Negotiating the Transnational Moment: Immigrant Letters as Performance of a Diasporic Identity

As snapshots of moments in transnational migration, immigrant letters offer a rich record of liminal experiences. This article explores the important role of immigrant correspondence in the evolution of diasporic identities. As a form of performative discourse, such letters functioned rhetorically as a means of maintaining familial connections, providing justification for migration and serving as a space for the negotiation of changing identities. This research project analyses one set of Dutch letters written during the immigration journey in the spring of 1916 and focuses specifically on the exigencies prompting and shaping the transition.