‘Makin’ it’ in the Heartland: Exploring perceptions of success among second-generation immigrant youth in St. Louis

Abstract

IntroductionDebates in the literature on youth transitions and on immigrant adaptation acknowledge that recent societal shifts have altered the conditions for young people growing up today. As a result, traditional notions of success may limit our understanding of the mechanisms that lead to differential transitional and adaptation pathways among today's children of immigrants. This study explores the definitions of success among a sample of Bosnian-origin youth in St. Louis. MethodThe analysis is based on the first wave of in-depth qualitative interviews with 58 Bosnian second-generation youth (age 15–23) in St. Louis. Interviews lasted 45–90 min, were conducted in English, transcribed and coded following an inductive analytic logic. ResultsOverall the respondents complemented traditional notions of success, such as material stability and family formation with more subjective indicators such as self-fulfillment and happiness. ConclusionsThe findings highlight the importance for future waves of data collection to trace how definitions of success evolve and how they shape particular trajectories of the youth in our study. On a more general level, these findings urge researchers to incorporate definitions of success that are not primarily based on social and economic status mobility in an effort to generate a more nuanced understanding of the adaptations and transitions to adulthood of today's children of immigrants.