scholarly journals Ethnic Identity from a Macro-Sociological Perspective: Second-generation Iranian “immigrants”

Author(s):  
Fereshteh Ahmadi
2016 ◽  
Vol 60 (4) ◽  
pp. 834-852 ◽  
Author(s):  
Preeti Vaghela ◽  
Koji Ueno

Second-generation adolescents experience identity conflict when trying to adapt to the United States. This identity conflict may be compounded for Asians, who experience racialization of their ethnicity. This intensity of identity conflict and racialization of ethnicity is reflected in different pairings of racial and ethnic identities (e.g., Hyphenated-Nationality, Hyphenated-Asian). We examine how these identity pairings are associated with mental health. Analysis used a sample of 1,308 second-generation Asian adolescents (aged 15–19) from the Children of Immigrants Longitudinal Study Wave 2 (1995–1996). Although not all associations were significant, low levels of identity conflict tended to be associated with lower levels of depression and more problem behaviors. Perhaps these identity pairings help reduce depression by lowering identity conflict while increasing peer conflicts. The analysis also showed that among adolescents with the same type of ethnic identity, mental health varied across racial identity, highlighting the importance of examining identity pairings.


Author(s):  
Onoso Imoagene

Chapter 2 shows how the proximal host is a crucial actor influencing how the second generation of Nigerian ancestry identify. How the presence of the proximal host affects identity formation among the black second generation is generally overlooked in segmented assimilation theory and is a key factor emphasized in beyond racialization theory. The chapter details how relations with the proximal host in childhood, particularly feelings of rejection and exclusion based on perceived physical and cultural differences, laid the foundation for developing a distinct ethnicity in adulthood. I discuss the responses of the proximal hosts in the United States and Britain to the Nigerian second generation when they were young. What was viewed as discriminatory responses by members of the proximal host by the Nigerian second generation fostered a feeling of being black but different among the Nigerian second generation. The tense relations between proximal hosts and the African second generation required the young Nigerian second generation to start the process of defining what being black meant to them and defining a diasporic ethnic identity differentiating them from their proximal hosts.


2000 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
pp. 77-95 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nazli Kibria

This article examines the dynamics of race and ethnic options for those racially labeled “Asian” in U.S. society. Drawing on sixty-four in-depth interviews with second-generation Chinese and Korean Americans, I look at how Asian racial categorization and its dynamics shape informal, everyday social encounters between Asians and non-Asians. These dynamics suggest an ethnic bind — a sense of uncertainty and conflict about the meaning and significance of ethnic identity and practice, stemming from the multiple and contradictory pressures surrounding it. The second-generation Chinese and Korean Americans experienced pressures both to cultivate their Chinese and Korean membership and to downplay or minimize it. For those labeled “Asian,” the ethnic bind is part of the social terrain on which ethnic identity is produced, with ethnic options emerging out of the contests and negotiations surrounding them.


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