Magister Artium - MA / Globalization has evidently led to an increase in the flow of immigrants across the world, a fact
that has and continues to play a significant role in the development of studies on immigration,
immigration patterns and the psycho-social struggles that immigrants face; of which identity
negotiation in the new context is included. A number of works have been done on the identity
negotiation and identity-forming process of immigrant youth. This study attempts to highlight,
rather specifically, the unique challenges that 1.5 generation immigrant youth have in forming
their identities. Rumbaut coined the term “one-and-a-half generation” to describe “children of
Cuban exiles who were born in Cuba but have come of age in the United States” (1976:8). Thus
the 1.5 generation immigrant youth constitutes children who were born in their country of origin
but was raised and received the education and important experiences in the host country. Hence,
the issue of identity becomes important for adolescents such as the 1.5 generation growing up in
Diasporic settings. How they come to define who they are, their place in the world and others’
perception of them have significant implications for their successful integration into their new
societies (Ogbuagu, 2013).
This study takes a socio-cultural approach to investigating the identity negotiation and construction
of 1.5 generation Congolese immigrant youth. Sociocultural linguistics refers to an
interdisciplinary field which considers language as a sociocultural phenomenon; hence positioning
identity as a phenomenon that is socially constructed through language and hence, performed
within interaction and conversations.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:uwc/oai:etd.uwc.ac.za:11394/6678 |
| Date | January 2018 |
| Creators | Mayoma, Jaclisse Lorene |
| Contributors | Williams, Quentin |
| Publisher | University of the Western Cape, |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | University of the Western Cape, |
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