Immigrant Identity Research Articles

Ethnic spatial dispersion and immigrant identity*

ABSTRACT The role of ethnic clustering in ethnic identity formation has remained unexplored, mainly due to missing detailed data. This study closes the knowledge gap for Germany by employing a unique combination of datasets, the survey data from the German Socio-Economic Panel and disaggregated information at low geographical levels from the last two but still unexploited full German censuses, 1970 and 1987. Utilizing the exogenous placement of immigrants during the recruitment era in the 1960s and 1970s we find that local co-ethnic concentration affects immigrants’ ethnic identity. While residential ethnic clustering strengthens immigrants’ retention of an affiliation with their origin (minority identity), it weakens identification with the host society (majority identity). The effects are nonlinear and become significant only at relatively high levels of co-ethnic concentration for the minority identity and at very low levels of local concentration for the majority identity. The findings are robust to an instrumental variable approach.

Gray Racialization of White Immigrants: The Polish Worker in Norway

The literature on racialization has typically focused on the situation of people of color in the Western world. In this article, we explore the analytical value of extending the concept of racialization to analyze symbolic boundaries that rely on and fortify the ascription of the specific skills and identities of white immigrants. The discussion builds on a review of the emerging literature on Polish immigrants in Norway since 2004. It reveals other everyday experiences of Poles and how they see themselves – and how others see them – differently compared to Norwegians and other immigrants and minorities. We examine how these processes of identity ascription are rooted in the Poles’ position as ‘labor migrants’ in predominantly low-waged and low-skilled segments of the Norwegian labor market. We also demonstrate how their location in the productive structure has far-reaching implications that work to construct symbolic boundaries, setting the Polish migrant apart from mainstream Norwegian society. The conclusion suggests a modified racialization concept, ‘gray racialization’, to conceptualize the discriminatory situation of the Poles as an immigrant and minority population, which we find to better allow for an understanding of power relations and social inequalities than its conceptual alternatives.

Work and identity in direct selling: meaning from work and exploitation in an undocumented immigrant network

ABSTRACT This article examines the work identities of undocumented Mexican immigrants in the direct selling industry, an alternative work arrangement in which they selling branded products and recruit others to join them as sales consultants. Drawing on qualitative research with undocumented direct sellers in Philadelphia, this research shows that direct selling pays in meaningful work and new identities, rather than in wages. While existing research documents the importance of hard worker identities for undocumented immigrants coping with structural marginality, undocumented direct sellers believe their work offers autonomy, education, and geographic mobility. Ultimately, multi-level marketing companies profit from undocumented workers’ precarity by promising freedom from work and from the struggles of enduring illegality.

The Testimony of Tablets in Dunya Mikhail's Poetry

The formation of diasporic identity is inextricably linked to the collective memory of home culture: its history and traumatic experiences. This study argues that there is a vast connection between diaspora and traumatic memories of the past and that both affect the formation of the exilic identity. It tackles significant concepts such as diaspora, displacement trauma, home, and nostalgia. This study focuses on the poetry of the Iraqi-American poet Dunya Mikhail (1965–). Besides, it discusses how Mikhail adopted a new type of poetry called Tablet poetry. In addition, it significantly shows how diasporic experiences and traumatic memories can affect the formation of the identity of first-generation immigrants. It contends that what happened in the past will affect immigrants in the present and that they will be permanently haunted by it.

Bloodline Organization of Disseminating Chin Woo Athletic to Nanyang: From Cultural Matrix China to SEA

This paper sketches out the mode and influence of the sports culture of martial arts, from Republican China to Southeast Asia’s Chinese societies. The Chin Woo Athletic Federation was the first non-governmental sports organization in Republican China after the feudal monarchy. In the 1920s, it began to expand its organizational territory to Southeast Asia, and its development reached its peak in the 1930s. This paper focuses on the spread of Wushu to Southeast Asia against the background of the rise of overseas Chinese nationalism. It interprets how it embodied the Chinese immigrant nationalism, especially contextualizing the conflict between tradition and modernity in the early twentieth century, which is a rarely discussed topic. The results show that the dissemination of Chin Woo organizations was a form of organizational cloning of ‘mother’ organizations in the mainland. The association between different Chin Woo athletic associations suggests an attempt at cloning the organizations and their practice in the interests of building a form of quintessential Chinese-ness, at the initiative of Chinese business and other community leaders. The physical training and performance of the Chin Woo members was a manifestation of Southeast Asian Chinese immigrant nationalism. Finally, Wushu was a cultural element in the historical identity of Chinese immigrants in Southeast Asia.

Strange Neighbours: Victorians in South America

This essay examines an understudied group of ‘Victorians’: British immigrants to mid-nineteenth-century, independent South America. Such migrants pose – and help answer – important questions about how Victorians who left the geography of British empire and moved into distinctly foreign contact zones understood themselves as agents (or not) of British imperial power. This essay considers two archives left behind by British emigrants: first, the records of the Strangers’ Club, a social club for foreign residents in Buenos Aires, and second, The Neighbour, a newspaper published by and for anglophone residents of Valparaíso, Chile. Together, these records reveal an admixture of belonging and separateness, hierarchy and assimilation, which suggests that nineteenth-century Britons themselves actively considered how their immigrant identities might form part of the forces of empire. Such consideration, in other words, should not be considered a revelation by today’s scholars.

Performing in Sweden

This study investigates how an Immigrant identification affects musicians’ possibilities to perform in Sweden. This is investigated through a discourse theoretical analysis of interviews with seven musicians. The analysis shows several intersections where an Immigrant identification has affected the informants’ lives and careers, hence contributed to shaping their working conditions. For example, the Immigrant identification can be related to the informants’ possibilities of being granted access to the stage. Several informants have experienced discrimination because of their appearances and as a result taken preemptive measures to fit envisioned expectations by changing name or by avoiding performing at certain music venues. The Immigrant identity is also shown to be closely connected with music genres and ideas about authenticity, which limits the availability of musical pathways. This occurs, for example, when an artist considers which genre to engage in because of how the genre relates to an Immigrant identity. The study shows that when musicians’ careers coincide with an Immigrant identification, participative conditions often prove immutable and hegemonic. There are however expressions of change and resistance toward prevailing participative conditions among the informants, but they do not perceive these conditions to be given enough attention in society or by the music industry.

Belonging or estrangement—The European Refugee Crisis and its effects on immigrant identity

This study examines the impact of the 2015 European Refugee Crisis on the ethnic identity of resident migrants in Germany. To derive plausibly causal estimates, I exploit the quasi-experimental setting in Germany, by which refugees are allocated to different counties by state authorities without being able to choose their locations themselves. This study finds that higher shares of refugees in a county increased migrants’ attachment to their home countries, while not affecting their perceived belonging to Germany. Further analyses uncover strong heterogeneities with respect to country of origin and suggest that concerns about xenophobia, experiences of discrimination, and the consumption of foreign media contributed to these effects. Lastly, I find that changes in ethnic identity coincide with the political polarization of migrants.

Immigrant’s language identity in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Americanah

The article analyzes theoretical works which discuss the features of language identity in the era of global mobility. The current intensive movement of the human masses has led to a departure from the conceptualization of language as rooted in a specific locus, to its deterritorialization, to a shift from the language itself to its usage by an individual. The practical part of the article focuses on Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s novel “Americana” (2013). The scientific reflection refers to the analysis of the personality of the immigrants, who are the main characters of the novel, and the changes they experience when moving to a new country. The aim of the article is to study the ways of self-formation of foreigners in the context of their language self-identification. The language regime is present in the work on several important levels: preservation of the Igbo and resistance to the total dominance of the English language, linguistic assimilation of immigrants, assertion of the foreigner’s linguistic identity, language as a component of structural racism.Linguistic assimilation of immigrants causes them to abandon their native language, especially when it comes to migrants who speak the language of the country of settlement and, accordingly, speak to their children only in the language of a receiving country. At the same time, the novel “Americana” conveys the protagonist’s return to her own way of speaking, that is, Nigerian English. This shift signals her resistance to the complete negation of her identity in favor of the expectations and norms of the dominant group. In general, language is important for the formation of immigrant identity. The sensitivity of residents to pronunciation as well as to the level of command of the community’s language often causes alienation of the foreigner and a prejudiced attitude towards him/her. Therefore, immigrants try to get rid of labeling through language. They imitate the accents and pronunciation of the specific locus of their settlement. However, the main character of the novel “Americana” declares a new understanding of linguistic identity, which is closely related to the modern positioning of immigrants as those who are not ashamed of their difference, but on the contrary, respect their difference and insist on it.

The Names of John Gergen: Immigrant Identities in Early Twentieth-Century St. Louis by Benjamin Moore

Reviewed by: The Names of John Gergen: Immigrant Identities in Early Twentieth-Century St. Louis by Benjamin Moore Andrew Klumpp Benjamin Moore, The Names of John Gergen: Immigrant Identities in Early Twentieth-Century St. Louis. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 2021. xvi, 345 pp. $50.00 (hardcover). Most historians know the exhilarating moment of finding new sources in the archive; however, for Benjamin Moore that serendipitous moment occurred while poking through a dumpster. A trove of discarded schoolwork introduced Moore to John Gergen, a young Banat Swabian immigrant who lived in St. Louis in the early twentieth century. With a keen eye for detail, Moore persistently unraveled Gergen's life, building a dynamic portrait of a young man and his family from the thin records they left behind. Moore's meticulous research has resulted in a remarkable tale of immigration, loss, adoption, struggle, death, and ultimately, identity. Moore structures the book around the development and demise of Gergen's foster family in St. Louis. The character of Gergen's eventual home in St. Louis's Soulard neighborhood in the early twentieth century comes alive in the first chapter, and chapter two focuses on the economic and political factors that affected Gergen's immigration, including the death of his birth father and the scattering of his siblings. These chapters will be most engaging for those interested in broader questions of immigration, community development, and identity formation. With the rich context established, Moore explores how Gergen's identity shifted and developed after his arrival in the United States as a toddler. We follow John and his foster parents in moves from tenements in Soulard to more prosperous residential neighborhoods, a migration that was common for many upwardly mobile urban immigrants in the United States. The salvaged schoolwork that originally inspired Moore is examined in extensive detail, allowing Moore to present possible conclusions about Gergen's intellectual capabilities. At the end of his brief life—Gergen died at twenty-six—he still lived with his foster family, although the naturalization process had led him to return to his birth name of John Albeck, setting aside his foster [End Page 204] family's name in at least some areas of his life. After a thorough journey through Gergen's life, the narrative concludes with the forgetting and the slow attrition of Banat Swabian culture and lifeways as the first and second generations passed away—yet another prominent and important theme in many immigration histories. Even with all of these details, Moore faced the challenge of a limited archive, specifically a lack of primary sources left by Gergen and his relatives. Undaunted, Moore gave us a startingly human understanding of Gergen's life and experience. The book's most striking feature is Moore's fastidious research into his subject's life. Readers will finish the book knowing that Moore has chased every lead, explored every angle, and given his readers as much information as possible about John Gergen. Moore's own passion for the project is the underlying pulse that beats throughout the book. Moore is at his best when he is humanizing Gergen and his family. He has done the meticulous work of reconstructing a life. His skill in textual analysis is apparent in his close examination of Gergen's schoolwork; however, historians may find that the conclusions reached, at times, are so tied to analysis of a particular text that they lack important contextualization in the broader immigrant experience in the United States. Historians of immigration will see many connections to themes that have motivated immigration history for decades, but these connections are largely unexplored. The introduction rightly states that Gergen's life illustrates the complex process of immigrant identity formation and development; however, it also claims to respond to and directly challenge twentieth-century immigration history, which was "hampered by a conceptual framework that undervalued persisting ties to the place of origin" (19). Yet two decades into the twenty-first century, immigration historians do grapple with immigrant identity formation and relationships with countries of origins in more complex ways. Deeper engagement with more recent scholarship produced by prominent historians of European immigration (like Robert P. Swierenga) or by scholars of Asian and...

(Under)cover and Uncovered: Muslim Women's Resistance to Islamophobic Violence

ABSTRACT After 9/11, research highlighted how Muslim communities endured discrimination, surveillance, and violence. In recent years, few studies have critically assessed how gender-based harassment of Muslim women is simultaneously linked to hypervisibility (veiling), while “invisible” (non-veiled) Muslim women remain susceptible to verbal harassment and physical violence in the public sphere. Drawing from qualitative in-depth semi-structured interviews with Muslim women (n = 27) across racial/ethnic and immigrant identity, this article examines the unique vulnerability of Muslim women during the Trump presidential administration, including covert and overt forms of violence. Findings indicate myriad forms of violence as veiled women navigate harassment at the axes of racialized Muslim identity and social categorization as immigrants (twice racialized intersectionality). Yet, Black Muslim women’s experiences are further complicated by anti-Black racism. Muslim women navigate gender-based anti-Muslim bias by disrupting notions of passive victimhood by leaning into invisible or hypervisible markers, revealing or concealing their ethnoreligious identity through racial ambiguity, and engaging in advocacy.

Code-Switching and Accents in Diasporic Multiethnic Literature in Min-Jin Lee’s Free Food for Millionaires and Lisa See’s The Island of Sea Women

This article examines the literary representation of codeswitching and various accents between Korean and English in two minority women writers’ fictional territory portraying Korean American characters. Min-Jin Lee’s Free Food for Millionaires and Lisa See’s The Island of Sea Women center around the lives of Korean American women who speak English as a primary language and Korean as a home language or heritage language. The characters’ idea of Korea and “Koreanness” mostly manifests in their identity formation, rather than in their linguistic proficiency or a sense of belonging. Heavily related to the language proficiency and identity of Koreanness, the Korean American protagonists alternate between the languages and accents in linguistic repertoire deeply rooted in sociocultural practices that reflect the concept of diaspora and one’s diasporic identity. Their strategic code-switching signifies how one’s diasporic, immigrant identity affects one’s choice of speech that meticulously synthesizes social values, cultural norms, and ethnic/racial belief systems not only emblematic of mainstream American society but also of a minority community as well.

National identity and the integration of second-generation immigrants

How does immigrants’ national identity affect integration in an inter-generational context? The theoretical framework of this paper predicts that a pronounced origin country identity of immigrants may reduce investments in country-specific human capital—with negative consequences for the school and labor market success of the second generation. The empirical analysis exploits rich survey data from the U.S. and relies on a novel IV strategy inspired by the epidemiological approach, where an aggregate measure of national pride in the country of origin serves as an instrument for immigrants’ origin attachment. Results show that children whose parents are strongly attached to their origin country have less contact to natives and develop a stronger origin country identity, while their host country identity is not found to be affected. Consistent with the theoretical argument, they speak English less frequently and more poorly, and perform worse in school compared to peers whose parents are less attached to their origin country. Additional results from the CPS suggest negative long-term effects on labor market outcomes.

Contesting policy categories using intersectionality: reflections for studying migration governance

ABSTRACT This article presents a reflection on the analytical value of intersectionality for scholars who seek to critically interrogate migration governance in Europe – of which integration measures are an integral part. While there is a growing interest in using gender and feminist theory to investigate the policies and practices that sustain migration governance, there has been little dedicated reflection on the analytical significance of intersectionality for scholarly knowledge production. Building upon work conducted within the field of feminist policy studies, we argue that intersectionality crucially points to the broad systems of inequality and domination that are implicated in the governance of migration, which materialize in the ways in which the latter categorizes and constructs immigrant identities along intersecting axes of inequality. Analytically disentangling how such migration-related difference is created and upheld through such structures of domination and discrimination, deconstructs the apparent naturalness of the state and its hegemonic classification power.

Foreigners in the South African Media: A Critical Discourse Analysis

ABSTRACT This article used a critical discourse approach to understand how linguistic practices in the South African media construct international immigrants of African origin. We created an 88 000-word corpus of online South African news articles on immigrants from 2008 to 2020, which we then uploaded onto a corpus analysis software, Sketch Engine. Through the software, we were able to generate patterns of language use in the construction of immigrant identity and subject position in the media. While most literature on South Africa has focused on the violence associated with xenophobia, this paper zeroes in on ‘the language of xenophobia’ to provide a good reflection of the sociological construction of ‘self’ and ‘other’ in the country. By examining the discursive practices of the media on foreign nationals, the paper maps out not only the circulation but also the reproduction of power, social relations and other sociologies behind the prejudices that inform xenophobia in all its various forms.

Navigating Dual Identities Of Indian Immigrants In Europe: Cultural Resilience, Identity Formation, And The Second Generation Indian Diaspora In Europe.

This research explores the dual identities of Indian immigrants in Europe, focussing on cultural resilience, identity formation, and the experiences of the second generation. Drawing on migration studies, identity theories, and postcolonial critique, the study investigates how Indian immigrants navigate their cultural heritage while adapting to European societies. Theoretical frameworks from Erikson, Hall, and postcolonial theorists like Said and Bhabha provide insight into the fluidity of identity. Cultural resilience is examined through how immigrants maintain their heritage amid challenges. The study also addresses diaspora dynamics, hybridity, and intersectionality in shaping immigrant experiences. By synthesising these perspectives, the research highlights the complex interplay between cultural preservation and adaptation in the lives of Indian immigrants, contributing to broader discussions on multiculturalism and transnationalism.

A Discourse on Diaspora: Exploring Identity and Alienation in Jhumpa Lahiri’s Unaccustomed Earth

Jhumpa Lahiri's Unaccustomed Earth (2008) is a collection of short stories that explores the experiences of immigrants and their descendants in the United States, particularly those of Bengali origin. This research paper critically examines the diasporic discourse of identity and alienation in Lahiri's work. Through a close analysis of selected stories from Unaccustomed Earth, this paper delves into the themes of cultural displacement, the search for identity, and the feeling of alienation among the characters. It also explores how these themes are intricately connected with the characters' diasporic experiences and the challenges they face in navigating their dual identities as immigrants or children of immigrants in a foreign land. The paper argues that Lahiri's portrayal of diasporic experiences reflects the complexities and nuances of the immigrant identity, the sense of unbelonging, and the constant negotiation between the old and new worlds. Moreover, it highlights how Lahiri's work engages with the tensions and conflicts that arise from the clash of cultural norms, the longing for home, and the struggle to reconcile with one's past while embracing the present.

Postcolonial Identity in The Inheritance of Loss

This research article deals with the postcolonial identity of the Indian immigrant characters delineated in The Inheritance of Loss written by Kiran Desai, a noted diasporic novelist of Indian origin. The study reveals that the identity of South Asians or Indian immigrants in the diaspora is changed and weakened by the colonialism in such a way that even in the postcolonial era the life of the immigrants reflects the influence of cultural colonialism. On the one hand, these Indian immigrants who are portrayed as immigrant characters in the western location happen to migrate in the hope of embracing white privileges in the form of better opportunities such as higher education, jobs, social security and so on; on the other hand, they face cultural clashes and have identity crisis. They mimic the western culture as a part of survival strategy. As a result, they feel culturally displaced, unhomed, racially segregated, develop hybrid identity and find divided identity. Regarding methodology, the qualitative research method is applied. As for theory, the postcolonial theory is applied along with theoretical concepts such as Homi K. Bhabha’s Hybridity and Mimicry, desiring whiteness of Kalpana Seshadri-Crooks and Frantz Fanon, and Stuart Hall’s Diaspora and Identity. The theoretical framework has been prepared and used to analyse the postcolonial identity of the major characters such as Biju, Jemubhai Patel and so on.

The First Immigrants: The Migratory Roots of Biblical Identity

In order to engage more faithfully with the reality of migration in the modern world and the challenges of immigration in the United States today, we take a closer look at perspectives on immigration in Scripture. In the stories of their ancestors, the authors of Genesis describe their own origins as migratory, thereby claiming for themselves and their people an immigrant identity. To understand these migration narratives clearly, we construct a new set of lenses that view Israel’s ancestors as sedentary residents of Canaan—not nomads—who cross administrative borders and encounter different cultures, who are named immigrants ( gērîm)—not sojourners, foreigners, or aliens—by the authors in Genesis, and who experience the same kinds of crises—especially climate change—as modern immigrants who are forced to leave their countries of origin and relocate in destination countries.

Construction of the Ukrainian identity in a neighbourhood: the role of the host society. Example of the Parc de l’Ukraine in Rosemont, Montreal.

The Parc de l’Ukraine (Ukraine Park) located in the neighbourhood of Rosemont, Montreal, acquired its Ukrainian toponym in 1981 and began its replanning in 2017 which consisted of the upgrading of equipment and of the addition of Ukrainian symbols. These symbols were chosen to bring out the Ukrainian identity of the park and of the neighbourhood. During the replanning, relations were established between the Ukrainian community of Montreal and municipal governing bodies who each enunciated discourses in this context. Based on discourse analysis and using the Ukrainian community of Montreal as an example, this article will focus on the role of the host society at a municipal scale, meaning municipal governing bodies, in immigrant identity construction processes. It will look at the interrelationships between ethnic associations and the representatives and professionals of a city, during the replanning of an urban park. This article will demonstrate that the host society (municipal governing bodies) can instrumentalize immigrant communities to promote a specific identity of the city that varies according to various spatiotemporal contexts and more specifically that the neighbourhood of Rosemont has been at the centre of construction processes through which it has acquired a symbolic value as the Ukrainian neighbourhood of Montreal. Such processes have relied on the one hand, on Ukrainian associations, and on the other hand, on Montreal’s governing bodies.