Transnationalism and the Migrants’ Identity Formation Dynamics
Asian Studies International Journal - Vol. 1, No. 1, January 2015 - ISSN: 2279-1949
7 Pages Posted: 2 Mar 2015
Date Written: January 2015
Abstract
This article is a theory-focus paper that argues that in the process of migrants' transnational living, the children of migrants/1.5G eventually create a culture of their own which is argued to be different from the culture their own parents have. The author of this paper maintains that this happens by virtue of the children of migrants'/1.5G's exposure to the milieu of their parents' work destination and their socialization with people whose cultural, social, political, and religious orientation is far from theirs. More specifically, this paper asserts that with transnational living, bottom-up and top-down trajectories of agents of transformation highly influence the formation of identities of the children of migrants/1.5G. To clearly illustrate this phenomenon, the author of this paper used two bipolar views illustrating the effects of transformative agents: from a bottom-up perspective is Herrera-Lima's view called transnational social networks (2005) and from a top-down view is the commonly held one which is a combination of all other influences outside Lima's framework. The author believes that the interplay of the two opposing trajectories can most likely impinge on the identity-formation dynamics of the children of migrants/1.5G.
Keywords: 1.5G, transnationalism, transnational networks, identity-formation
JEL Classification: J62
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation