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This paper investigates how migrants’ sense of belonging to both the society of settlement as well as to their country of origin relate to each other and which role transnational social ties – in particular, family ties – play for these two aspects of their social identity.

In the context of US managers of subsidiaries in Japan, there have been numerous mistaken perceptions, errors in judgment, and failures of execution (MEF) observed in critical incidents (CI) between Japanese and Americans that resulted in financial losses from decreased productivity for the companies and damaged careers of individual managers of both cultures due to communication breakdowns in task performance.

The 1998 documentary series The New Zealand Wars, based on James Belich’s revisionist monograph on New Zealand’s colonial wars, recalled these conflicts to Pākehā as well as Māori collective memory, and thereby confronted contemporary Pākehā identities. Alon Confino asks: ‘Why is it that some pasts triumph while others fail?’ This article seeks to explain the unexpected success of the past which the series set forth by analysing its televisual strategies of engagement with Pākehā viewers. It discusses three elements of the series’ mode of address: Belich’s persona as historian-presenter; the series’ appellation of Pākehā viewers in relation to their historical ‘Others’; and its imaging of landscape. The New Zealand Wars was a televisual commemoration deeply enmeshed in contemporary cultural change, and in its claims on the emotions and affiliations of viewers it helped to resituate the New Zealand Wars in the domain of New Zealand nationhood.

This article examines the literacy practices of two groups of bilingual 11–13–year-old girls from different UK communities. Through discussion of the girls’ talk about their reading and writing, th...

This study focuses on a unique out-of-school community-oriented Spanish heritage language program (HLP) for children. Through semi-structured interviews, it examines two parents’ perceptions and understandings of the work this HLP does in the community and informs on the specific needs of the growing Latinx/Hispanic population and on how this program tries to meet those needs. The results show that parents acknowledge the importance for their children to develop bicultural identities, seeing the value in adapting to the new culture but also maintaining the home culture and language.

This paper presents recent work examining the meaning and impact of individual variations in the way bicultural individuals organize their two cultural identities, a construct that we call Bicultural Identity Integration (BII). While biculturals high on BII describe their two cultural identities as ‘compatible’ (fluid and complementary), biculturals low on BII experience them as largely ‘oppositional’ (i.e., conflicting and disparate). We first report experimental evidence for how variations in BII moderate biculturals’ socio-cognitive behavior, specifically, the way in which bicultural individuals process cultural knowledge and use it to interpret social behavior. We then report structural equation modeling findings that elucidate some important personality, contextual, and performance predictors of BII. Finally, we conclude with a brief discussion of how the study of bicultural identities provides an ideal ground for the integration of cultural and personality psychology.

The process of forming a sense of identity is a crucial developmental task for all high school students, but it can be particularly challenging for those students who find themselves at the intersection of ethnically and socially diverse cultures. Literacy activities can serve as a means through which we can learn more about such bicultural students' identity experiences. This article explores the role of literacy activities in supporting bicultural identity-making processes within the context of an after-school Asian literature club at a suburban U.S. high school. The study participants were seven high school students of varying Asian backgrounds. Qualitative data from club meetings, semistructured interviews, and written reflections reveal that literacy activities serve as an analytic window through which we can learn more about bicultural high school students' interpretations and beliefs, and, subsequently, their personal choices and decisions. This research holds important implications for both educators and researchers invested in learning more about the identity experiences of all students who are seeking guidance and support for their participation in multiple worlds.

Abstract The present research paper focuses on the novel Bird Summons written by the diasporic British Sudanese writer Leila Aboulela. The author sheds light on the cultural ambivalence through the three protagonists, Salma, Moni, and Iman. The issues of identity, cultural ambivalence and the factors responsible for the ambivalence have been focused in the novel. The determinants of the ambivalence in the novel are the immigration of the protagonists, their encounters with their own culture after immigrating and their ambivalent sensibilities. Aboulela's diasporic depiction is nuanced. Her protagonists are not subjected to human violence, torture, or hatred. Her main focus is on the characters' bicultural identities and their reactions to the ambivalent situations. However, the impact of their parents' culture and the host society on their personalities and their ability to think across cultural, societal, and religious boundaries is critical as it puts them in an ambivalent situation, where they are trying to adjust between two different worlds. As a result, the purpose of this research is to look at how the author presents the struggle of protagonists��� adoption of Western culture in order to gain a sense of belonging in Britain using Bhabha's idea of cultural identity and ambivalence.

Japan is experiencing rapid internationalization due to the massive influx of immigrants in addition to an aging population. Of the 1 million children born in Japan in 2013, 3.1% had one or more non-Japanese parents. However, Japanese multiculturalism does not provide a flexible notion of Japaneseness. Instead, the mythic discourse of racial homogeneity is preserved in Japan, maintaining firm racial boundaries. This paper aims to explore how young Japanese college students of mixed-ethnic parentage, often identified as hāfu, make sense of their bicultural identities in Japanʼs multiethnic region, the Gunma Prefecture. The controversial Japanese word hāfu is commonly used to refer to a person who is biracial with Japanese descent. The word originated from the English word “half,” indicating half foreignness. Japan is no exception to the multiculturalism spread by rapid globalization. However, stereotyping and discrimination against hāfu still occur. This paper concludes by discussing young college studentsʼ stereotyped adoration for hāfu as well as the participantsʼ confusion and their shadowed hybrid identities.

La communauté latino-américaine représente la troisième minorité visible en importance au Québec. Malgré tout, les recherches concernant les jeunes issus de l’immigration latino-américaine sont peu nombreuses. Ces personnes, qui sont nées au Québec, mais dont au moins un des parents est originaire de l’Amérique latine, gèrent de multiples identités culturelles. Elles négocient constamment des significations et des repères culturels, passant de ceux qui sont propres au Québec à ceux de la culture du pays d’origine de leurs parents. Étant donné que les frontières entre ces différentes identités culturelles ne sont pas toujours clairement définies, il était pertinent d’analyser les interactions des jeunes pour mieux saisir leurs expériences. Cette étude repose donc sur deux théories qui supposent que la communication est inhérente au processus de construction identitaire : le positioning de Davies et Harré ainsi que la mise en scène de la vie quotidienne d’Ervin Goffman. La présente recherche a privilégié les expériences personnelles de trois jeunes issus de l’immigration, celles de leurs parents et celles de leurs amis. La méthodologie utilisée reposait sur des entrevues individuelles avec les jeunes, sur l’analyse de photos ainsi que sur deux rencontres de groupe dirigées : la première réunissait les jeunes et un de leurs parents; la deuxième réunissait les jeunes et un(e) ami(e) de leur choix. Cette étude a constaté que les jeunes issus de l’immigration possédaient des identités culturelles hybrides. De plus, ils ne pouvaient contrôler la perception que les autres avaient de leurs identités culturelles, car certains éléments de celles-ci étaient négociés, voire imposés lors des interactions. Ainsi, ce mémoire contribue à la littérature sur le positioning en expliquant comment ces jeunes se positionnent devant les autres afin que plusieurs identités culturelles coexistent chez eux, tout spécialement dans une ville multiculturelle comme Montréal., The Latin American community constitutes the third largest visible minority in Quebec. Despite its importance, research regarding youth of Latin American origin is limited. These young people, who were born in Quebec, but who have at least one parent from Latin America, must juggle multiple cultural identities. They are constantly negotiating cultural meanings and references from Quebec, as well as from their parents’ culture of origin. Given that the boundaries between these different cultural identities are not always clear, their interactions needed to be analyzed to better understand their experiences, hence I mobilized two theories that underscore the role of communication within identity construction: Davies and Harré’s theory of positioning, as well as Erving Goffman’s theory of the presentation of self in everyday life. This research focused on the personal experiences of three young people of Latin American immigrant background, those of their parents and those of their friends. To do so, methodology consisted of photo analysis and individual interviews with the young people, as well as two focus groups: first, with the young people and one of their parents, and second, with the young people and a friend of their choice. This study revealed that youth of immigrant background have hybrid cultural identities. Moreover, the young people were not able to forge their own unique cultural identities, because some aspects of their cultural identities were negotiated and even imposed during interaction with others. As this thesis offers a rich portrait of how these young people positioned themselves both front- and back-stage, this paper also contributes to the literature on positioning and empirically shows how several, sometimes contradictory cultural identities can co-exist in youth of immigrant background in a multicultural city like Montreal., La comunidad latinoamericana representa la tercera minoría visible más importante en Quebec. Pese a su importancia, las investigaciones con relación a los jóvenes de descendencia latinoamericana son limitadas. Estos jóvenes, nacidos en Quebec pero que poseen al menos un padre o madre nacido(a) en Latinoamérica, deben manejar múltiples identidades culturales. Por ello, deben acomodar diferentes significados y referencias culturales de Quebec, así como de la cultura de origen de sus padres. Debido a que las fronteras entre dichas identidades culturales no son siempre evidentes, las interacciones de estos jóvenes fueron analizadas a fin de comprender mejor sus experiencias. Por ello, abordé dos teorías que ven la comunicación como una parte esencial del proceso de construcción de las identidades: la teoría del positioning de Davies y Harré, así como la teoría de la presentación de la persona en la vida cotidiana, de Erving Goffman. Esta investigación se enfocó en las experiencias personales de tres jóvenes de descendencia latinoamericana, sus padres y sus amigos. En este sentido, la metodología estuvo compuesta por entrevistas individuales con los jóvenes, análisis de fotografías y dos grupos focales: el primero, con los jóvenes y uno de sus padres; el segundo, con los jóvenes y un(a) amigo(a) de su elección. La investigación reveló que los jóvenes de descendencia latinoamericana poseían identidades culturales híbridas. Asimismo, que no podían forjar sus propias identidades culturales, debido a que algunos de los elementos que las conforman eran negociados y hasta impuestos por los demás mediante las interacciones. Por tanto, esta tesis contribuye a la literatura sobre la teoría del positioning, ya que explica cómo estos jóvenes se posicionan delante de los demás a fin de permitir que múltiples identidades culturales puedan coexistir en su interior, especialmente en una ciudad tan multicultural como Montreal.