Yet not all immigrants look solely to the past to find meaning or to express their longings. Immigrant communities generally find comfort in familiar religious traditions and rituals, seek out newspapers and literature from the homeland, and celebrate holidays and special occasions with traditional music, dance, cuisine, and leisure-time pursuits.
It is no wonder that nostalgia has a strong grip on the cultural pursuits of immigrants. Mastering a new language, living and working among strangers, and coping with the unfamiliar are only some of the challenges faced by immigrants. The lives of most immigrants are a dialectic between the memories of the world left behind and the day-to-day struggles of learning the ropes of a new society.
