Family immigration (Hi)stories 1 and the construction of identity

Abstract

This article is based on interviews conducted with 20 first-year teacher candidates in York University's Faculty of Education about their family immigration (hi)stories. The study emanated from a seminar on immigration in which students were required to explore their own immigration histories and to begin to think about their own identity in relation to that history. Several interesting things emerged from the seminar: (1) students' stories about immigration most often fit officially sanctioned versions of ‘immigrant experience’; (2) stories often contained details that challenged officially sanctioned versions; (3) using family immigration (hi)stories to interrogate identity formation revealed the contradictions and complexities involved when students were asked to consider ‘where they are from’. This article considers these initial findings in relation to name-change stories that were told in the interviews. I use these particular stories to make tentative links between family (hi)stories of immigration and student identity formation.