Afro-Caribbean International Students’ Ethnic Identity Development: Fluidity, Intersectionality, Agency, and Performativity

Abstract

Afro-Caribbean international students (ACIS) often become engrossed in a complex racial and ethnic dialogue wherein they are thrust into homogenous categorizations forcing them to negotiate their Afro-Caribbean self with other identities perceived by others such as African American, first- and second-generation Caribbean immigrant, African, and Latin American. This tendency to homogenize ACIS overlooks their experiences and development, and so their issues become essentially invisible for administrations and in the literature on student identity development. Therefore, higher education stakeholders are unaware of the needs unique to these students (Lacina, 2002; Szelényi & Chang, 2002). This is particularly problematic given that ACIS students are less likely to have high-quality educational and social experiences impacting their development (Anderson, Carmichael, Harper, & Huang, 2009). The purpose of this study is to investigate the ethnic identity development of ACIS at a public research-intensive university in the US Southeast with particular attention on how these students negotiate their identities given the current homogenized discourse on ACIS.