Basic Trope: Children of immigrants travel to their family's country of origin to connect with their roots.
- Straight: Jaya Bhatt, who was born in an American suburb to Indian parents, undertakes a trip to India as a young adult to learn more about her culture.
- Exaggerated: Jaya discovers she and her parents are actually from another planet, living secretly as Earthlings. An opportunity arises for her to hitch a spaceship to visit the planet her species is from.
- Downplayed: Jake was born and raised in Boston, but his parents moved there from rural Louisiana. He joins them on a trip there for a family reunion.
- Justified:
- Jaya is sent to India for work. Now that she's there, she figures, she might as well get in touch with her roots.
- Kenjiro Smith is in Osaka to visit his ancestors in observation of Obon
- Inverted: Jaya had moved to the US at a relatively young age to study and later find a job and settle down. Her parents, now elderly, come to the US some time later to either visit or move in with her as she is now able to provide care for them.
- Subverted: Jaya's parents are overjoyed when she tells them she wants to travel to India. However, it turns out that she doesn't particularly care about the culture. Her crush, Mark, is going to be a Foreign Exchange Student there and she wants to follow him.
- Double Subverted: While she is in India, however, Jaya gains a deeper understanding of and appreciation for her heritage.
- Parodied:
- As soon as Jaya is born, Mr. and Mrs. Bhatt immediately start saving for the trip to India they know she'll want to take when she grows up.
- Jake takes a DNA test and learns that he's 2% Spanish and 5% German. He demands a trip to Spain and Germany to connect with his ancestry, even though his parents have no connection to either country anymore.
- Zig-Zagged: ???
- Averted:
- Jaya doesn't particularly care about returning to India.
- Jun-Lee is the daughter of North Korean defectors, which makes doing such a trip dangerous at best even if she did want to go.
- Enforced: The producers want to give Jaya a Day in the Limelight, so they suggest writing a subplot where she travels to India.
- Lampshaded: Jaya's friend Sara comments that Jaya is just like all their other "American-Born Confused Desi" friends who want to go back to the subcontinent to find themselves.
- Invoked: After watching an episode of Tropetown, USA where Alice (the fictional daughter of Chinese immigrants) goes to China for the first time, Jaya thinks she'll get that same fulfillment by going to India.
- Exploited:
- Sara's family runs a travel agency, and she convinces the children of immigrants to fly to their parents' countries via her family's business by arranging and tailoring cultural tours.
- After arriving in New Delhi, Jaya is conned by people who recognize her as foreign-born and take advantage of her unfamiliarity with the country.
- Defied: Mr. and Mrs. Bhatt want Jaya to come with them to India, but she refuses, saying she doesn't want to challenge her sense of identity.
- Discussed: "If this were a movie, Jaya, your trip to India would be so good for your sense of identity."
- Conversed: "Why is it that children of immigrants always want to go back?"
- Implied: We see Jaya looking around with a sense of wonder on her face as she looks around from a sidewalk in Mumbai and narrates in English with a generic American accent.
- Played for Drama: Going on a trip to one's ancestral homeland makes Jaya realize she still has a hard time connecting with the culture her parents grew up in, and she feels isolated and lost as a Child of Two Worlds.
Head to "Rediscovering Roots" Trip and see what your parents grew up in.
