During the twentieth century, the world underwent continuous change as empires crumbled and small nations asserted their independence. In the twenty first century, however, we're faced with a different kind of change and with this change comes a difficult and controversial question: as our world becomes increasingly globalized can a country still maintain some kind of 'national identity'? 'National identity'' can be thought of as the rituals, traditions and beliefs of the people of a nation. However, as the demographics of countries change due to immigration and emigration, the concept of national identity is itself undergoing a complex change. On the one hand, those who leave their home and move to another country have an already well established identity, based on race, language, religion, history, food, clothing and music that they bring to their new country.