Multicultural identity development: An autoethnographic examination of a Sojourner’s journey

Abstract

This autoethnography seeks to explore the multicultural identity development of the author, as a sojourner, with a focus on the additive and layered nature of an expanding cultural repertoire. I view multicultural identity as shaped by and through communication, and as subjective and rooted in self-identification. I examine my journey of self-discovery, first as an au pair and later as an international student, and how these experiences have expanded and transformed my cultural identity. I do so to make a case for the proposition that sojourners develop a multicultural identity as a function of cross-cultural adaptation. Scholarship on assimilation, acculturation, and identity transformation is presented. Then, I advance an argument for the examination of sojourners’ multicultural identity development during cross-cultural adaptation in adaptation and intercultural communication research.