Tri-level Identity Crisis. Группа авторов
to enjoy all aspects of college, as they are afraid that the child may do things that are illegal and end up having their papers denied or deported. The highly politicized case of DACA children is a classic example of implications on identity formation of the two distinctive second generation immigrants. Generally, the chapters in this volume focus on first generation immigrant parents and their second generation children. However, we did not restrict authors to stay within these parameters, but allowed them to utilize categories that best helped them characterize the populations about which they are writing.
The last section of the book offers insightful ways of navigating and minimizing adverse dissonance in children of immigrants through communal-based rites of passages and through the adaptation of family palavers that we believe offer promise for smoother pathways as immigrant families navigate the perilous terrain of tri-level identity crises.
1. Erikson, Childhood and Society; Identity.
2. Marcia, “Development and Validation”; “Identity in Adolescence.”
3. Marcia, “Development and Validation”; “Identity in Adolescence.”
4. St. Louis and Liem, “Ego Identity.”
5. Phinney, “Stages of Ethnic Identity Development”; “Three Stage Model.”
6. Rotheram and Phinney, “Introduction.”
7. Kundu and Adams, “Identity Formation, Individuality, and Connectedness.”
8. Kundu and Adams, “Identity Formation, Individuality, and Connectedness.”
9. Ahmed, “Adolescent Development.”
10. Côté and Levine, Identity Formation, Agency, and Culture.
11. Kundu and Adams, “Identity Formation, Individuality, and Connectedness.”
12. Kundu and Adams, “Identity Formation, Individuality, and Connectedness.”
13. Kundu and Adams, “Identity Formation, Individuality, and Connectedness.”
14. Phinney, “Stages of Ethnic Identity Development.”
15. Sue and Sue, Counseling the Culturally Diverse, 297
16. Sue and Sue, Counseling the Culturally Diverse, 296.
17. Phinney, “Stages of Ethnic Identity Development,” 34–35.
18. Sue and Sue, Counseling the Culturally Diverse, 299.
19. Phinney, “Stages of Ethnic Identity Development,” 34–49.
20. Sue and Sue, Counseling the Culturally Diverse, 301.
21. Sue and Sue, Counseling the Culturally Diverse, 302–3.
22. Sue and Sue, Counseling the Culturally Diverse, 304
23. St. Louis and Liem, Ego Identity.
24. Agwu, Acculturation and Racial Identity Attitudes.
25. Strama, Deconstructing the American Dream.
2
Experiences of Immigrant Families in the West, with Special Reference to the USA
—Anne Kiome Gatobu
In order to understand the third level identity crisis of children of first generation immigrants, it is important to have some base knowledge of both their experience in the social realm and at home, as well as that of their parents. This chapter’s objective is to help the reader get into the world of these families from both the perspective of the first generation immigrant parents and that of their children. It is therefore divided into two parts for ease of discussion, first to discuss the journey of parents navigating a new culture and second how such navigation translates into their parenting roles and the response of their children.
Parents Navigating a Foreign Culture
Ultimate Cultural Shock—Loss of Status
Speak to any immigrant person and they will each have an experience of some sort regarding cultural shock. For many, it is the seasonal changes and ensuing extreme weather changes (especially if coming from equatorial climates where the days are generally the same throughout the year). For these immigrants, the changes of four drastically different seasons are a phenomenon to which one never really gets used. The idea of snow and chilling icy cold is not one to which these immigrants really acclimate. Yet for others, cultural shock is experienced in the foreign foods they have to get used to, and the reality that familiar foods often found in specialty stores are five times as expensive in the US as they are in their home country. For instance, even after living in the US for seventeen years, I still have trouble buying a mango for $1.49 when I remember that fifty cents could buy a fifty-pound sack full of mangoes in Kenya! The same case applies to kale and collard greens. Greens, in Kenya acquired a popular name “sukuma wiki” which means “stretching the week” because of its availability in abundance and therefore cheapness—indeed a week stretcher for families with meager financial means. One can imagine the shock it elicits with the conversion of its cost of about $1.29 in the US to the Kenyan shilling. Other immigrants, experience cultural shocks in the form of language differences. One may have come from a country where English is an official school language and therefore believed themselves to have the command of the language—only to land in the US and realize they have a deep accent that most people complain about and sometimes one is relegated to not knowing English. This realization comes with an undercutting of one’s confidence in communication in public especially among proficient English speakers. While these and other experiences are unique to geographical location and social context, as well as the experience of the immigrant, the one most cited by people as the greatest and most shocking is the loss of social status. This is especially pertinent to the experience of immigrants from Africa and Asia whose main reason for immigrating to the US is pursuit for higher education. Consider the following scenario for a moment which may give insight into what constitutes loss of social status: Most immigrants in pursuit of educational opportunities are generally the cream of their society in their home country either by virtue of higher education level which earned them recognition by a Western institution, or by virtue of coming from families with financial means. Many such immigrants