“Where are you really from?” Gender, race, and subjectivity in the lives of Indo-Fijian immigrant young women in Canada and the United States of America

Within Indo-Fijian immigrant communities in Vancouver, Canada and Sacramento, U.S.A., some young women have struggled daily with questions of who they are. This research documents ethnographically how they have created, constructed, and negotiated identities as a result of their experiences as immigrants in Canada and the United States. While these young women negotiated subjectivities as racialized young female immigrants in a multicultural, or diverse, society, their decision regarding where they belong on the racial hierarchy of North American culture is at the forefront of these negotiations. Drawing on my ethnographic research in the form of participant observation at a number of cultural and athletic events as well as in-depth individual interviews with 18 young Indo-Fijian immigrant women in Vancouver, B.C., and Sacramento, California, I discuss how subjectivity of immigrant girls is constructed as a result of conflicts around culture, race, nationality, intergenerational conflict, and gender. By focusing on young women I attempt to contribute to feminist insights within the study of youth by acknowledging the experiences of youths’ gendered lives. Subjectivity then, for these individuals extends beyond the choices of adapting to their post migration North American culture or remaining loyal to their Indo-Fijian culture. I propose that the racialized world of the youth denies these young women freedom to self-identify themselves. By using the native ethnographer approach as well as using auto-ethnography, I demonstrate that subjectivity is a complex and multi-faceted concept and, its expression is influenced by social domains, and that changes over time and space dependent on specific social situations, environments, and settings.