The ‘between two cultures’ trope framing migrant youth was exploded

Evidence

Much of the early work on race and youth saw the children of migrants as somehow locked in a vice-like grip between two incommensurable cultural blocks, namely, the host society and the culture of the parental home. This literature tended to reinforce a pathological view of minority youth as “caught between” or, equally, somehow on the brink of an impending crisis. What was lost in this approach was an appreciation of what was happening in the interstices of social life where young people themselves were writing their own history of negotiation and exclusion. — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 2980 (#expands, via linked claim)

Rather than generational differences causing a split in Hossein’s family, it was the generational differences themselves through which his family bonded. … Look, I don’t really care one way or another. I actually just want everyone to use one label. I want everyone to either say “Persian” or “Iranian.” Because when we mix the two up, then it turns into two different … not for ourselves, but for those looking onto us as representatives of Iranian culture. — Neda Maghbouleh, The Limits of Whiteness, 227 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Early migration-youth studies framed children as pathologically caught between cultures — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 2980; Migrant children changed white youth culture, inverting the assimilation narrative — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 2986; Second-generation diaspora identity is forged through ironic performance of authentic practices — Neda Maghbouleh, The Limits of Whiteness: Iranian…, 508 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Early migration-youth studies framed children as pathologically caught between cultures #expands (0.95) — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 2980
• Generational cultural differences can bond families rather than divide them #complicates (0.76) — Neda Maghbouleh, The Limits of Whiteness, 227