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      Tri-level Identity Crisis

      Children of First-Generation Immigrants

      Copyright © 2020 Wipf and Stock Publishers. All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical publications or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without prior written permission from the publisher. Write: Permissions, Wipf and Stock Publishers, 199 W. 8th Ave., Suite 3, Eugene, OR 97401.

      Pickwick Publications

      An Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers

      199 W. 8th Ave., Suite 3

      Eugene, OR 97401

      www.wipfandstock.com

      paperback isbn: 978-1-62564-552-4

      hardcover isbn: 978-1-4982-8602-2

      ebook isbn: 978-1-7252-4924-0

      Cataloguing-in-Publication data:

      Names: Kiome Gatobu, Anne, editor. | Kiesling, Christopher, editor. | Mucherera, Tapiwa N., 1964–, editor.

      Title: Tri-level identity crisis : children of first-generation immigrants / edited by Tapiwa N. Mucherera, Chris Kiesling, and Anne Kiome Gatobu

      Description: Eugene, OR : Pickwick Publications, 2020 | Includes bibliographical references.

      Identifiers: isbn 978-1-62564-552-4 (paperback) | isbn 978-1-4982-8602-2 (hardcover) | isbn 978-1-7252-4924-0 (ebook)

      Subjects: LCSH: United States—Emigration and immigration. | United States—Ethnic relations. | Americanization.

      Classification: lc3731 .t74 2020 (print) | lc3731 .t74 (ebook)

      Manufactured in the U.S.A. 07/30/20

      I

      Tri-level Identity Crisis

      1

      Introduction

      General Identity Crisis and Its Implication to Immigrants’ Identity Development

      —Chris Kiesling, Anne Kiome Gatobu, and Tapiwa N. Mucherera

      The moment an immigrant child (other than from Europe or born to Caucasian parents) steps on the North American soil, s/he is automatically considered a minority. A child of similar age who migrates from Europe, born of Caucasian parents, is automatically placed with the majority group. The current set up of the North American system is such that Caucasians (Whites) who are in power make the majority group, and those who come from places such as Africa, Asia, or Latin America—because of their birth place, accent or skin color—are readily categorized into the minority group. These immigrants do not fit the North American born minority model, because they are bringing with them some pre-determined cultural values that are usually in conflict with the North American values. The immigrant children, as any other minority in North America, have to deal with much racism and prejudice as inescapable as the air they breathe. Usually most new immigrants are oblivious to the racism and prejudices because it is not a default worldview from where they come. Soon enough they realize it is their new reality. They must contend with racism as they can neither escape their heritage nor the way the majority perceives them.

      It does not matter what class these immigrant minorities belonged to in their country of origin, in North America they now acquire a new identity of being a minority. These children now have to deal with an identity development based on their status of being minorities in a majority culture. A few months after landing in North American, minority children find that they are also on a collision course of cultural and moral values.

      In the following discussion, we establish the general identity crisis of all adolescent children irrespective of geographical location or cultural context. This is followed by a brief discussion of the identity crisis of minority persons living in a majority culture. Immigrant children experience the general identity crisis as part of their developmental maturity. They also experience being a minority within majority culture that favors those of white privilege. But to compound this further, they are also navigating between values of their native country embedded in what their parents and grandparents hold sacred, and the value system embedded in Western cultural institutions. It is this compounding of forces in the matrix of American immigrants that we believe manifests in a unique experience of dissonance—a phenomenon that we have chosen to refer to as a Tri-Level Identity Crisis.

      General Identity Crisis and Its Implication for Ethnic-Immigrant Identity Formation

Erik Erikson posited that the central psychosocial task presented to adolescents in the West is the formation of a consolidated ego identity. With good resolution of this identity, a young adult could enter the various domains of adult engagement (occupational, educational, familial, political, religious) with a secure sense of competence, meaning, and purpose. Erikson in fact, described identity as a secure sense of personal sameness and historical continuity, yielding the ability to transcend any particular moment or circumstance.1 The necessity of identity consolidation he believed would be prompted naturally as young adults moved through various familial and societal engagements. If early childhood deficits or lack of social support during these years hampered identity formation; psychological, emotional, and social maladjustment could occur resulting in negative developmental outcomes. But what happens when historical continuity is disrupted? When an immigrant teenager experiences themselves differently in the presence of parents than with peers? And when movement between family and societal contexts makes any sense of identity consolidation seem elusive?

One of the most widely used conceptualizations for studying identity formation among adolescence in the West over the past fifty years has been a model proposed by Jim Marcia.2 Marcia suggested that the identity status of an individual could be measured based on two dimensions: (1) exploration—the presence or absence of a crisis indicated by the degree of an active period of deliberately considering and experimenting with alternatives; and (2) commitment—the presence or absence of movement toward ideological and interpersonal convictions. Marcia’s design offers four quadrants or categories of identity status:

      Diffused—characterized by an absence of both exploration and commitment, a disabling of the capacities needed for identity formation

      Foreclosed—defined by commitment based on parental or societal imposition of values without a period of exploration

      Moratorium—indicative of involvement in active deliberation without yet having arrived at sustained commitments

Achieved—determined by clear commitment that follows an active period of searching resulting in internalization and owning of commitments for oneself.3

A good body of research now exists that supports a progressive movement over time from diffusion or foreclosure toward identity achievement. Identity achievement and moratorium have shown significant correlation with adaptability, higher levels of moral reasoning, reflectivity in decision-making, satisfaction in relationships and capacity for cognitive complexity. By contrast, research shows that the foreclosed status correlates with difficulties in problem solving, lower self-esteem, high need for social approval, and rigidity in belief system. Further, identity diffusion shows outcomes more consistent with lower levels of moral reasoning, avoidance of coping with problems, and higher levels of compulsivity.4

The importance of this research for immigrant populations living in the West is three-fold. It gives description to the normative ego developmental process for all teenagers—what we regard as first level identity crisis. It also provides theoretical conceptualization for processes through which minority culture youth fashion an identity amidst majority culture—what we regard as second

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