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ethnic identity was being formulated by the group, as evidenced by thechanges introduced in the ritual sphere which symbolically represented thechanged emphasis on class position, education, and occupational prestigeover the traditional criteria of caste status.The Syrian Christians, who had been a devout, hardworking, and frugalfarming community, had turned to occupations in the tertiary sector,luxurious living, and a greater degree of individualism. All this broughtabout changes in their community identity. Their economic prosperitychanged their earlier Puritan-like ethic to one which tended to be morecomplacently religious, judging their economic success as a sign of divinefavor. With the deepening of the nuclearization process, the ties betweenextended family members (which were traditionally very strong) werebeing weakened.6. Conclusion: Implications for PolicyI began this article with a discussion of two common patterns manifestedby international return migrants – conspicuous consumption and lavishgenerosity. Although both these characteristics were manifested to someextent by all three communities, there were apparent differences betweenthe areas in these respects. The crucial variables determining the extent towhich the money was used for display and generosity seemed to be thedegree of community feeling and competitiveness. 11 We have seen how thepresence of a strong community ethic and a stress on cooperation in Veniled to a greater emphasis on donorship, while in Cherur, the presence of astrong competitive ethos together with a community context gave rise toa greater emphasis on conspicuous consumption. It is probably the greaterindividualism in Kembu that accounted for their low degree of conformityto the “typical” migrant model.210I have argued that consumption, investment, and exchange patterns areaffected by two important variables: the way the income is obtained andthe characteristics of the community within which the income is spent.Thus, in Veni, Cherur, and Kembu, similarities in the way in which incomeearned from international migration was perceived (as having some of thequalities of windfall or unearned income), together with the variation in thecommunities’ ethnic structures, account for the differences in the economicpatterns of the three areas. In each case, it was the larger ethnic structure11Engelbrektsson, who studied two Turkish villages which had a large migration to Europe foundthat it was the migrants from the highly stratified Yenikoy who manifested patterns of lavishconsumption in an attempt to earn prestige in the society. The migrants from the more homogenousand cohesive Alihan did not do so (Engelbrektsson 1978).