Being Uprooted and Re-planted

Abstract

The ethnographic study focuses on the experience of inclusion and exclusion for young transnational women who were adopted from India, by Indian-Canadian immigrant parents. The study examines the process of international adoption, and the emerging themes of belonging, identity and connectedness in Canada. The feelings of inclusion and exclusion will be analyzed through the lens of the self and relationships with family, friends and the local community. The paper will unpack the meaning of identity and belonging through reflecting on the experiences and memories of growing up in a single parent Indian family as an international adoptee from India. The focus of the paper will further contrast theories of scholars (Manzi, Ferrari, Rosnati, and Benet-Martinez, 2014) who have introduced concepts of multiple identities, and belonging. These scholars have applied these concepts to transracial adoptees, who have been adopted by families of a different race and/or ethnic background. By interviewing other international adoptees and analyzing their experiences, this paper will establish the similarities international adoptees encounter, and the challenges adoptees face in families of the same origin when they deal with integration into Canadian culture. Through a compare and contrast I will examine these factors in relation to my identity and its development. In conclusion, I have used my experiences and recent travel back to India to address the feelings of inclusion and exclusion. This has resulted in a cultural identity conflict between the country of origin and my adopted country. Therefore, I find myself neither included nor excluded, but rather I am placed in the center of both cultural identities.