Indian Young People Negotiating Transnational Identities

Abstract

The aim of this chapter is to explore how migrant Indian young people living in Ireland negotiate the normative task of adolescent identity development in the ‘here and now’ while undergoing acculturative change as a result of migration. Simultaneously, youth are engaged in thinking about the future and they are developing imagined ‘future selves’. Migrant adolescents are now growing up in an era whereby migration to a host country may not be a fixed ‘end point’ but rather a point-in-time process of multiple returns and migrations. Certainly, global communication technology and better access to transatlantic travel means there is less disconnect with one’s country of origin (Bhatia and Ram, 2004). In an increasingly globalised world, there is an important question to be asked as to how adolescents see themselves negotiating their lives now and into the future. This chapter focuses on the psychological implications of how participation in processes of migration may affect Indian migrant adolescents’ identity or sense of self. It takes a sociocultural psychological view of the development of “present” and “desired future” identities as embedded in cultural, political and economic processes. It also considers the participants’ shifting positions of power/agency or powerlessness as they negotiate identity formation as transnational actors.