ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the extent to which individuals and communities in a diasporic environment respond to perceived or actual threat through acts of heritage reinforcement, following conflict in the country or region of origin. The metaphor of a ‘beacon’ conceptualises how migrants from the former Yugoslavia in Britain mark and celebrate their cultural heritage through welcoming or warning off co-migrants from the region. The analogy of a cultural ‘bank’ is also developed to illustrate how communities with a shared heritage can deposit, draw upon and even ‘steal from’ cultural repositories.
