Identity and the Second Generation: How Children of Immigrants Find Their Space . Faith G. Nibbs and Caroline B. Brettell, eds. Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press, 2016, 240 pp. $27.95, paper. ISBN 978-0-8265-2069-2.
2017; University of Chicago Press; Volume: 73; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1086/690529
ISSN2153-3806
Autores Tópico(s)Indigenous and Place-Based Education
ResumoPrevious articleNext article FreeBook ReviewsIdentity and the Second Generation: How Children of Immigrants Find Their Space. Faith G. Nibbs and Caroline B. Brettell, eds. Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press, 2016, 240 pp. $27.95, paper. ISBN 978-0-8265-2069-2.Andrea FloresAndrea FloresBrown University Search for more articles by this author Brown UniversityPDFPDF PLUSFull Text Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditEmailQR Code SectionsMoreIn Identity and the Second Generation, the contributors examine how the children of immigrants negotiate their identities and sense of belonging in a variety of social, institutional, and transnational contexts. Moving beyond the dichotomy of assimilation or resistance, the chapters illustrate how immigrant descendants forge hybrid identities across “barriers and/or bridges to belonging” (p. 4). Expertly edited by Nibbs and Brettell, the book is notable for the geographic diversity of its cases, its cross-generational focus within families, and its attention to the multiple “spaces of experience” that shape immigrant descendants and are shaped by them (p. 4).The volume begins with Nibbs and Brettell’s concise and clear review of the identity literature on children of immigrants and a broad definition of space as the volume’s organizing principle. The looseness of the space concept as physical sites and “fields of interaction” allows analytical flexibility, though some may wish for an expanded discussion of space as a theoretical construct (p. 2). Lamphere’s afterword underscores the volume’s common themes, including the centrality of social media to contemporary identity formation. She also calls for additional investigation on the roles of gender and social class. The nine substantive (or “core”) chapters each tackle a distinct facet of descendants’ lives and, to a greater or lesser extent, their transnational dimensions.Riccio (chapter 5) and Brettell (chapter 2) focus on civic spaces. Riccio traces how second-generation associational spaces in Italy, including those online, differ in form and function from those of the first generation, reflecting the second generation’s distinctive political positioning and citizenship goals. Brettell’s chapter centers on leadership training for Asian-American youth and how it provides avenues for civic expression, friendships, and youth’s understandings of Asian-American identities. Both chapters point to the decisiveness of class and local context in civic spaces, a well-observed caveat to literature on immigrant descendants’ civic engagement.Haayen’s chapter (chapter 3) looks explicitly at friendship. She analyzes how neighborhood-level friendships between working-class, Mexican-origin, Texan teen-agers affect the performance of personal and ethnic identity and the expression of future aspirations. Nibbs (chapter 4) also investigates friendship, illustrating how members of the Hmong diaspora in the United States and Germany use social media to police ethnolinguistic boundaries. Nibbs and Haayen offer intriguing findings on the constraints and affordances of co-ethnic friendships among diasporan youth.Most chapters center on how the children of immigrants are constructing identities; however, Moran (chapter 9) and Larchanché (chapter 8) importantly highlight the continuing power of state institutions and immigrant-pathologizing discourse in determining the parameters of immigrant-origin youths’ belonging. Moran explores the media surrounding a teenage Nigerian asylum seeker in Ireland, showing how popular notions of the vulnerable child misalign with juridical citizenship. Larchanché discusses how French school psychologists mediate the educational and mental healthcare outcomes of immigrant-origin youth through working as cultural brokers.The remaining chapters take the broadest view—examining the ties between transnational identity, intergenerational family relationships, history, and spaces of remembrance. Tsuda (chapter 1) considers the salience of Japanese identity between two US cohorts who sit on either side of World War II and therefore express different ties to Japan. He challenges the analytical value of immigrant generation versus cohort, while also arguing for the essential role of historical circumstances to transnational ties. Ho Peché (chapter 7) also takes on historical memory: here, how Vietnamese refugees and their children’s participation in a refugee camp heritage tour links generations. Le Gall and Gherghel (chapter 6) suggest that strong kinship bonds and cultural practices across generations promote transnational identities for Azorean-Canadians. These chapters demonstrate the importance of familial intergenerational relationships and history for immigrant descendants’ identities.The volume is very accessible and ideal for courses on youth, migration, and/or transnationalism. Across its fascinating, varied cases, it makes critical contributions to theorizations of transnational identity and immigrant generation. For the former, the authors track how class, national context, history, authorized status, and age all affect the strength of transnational ties. For the latter, the cross-generational and life course approaches emphasize how “immigrant generation” must be considered alongside generation’s other uses as cohort and descent. While ethnicity and race are addressed well in most chapters, more engagement with racialization and its intersectional dimensions would further deepen the text. Finally, the attention to social media, friendship, and mental health introduces promising veins of research. The volume is a most welcome addition to literature on immigrant descendants. Previous articleNext article DetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Journal of Anthropological Research Volume 73, Number 1Spring 2017 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/690529 © 2017 by The University of New Mexico. All rights reserved.PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.
Referência(s)