Constructing collective ethnic identities : The case of second generation Asian Indians

Abstract

This paper examines the role of micro-level social interactions in the construction and maintenance of collective ethnic identity, taking as a case in point collective ethnic identity among the children of Asian Indian immigrants. An extensive ethnographic study of the behavior of first and second generation voluntary organizations reveals that the common public rhetoric claiming the second generation is “stuck between two worlds” bears little resemblance to the identity created as the second generation appropriates and reinterprets the rhetoric of first generation public life to differentiate itself from the immigrant generation. The analysis stresses the overlap of the social processes of collective identity formation and coming of age.