ABSTRACT
A universal custom among immigrants is to send their offspring to their homelands for education. It is believed these children should have knowledge of their cultural roots and a full understanding of life in the land of their parents' birth, particularly its culture and traditions. As Mangaliman1 points out, 'most immigrants retain a strong connection to their homeland' and work to pass this connection to their children. Contrary to the myth of assimilation, he says, immigrants do not work hard to become part of the national identity of their host countries. Rather, they hold tenaciously to their culture and heritage through their attires, mores, dance, religion and food. 2 That is why cultural enclaves, such as the 'Little Havana' in Miami, 'Little Italy' in New York, and 'China Town' in Chicago, flourish in many major American cities. Immigrants living in these enclaves usually put forth concerted effort to maintain or replicate homeland structures in architectural designs, social relationships and interpersonal networks. For this reason, Winland has challenged the previous research premise 'that assumes a permanent rupture between immigrants and their countries of origin'. 3
The existence of a strong passion for the homeland among immigrants is a poignant testimony to the importance of this emotional attachment in the life of a nation. Nations emerge, survive and prosper on the abiding and horizontal comradeship that forms among their members, regardless of any actual inequality and exploitation they may exist. It is this fraternity that places the physical and psychological well-being of the nation at the apex of the hierarchy of individual and community needs and priorities, and that empowers patriots to think and act assiduously in the interest of the common good, rather than succumbing to the selfish need for personal gratification. It is this fraternity that breeds the passionate and blind devotion to one's country, and that motivates so many millions of people to be willing to kill and die for their nation.4 This fraternity is nurtured and sustained by the emotional disposition that political scientists label 'affective identification' .5
