, the major ones being political status, cultural assimilation, and identity issues within the diaspora community. Studies have highlighted the political, legal and cultural aspects of these issues. The present study critically examines the identity crisis faced by Pakistani migrants in the UK. The study shows that the migrants are not entitled to equal social rights and due status of citizenship, which ultimately leads them to an identity crisis. The study is qualitative and based on Kamila Shamsie's Home Fire (2017). The analysis is developed in light of Frantz Fanon’s theoretical framework (1986) and other postcolonial theories relating to identity crisis. The study concludes that the uneven treatment of Pakistani migrants in the UK pushes them into a state of identity crisis, which makes them suffer mentally and socially.