ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that both texts produce origin myths as well as migration myths and have many tropes in common. It suggests that both the histories were written with a view to enabling the assimilation of the community for which they claim to speak, to seek rights and recognition for that community in its place of settlement. Both histories suggest, moreover, that the concept of hybridity calls to be refined in order to capture such drives for assimilation. The possibilities of hybridity are limited by the need for survival, recognition, and citizenship. Assimilation itself is a controversial concept. By examining how migrants seek to negotiate their assimilation in two very different national contexts, the chapter reveals the constraints within which such projects work and their implications for hybrid subjectivities. These works reveal the profound impact of nationalism and racism on contemporary formations of diaspora and on diasporic projects of making claims.
