Identitet under konstruktion : En studie om hur några gymnasieelever med syriansk kulturell bakgrund upplever sin identitet

The key purpose of this research has been to study and understand how young people with Syriac ethnicity experience their identity, when living in two different cultures. The Syriac minority is something of a special case when it concerns establishing the identity of an individual, since syriac´s do not have an official country. To be able to do this research an interview has been done with four young students with syriac ethnicity. The four of them is attending their final year at “gymnasiet” in Sweden which is equivalent to USA’s senior year in high school. The multicultural school is today a fact and many immigrants attending the Swedish schools today feels misplaced when they meet the Swedish culture through fellow students and society. A clash between cultures occurs and most of the students, with non-Swedish ethnicity, live some kind of dual life. One side of this twin identity represents the ethnic identity which dominates at home and around relatives. The other side is displayed in circumstances outside of their home, which is at school and in the Swedish society in general. This research shows the general opinion, among syriac high school students, concerning the individual identity and in which way they handle their own identity development when living within two different cultures. One of my main questions to investigate is to find out if young students, with syriac ethnicity, develops a weak root in their ethnic identity by living outside of the syriac community. One of my conclusions is that a student with syriac ethnicity, whom is educated in an intercultural school is rather encouraged in seeking his/her roots. Since the multicultural environment awakens a curiosity in students to seek their own ethnic identity.