From “in-betweenness” to “positioned belongings”: second-generation Palestinian-Americans negotiate the tensions of assimilation and transnationalism
Year: 2018
Type: article
Abstract: In this article, I argue that second-generation migrants experience multiple tensions and exclusions as a result of the interaction of transnationalism, assimilation, diaspora and racialization in their lives. Yet, I suggest that they are reflexive actors who respond by crafting their own “positioned belongings”. The paper draws on ethnographic research conducted with Palestinian-American second-generation interlocutors conducted in New Jersey and the West Bank in the wake of Donald Trump’s election as President. It presents data regarding this understudied yet significant second-generation group and their relationship to their diaspora community, hostland and homeland. I argue that a feeling of exclusion and “in-betweenness” is navigated by the second-generation through discursive and material practices that centre the second-generation “self”. In doing so, I give new insight into how assimilation and transnationalism interact in dynamic and plural fields and what is lost and gained amongst the children of migrants in the process.
Source: Ethnic and Racial Studies
Author: Tom Brocket
Institution: University College London
Language: English
Subfield: Demography
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
SDG: Reduced inequalities
Open Access status: hybrid
Estimated APC paid: $696
OpenAlex ID: W2903024326