Becoming American, Constructing Ethnicity: Immigrant Youth and Civic Engagement

TLDR

The background reviews historical and contemporary literature on immigrant youth and adult civic engagement, noting that contemporary immigrant youth can maintain transnational ties and multiple identities between homeland and the United States. The purpose is to investigate how immigrant youth’s multiple transnational ties influence their civic engagement, addressing a gap in the literature. The findings show that while immigrant youth are Americanizing, they also assert pride in their cultural distinctiveness when perceived as different.

Abstract

Abstract After presenting demographic data to demonstrate why immigrant youth are and will be important, this article addresses the limited literature on immigrant youth civic engagement. It also examines the historical literature of immigrant youth in the United States, specifically that of the last great wave of immigration approximately 100 years ago, along with the literature on contemporary adult immigrant civic engagement. It concludes that today's immigrant youth are Americanizing. Nevertheless, when U.S. society and particularly the U.S. state treats immigrant youth as different, the immigrant youth respond with pride by defending their cultural integrity, their right to be different. Contemporary immigrant youth also have the opportunity to maintain transnational ties with their homeland. In response to these forces and opportunities, immigrant youth maintain multiple identities, sometimes identifying with their homeland culture at other times with the United States. The unanswered question is what difference these multiple ties may make for civic engagement.