Immigrant Youth Resilience: Integrating Developmental and Cultural Perspectives

Abstract

Positive adaptation of immigrant youth in receiving societies is consequential for the well-being of the youth and for the prosperity of the receiving societies. Yet there is significant diversity in the adaptation of immigrant youth. The central question addressed in this chapter is this: “Who among immigrant youth does well and why?” To address this question, the resilience of immigrant youth is examined in the context of development, through the lens of culture, integrating acculturation and social psychological perspectives. For many years, culture was largely neglected in the study of resilience. Now there is growing recognition in research and practice of the pervasive influences culture has on concepts, measures, processes, and indicators crucial to understanding how people overcome challenges or risk to survive, recover, or thrive in life. Particularly in the context of migration, cultural perspectives are essential. Immigrant youth often navigate among conflicting values and developmental goals of home and receiving cultures, with the added challenges of discrimination. For immigrant youth, processes of development, acculturation, and cultural adaptation are highly intertwined. Thus, an integrated cultural and developmental science approach is vital to advancing knowledge on immigrant youth adaptation and its applications to support youth resilience.