Second-generation immigrants: Identity formation and social integration

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SECOND-GENERATION IMMIGRANTS: IDENTITY FORMATION AND SOCIAL

INTEGRATION

1. INTRODUCTION TO SECOND-GENERATION IMMIGRANTS

- Course Objectives and Key Themes

This course will provide an in-depth examination of second-generation immigrants, that is

persons born in the United States but whose parents were immigrants. We hope to find out how

this group acquires such a notion of self and place in society as they grow through adolescence.

Key questions we will consider include: In what ways are the identities of second-generation

youth constructed with reference to both the immigrants’ experience and the American

experience? Which of the traditional cultures that belong to the parents’ generation do they retain

and which of the traditional culture of the United States do they adhere? To what extent do they

experience major contention or find possibilities in relation to social integration into educational

systems, labor markets, community and the popular culture of the United States? To what extent,

does ethnic diversity in general impact integration processes, patterns and outcomes; the

contribution of family income or background; and types of family model? These concerns will

help in the elaboration of the current, broader concept of assimilation regarding immigrants.

This course has three main learning outcomes as described as follows: The first concerns ethnic

identity theories and research findings relating to adolescents and young adults. In the social

science literature we shall identify the major theoretical perspectives in which second-generation

is portrayed to have adversarial identities, or practice selective acculturation or undergo

unproblematic assimilation. The second specific aim is to evaluate the quantitative data and the

qualitative results on the SES in various organizations from school to the workplace. These range

from immigrant family resources for social mobility to general restrictions of the labor market or

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school segregation. The third major objective thus concerns the ability to identify second-

generation integration particularistic patterns which may be generalizable across groups and

those particularistic across the ethnic, class and gender partitions in the second-generation. By

the end of the teaching of this unit, the students will be able to: Analyze the integration

experiences of young adults using the conceptual models from the Asian, Latin American and

other sending zones in the present age.

Second-generations of immigrants refers to immigrant’s children who are either born or brought

up in the new world from early childhood. This group always experience identity crises because

they are always in the process of moving from the culture of their fore-parents who are from

another country to the current society and at the same time, second-generation youth are

existentially soaking in language, values, norms, attitudes and behaviors of the new country from

school going age. This leads to a twofold socialization process full of conflicts and negotiations

as the youthful people try to combine between obeying some of the parent’s cultural values and

beliefs with the assimilation of the dominant culture.

Homes, schools and even neighborhoods are areas and locations involved in the acculturation

process of second-generation immigrant youngsters. School going period is therefore that time in

the persons’ life that most of their effective time is spent in mainstream culture and value

contents and as such immigrants copy what their counterparts do and are always preoccupied

with the acknowledgement they receive in the society than a culture of the country their parents

came from. They may get rebellious and defiant not listening to their parents and spitting the

ethnic language, the ethnic food, and ethnic costumes. However, when immigrants suffer from

racism exclusion or marginalization the result in enhanced ethnic identity and bond with the

group. In other words, the identify formation of second-generation youths is a unique

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sociological process of cultural assimilation, where some few characteristics of the parents’

culture are adopted and at the same time adapting to the dominating culture that shapes the daily

existence of these youths. As to integration patterns, the students vary concerning the country of

origin, forces of the community among which they reside and the school they attend, the family’s

SES and so on. Information concerning the way identities emerge over time across generations of

immigrant students is important whenever policies centering on immigration, education and

employment among others are being developed.

- Defining Second-Generation Immigrants

It is important to bear this in mind when we are discussing Second-generation Immigrants as it is

a term that applies to individuals who are the children of migrants who either or were born in the

country, or immigrated there during their childhood. While the first-generation immigrants were

people who were born in another country and were most probably brought to the destination

country as young adults, second-generation immigrants were either born in the country of

migration or arrived when they were young and thus, they grew up and spent most of their

childhood and adolescence in the migration country. Second-generation youths are thus quite

dissimilar and their background as well as early childhood experiences compared to the children

growing up in the countries of their parents’ birth. Most of them inhabit two entirely different

spheres – the sphere of their parents and families, having immigrant background, and the sphere

of the county, in which they grow up, affecting their self-identity and sense of belonging.

Second-generation youth are in a constant confusion of ethnic and cultural self and worlds, they

have one set of references at home and another in the wider extra familial world; on the one

hand, the homelands of their parents, on the other hand, the country or countries of their birth

and up bringing. This results in inner conflict and confusion that is psychosocially manifested in

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youths in addition and social conflict or shunned from the host community due to different ways

of thinking which is as a result of cultural divergence or lack of assimilation policy and

affirmative action. Second-generation immigrants are thus faced with developmental tasks that

include identity confusion, effort to gain mastery and control especially within two conflicting

cultural frameworks and efforts at membership in a society that does not accept them but at the

same time they cannot easily cut off links with a culture they seem to have little knowledge of

but are expected to relate with. One must therefore concede that field which investigates second-

generation immigrants’ identity and social integration is at its core, research of the universal

questions of human subjectivity, cultural belonging, marginality and development within the

story of migration.

- Demographic Trends and Statistics

The generation that starts a new life in another country with at least the parents or other close

relatives is the first-generation while the generation that is born and brought up in that country or

was an immigrant at a young age is known as the second-generation. The population of this

group has been growing considerably in the duration of the last decades because of high

immigration rates. Another set of second singletons of the population made up about 7 percent of

the total populations and comprising 16 million second-generation immigrants at the present.

Regarding the ethnic origin the largest groups are normally from Latin America, Asia and

Europe. For instance, it is accepted that about 45% of the second-generation immigrants were of

Latin origin. Second-generation immigrants are demographically different both in terms of

number and in terms of movement and settlement patterns which reveal ethnic segregation. Over

two-thirds reside in some of the largest states in the United States of America including

California, Texas and New York among others and these are states with enormous and

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cosmopolitan cities. All these settlement patterns have to do with different aspects of economy,

settlers’ reunion provisions and the first ethnic niches. We also get from demographic research

that participants belonging to the second-generation are more dominant in their ethnic

community than the first-generation immigrants. This keeps on increasing and the above status

shows that the gap is still widening. For example, whereas there are ten standards supporting the

car’s classification as a luxury vehicle, there are only five for an SUV. Despite over 9 million

second-generation Latinos in the United States today, there are only 21. Seven million of them

are from the first-generation, and this population is only below the age 18 years. In future

decades the rate of immigration will not be so high and it will turn the second-generation into the

numerical majority for the given ethnic community. Such changes in generational relations are

important social implications in the matters of the political and power, culture and orders of

households. Studies also shows that socioeconomic mobility of the second-generation

immigrants is higher than that of the parents’ in regard to the level of education attained, the

occupations achieved and the income received. For example, more than ninety percent earn high

school diplomas than the sixty percent recorded of the first-generation. The integration of ethnic

groups on the economic front is more often than not fittingly fast in the second gen However,

this is well-de-noted when ethnic, class, and space analysis is drawn. Besides, second-generation

is more diversified and again it encompasses only few of the disadvantageous groups. Hence

ethnical, gender, class, and place of residence categories of people are quite informative as to the

type of identity configurations and integration picture.

- Theories of Identity Formation

In studying migrants, particularly second-generation, who embody two cultures, it proves helpful

to accentuate on procedures of identity construction and Erikson’s essays on identity as well as

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Levinson’s theory on the adult male lifespan. This is in concordance with peer theories including

Erikson’s psychoanalytic theory as well as Tajfel’s social identity theory some of which have

been outlined above. Erikson further opined that identity is achieved through ego identity and

that it is the culmination from a course of developmental crises and through the knitting of

personality and social environment. While identity complexity and synthesis seem to be more

relevant for children of immigrants, who are, on the one hand, eager to become typical

Americans yet, on the other, they are not ready to forget about their roots, the identity confusion

appears to be critical in this context as well. Interplay of Personal and Social Identifications:

Social identity theory also forces the distinction between personal and social identify which in

the current context are immigrant group and national identity.

Berry’s Acculturation Model of assimilation separation, integration and marginalization seeks to

explain how immigrants and their children have sought to adopt new positions in this new

society. The acculturation process calls for an individual to transit from the heritage culture but

involves interaction with the host culture while integration is a process through which an

individual has no interaction with the host culture. Naturally, exclusion is the mechanism of

isolation with respect to minorities considered as strangers, whereas inclusion enables the

immigrants to retain their difference while becoming functional contributors to the creation of a

pluralistic whole.

This was followed by Bourhis et al with the acculturation-attitudes model which maintained

that the acculturation process demands the willingness of both the immigrants and the receiving

society not to be discriminative; and that positive inter group contact must be created. For

instance, such theories argue that acculturation is a process that has aspects with reference to the

language, the identity, the practices and values among others. Abovementioned scholars

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emphasize that integration is the most appropriate and suitable method in which second-

generation youth can be loyal to culture but at the same time, it can foster the youth’s national

identity and they are competent in code-switching.

That is, at least in some measure, the cultural identity of these immigrants is a replica, of the

values, beliefs and practices of the parents. But through education and relations with peers,

children integrate in to the host society where they interact with competing mainstream

competencies and norms which they willingly acclimate assimilating in order to co-create

mutually constructed hybrid selves. After there is conflict within the generations which leads to

the young generation suffering from identity crisis this affects the social factors such as working

and studying among the youth and leading to formation of anti-social behavior. However, as the

second-generation integration measure shows, even if some youths were still wholly

idealistically inclined to assimilate to parents’ culture or to ‘go back’ to it, to re-join it and to

fully embrace the ‘racial’ ethnicity from which they originated, the migrated ethnic people are

constructing a situational ethnicity, claiming cultural membership only where it is suitable,

beneficial, or profitable as in attainment of social assimilation.

- Overview of Social Integration Processes

The social interactions and relations of the second-generation immigrants, those who are born in

the country of birth of their parents, are therefore characterized by the following identity crisis as

they grow up. Second-generation youth are in a different boat when it comes to integration,

because, while the parents who are the first-generation immigrants arrive with a set identity,

second-generation youth are faced with different population norms in the host society and in the

immigrant community. They inhibit second-generation identities and belonging in ways because

when with friends and classmates, one learns culture practices. The schools are the major

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institutions of incorporation where the academic achievements and the language open up the

right channels to mobility. However, it can also mean that schools are complicit in

marginalization of immigrant students though tracking, lower expectations and otherwise, lack of

cultural relevance.

During the process of identity forming the second-generation youth employs several types of

acculturations from assimilation to the hosts culture, to rejection of the host culture and

maintaining own parents’ culture only. There is evidence that most second-generation youth

adopt a process of assimilation in which they maintain certain aspects of their parents’ cultures

while at the same time, employing aspects of the dominant culture. Essential in biculturalism is

thus the ability to switch the context of interaction and the right language, demeanor, attire and

accent. Based on this argument, it extends that working on the family of origin relationships

affects identity negotiation and integration processes to a great extent. Still higher levels of

conflict arise where the parents do not even go through the assimilation process, instead they

overload the children with control measures while at the same time relying on them to help the

parents, in the translation of the new language and other cultures. Generation of mature age and

young adults do not concur when children decide to be more loyal to their contemporaries and

individualism rather than collectivism in the family. However, favorable and constructive family

environments do assist the individuals to make them to feel that they are belonging to both the

immigration and the receptive cultures.

Race, class as well as gender, religion and phenotype influence the identification with the social

constructs to produce highly variable integration concerning ethnicity and between different

groups. This is because while recognizing Blackness enables one to be part of mainstream

culture; skin color and other physical attributes determine how much certain groups can

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assimilate into this particular sphere of social culture. In particular, education and occupation

levels of parents and social contacts establish an information and resource and opportunity divide

touching school systems and careers. As dictated by the traditional gender roles of the patriarchal

culture of these immigrants the situation is likely to worsen for the girl child than for the boy

child. As such second-generation integration patterns depict elaborate transactions of Identity in

Family-School-Work-Religion and friends setting.

- Comparative Contexts: Urban vs. Rural

The nature of the first-generation’s environment, whether urban or rural, is a critical factor that

affects the acculturation process and identity for second-generation immigrants. Metropolitan

areas typically have a higher density of immigration, which enables these second-generation

youth to have better opportunities to come across ethnic social structures, religious

establishments, grocery stores, eating places, and schools with the parent’s native language that

will remind them of their ethnic heritage. It means that such ethnic resources are useful in

ensuring that the second-generation immigrants in urban areas maintain some of the cultural

practices of their origin countries. Said ethnic enclaves are typically small in rural areas, which

forces second-generation youth to live in a predominantly white environment. This is because

when they are surrounded by people from their ethnicity, they are quick to embrace the host

country’s culture and this assimilation happens more frequently.

Immigration to urban areas likewise makes immigrants more diverse and, thus, allows for the

cultivation of integrated and dual selves despite experiences with discrimination. First-generation

city dwellers on a daily basis come across people of different race, color, religious and even

backgrounds but second-generation immigrants are less exposed to these diverse groups. This

enables them to have a point of convergence in the cultures that exist in the current world. It also

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minimizes the chances that they will look at cultural differences in a negative way when they are

not in segregated ones. On the other hand, the ethnic/cultural differentiation in most rural areas

creates a misunderstanding and prejudice towards immigrant’s visibility as they are different

from the local people. This forces second-generation youth to lose aspects of the origin culture

and assimilate into host country cultural standards to escape sanctions for diversity.

This density is however complimented by the resultant economic activities which enhance and

propel the participation of immigrant work force and successive generational economic uplift.

This helps shape the second-generation identity because urban immigrant may be able to attend

higher education or secure skilled employment that enables them to become middle-class,

assimilating individuals. Education and career attainment are invested and become essential parts

of the self-schema and self-esteem. On the other hand, rural immigrants remain trapped in low-

wage employment, primarily agricultural or manual labor with limited avenues for

socioeconomic mobility, which interferes with the identity development advantages that are

realized with signs of social progress such as income or education milestones.

Second-generation immigrants who are located in urban spaces maintain origin culture

connections, but at the same time are at the same time integrating into host country membership,

thus, a dual belongingness. There is tension around identity choice among those placed in

comparably monochromatic rural settings because individuals are often pressured to let go of

parental culture for host culture in order to avoid being alone. Thus, the idea of immigrant

incorporation has more favorable outcomes in urban rather than rural settings.

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2. IDENTITY FORMATION IN A MULTICULTURAL CONTEXT

Second-generation immigrants who live in multicultural society go through quite a nuanced and

multi- staged process of their identification. Hence, first-generation immigrant parents

themselves, who are indeed monochronic in orientation, are confronted by their second-

generation children who are multichronic. There, they are guarded and start to acquire the

culture, value, and practice of the new nation, together with the language spoken by their

immigrant parents. But in school and the rest of the social world, they encounter facets of the

receiving or the dominant culture. Cultural socialization in two or more directions give rise to

identity crisis and living in two worlds.

Second-generation immigrants young people use identity work in an attempt at placing

themselves in what they consider to be the middle of the cultural poles. This process can be

called ‘selective acculturation’, when they maintain some elements of the immigrant’s

experience that provide the subject with a sense of identity and belonging to a community and

thus adopt other aspects of the dominant culture that will help achieve educational/occupation

goals. However, given the vitality of the communities, the pressure that comes with the family

socialization, peers and situational factors two cultural orientations cannot last for a long time

with one dominating the other. For example, they might engage in accommodation where at

school the second-generation young people meet societal expectations to do well academically,

but they engage in a process of resistance at home within their families and their ethnic

community. Nevertheless, presence in an ethnic enclave might make it easier for the person to

adopt the immigrant identity across all of the domains. Young females’ accommodation can also

be shown to be stronger, in linguistic and social consideration, than male. Even if the ways in

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which the second-generation manifests this conflict may be different, it is a conflict ‘inside,’

which in one form or another affects the bulk of the youth.

- Concepts of Cultural Identity and Biculturalism

As in the case of the first-generation immigrants, the second-generation ones also seem to sort

out some confusion as to their place in the world and in their bodies; it becomes difficult to

accommodate the parent/ancestral culture with that of the society that the children grow in.

Ethnicity refers to the process of the duality and the process of becoming culturally bilingual

which may refer to the immigrant (minority culture) and the host society culture. Cultural

attachment in Self-architecture means cultural practices and beliefs which are in the focus of

experiencing cultural belonging to a certain cultural collective.

Biculturalism is not a phase and second-generation youths start working on how they will live

in two cultures in their early childhood. The cultural change that they undergo is constant

because they attempt to adopt the new culture together with the old culture which may be

extremely distinct in language, manners, beliefs and even attitude to life. To be specific, cultural

identity of a bicultural person refers to both the source and the host culture – for example, to talk

to peers, one uses English, while to converses with grandparents, one uses Spanish; formally

dressed to work, but dressing for Day of the Dead celebrating with family. As a result, it is

possible to note two combined culturally different attitudes which are rather beneficial for a

person. But it also prescribes on matters of social integration like language, religion, peer group

culture, ways of parenting, academic prowess, employment prospects and racism/discrimination.

These tensions are often identified when the parents and their children in the immigrant family,

afford different socialization to and get acculturation in different paces therefore the pitted

intergenerational acculturation conflict.

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Second-generation immigrants’ integration model: From the above discussion it can therefore

be noted that there is no general ‘type’ that defines what a second-generation immigrant should

be in order to be regarded as having assimilated into the society of the receiving nation. Stepping

more into the practice there is unique context which explain bicultural identity development as

the sequential process that taken place in a given social circumstance depending on factors like

nationality, religion, race/ethnicity, reasons of immigration, socio-economic status and the place

where they stay. Besides, while the bicultural identity development during the first period of

immigration may be a struggle to acculturation and to gain a toehold in a new country with the

subsequent waves of immigration, minorities move up the social ladder of the receiving country

and thus, the process of bicultural identity development across generations will also differ. And

although biculturalism and successful negotiation of two overlapping worlds was a strength for

the first-generation, for most immigrants of the second-generation, it is learning to exist in two

worlds but only translating in between when it was deemed ‘necessary’, which can be viewed as

the foundation on which the intricate process of social integration boils down to within the early

deficits of immigrant church and society at large.

- Role of Family and Community in Identity Formation

Illustrating the patterns of ethnic identity for the second-generation of immigrants one more

essential factor for identity development can be highlighted: The role of family and ethnic

community. Presumably, people of the second-generation, within the framework of the family,

get acquainted with the culture and traditions that shape their identity. For example, immigrant

parents could want to continue the usage of the native language, tradition of celebration, foods or

practices concerning holidays and religion, the collectivistic values of the home country and so

on. This is done regarding the formation of cultural perspectives by the second-generation youth

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– whether they are more ‘ethnocentric’ or whether the youth is inclining towards American

culture which is highly individualistic in nature. On the contrary, second-gen youth acquire the

culture from such aspects as schools, media, and peers among others avenues. These family and

societal interactions lead to variations in cultural attachment on a range of assimilation to

integration with the dominant culture, identified biculturalism to opposition to the integration

into the dominant culture. Apart from family members, the ethnic group is involved in

socializing the second-gen youths and offer them some cultural orientation. religious institutions,

cultural academies, carnivals, groups etc. help youths associate with other youngsters of the same

cultural background, with the same believes, following cultural norms etc. Consequently, this

places the youths in a cultural mireroor of self-pride and protects them from one kind of

prejudice in the larger society. By far it is the culture of the broader society which preserves as

elements of the origin culture through generations of the immigrants, far longer than what the

family itself would have, in multicultural society. An ethnic identity is resources that are in the

possession of the community and possession of such a resource is in the favor of youth for

adopting an ethnic identity. For this reason, therefore, in sum, family and community offer the

rudimentary forms of culture, beliefs, material things and relationships that ‘second-generation’

immigrants cohesively build a stable cultural reference point, through the plight of immigration

yet in a pluralist and postmodern world. It therefore becomes apparent that the relevance and the

final consensus regarding those identities which is a result of ageing, is equally a result of how

far those childhood influences remain fixed or how far they are re-negotiated by the youth.

- Language and Cultural Retention

The first and second-generation immigrants are in a conflict in between cultures and an

individual through language is able to uphold culture and be associated to a particular group of

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people. Second, second-generation youth are between two worlds and as such, they understand

the social uses and functions of language; most second-generation youth learn to interpret

English for their parents and relatives from very tender age though they speak the home language

when necessary. Those variations in identification, within and between individuals, where one is

still able to speak their native language, contribute to self-imaginations of identity and

citizenship. To begin with, the immigrants of second-generations who would continue living in

ethnic areas where peers and other members of the surrounding society also sustain the parents’

native language are going to remain speaking such language with higher propensity than the ones

who are keen to assimilate to the English-majority context as early as possible. As for the former,

language of ancestors hints this people’s need in cultural identification, cultural roots in specific

national culture even if they acknowledge some of the values of the new country. But in a

situation whereby the native speaker writers and cultural organizations are out of reach, the home

language as it is often called, becomes extinct with the generation hence leading to

intergenerational break down of communication and by extension culture.

The selection of languages is another area in which language selection for the different social

domains bears on identity processes. First of all, the immigrants are likely to employ their initial

language in tasks linked with gendered divisions of work similar to childcare or prayers. This

simply means that first-generation elders either facilitate or hinder the ways in which the junior

generation is able to provide for the demands of English at home without extinguishing the

parent’s culture. Where the development of the two languages is significant to a family, the use

and interchangeability between the two languages is desirable and actually does not negatively

contribute to dismantling the young person’s identity but in fact, contributes positively to the

enhancement of same. On the other hand, in households where formal English in public domains

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and the consequent pushing out of the native language from home related domains across

generations) may result in a gradual exclusion of descendants from their birth-right as language

skills and accordingly, the interaction with overseas kin and media, diminishes. Hence, there is

the proposition and the empirical examination in ILS of identity outcomes for second-generation

youth in terms of how much or little linguistic and cultural baggage frames are retained in the

second-generation.

- Negotiating Multiple Identities

Children of immigrants also have the problem of identity construction at work, as they have to

navigate between the two cultures. The two most basic cultural practices are those of their

families’ and the new cultures they are exposed to as primary source. Unlike their native

parent(s), it is for these second-generation youth to be raised or grow up part of the new country

learning the language, following behaviors, social practices and the belief systems of the new

country within instructional institutions and social associations with young people. On the other

hand, the home environment links them to the heritage culture and so the children adapt to their

parents’ expectations, meal times, types of foods eaten by their family and forms of expressing

themselves. From analysis, changing between these two different sociocultural paradigms is

about distinguishing as to which sociocultural components of the parents’ sociocultural

environment are to transported into the family’s sociocultural system and which aspects of the

mainstream sociocultural environment that exists outside the family home is to be imported into

the family culture.

Berry has referred four processes of bicultural development depending on the level of

interaction with the culture of origin and accepted culture. A lot of emphasis has been placed on

the definition of the term acculturation as the integration of the practices of the larger society and

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the rejection of the practices of the original family culture. concerning integration, the idea is

closer association to the culture of the country of origin, but not to the host country and society.

It means that integrating means the active participation in the two cultural realms by embracing

the language, the behaviors, the values and the cultural self-identifications of the family and of

the larger society. Finally, a process of alienation is attained whereby the immigrants have no

identification with the culture of origin but are also not accepted in the host culture; they may

despise the culture of their ancestors and also the culture of the new country.

Summing up the ways that second-generation immigrant youth navigate in between cultures,

one can reveal that they do not choose segregation or assimilation, but integration, for they try to

find a proper place for themselves in the society as an accepted member. Despite this, at some

stage they are in conflict and the child is attempting to fit into and do justice to both family and

mainstream cultures, at some point they gain ways of reconciling the two even if at first it seems

they are in some way opposite. For instance, when at school they have to ‘behave’ and at home

they must ‘respect elders’. Culturally bicultural adaptation promotes the psychological well-

being of second-generation youths and enables ‘switching’ of youth in appropriate

communication modes across different domains and contexts, it positions them as rightful and

deserved multicultural members in many aspects of the youths they live in.

- Identity Conflicts and Resolution

The most significant social-cultural paradox that one gets to encounter as a second-generation

immigrant is the determination of which culture they need to embrace in their daily life. The

first-generation parents migrated as adults that have already developed their personality; on the

contrary, the second-generation ‘split self-identity,’ which is a combination of the immigrant and

the dominant culture in the host country; this can cause complications since the values, norms

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and expectations of these two systems are in contact; for example, the parents’ expectations and

demands concerning education achievements, jobs, religious attendance, marriage and so on,

contrast the youth’s desire

Said conflicts are a natural course of constructing second-generation youth’s identity, which

cannot be noiseless and harmonious. The patterns of resolution being based on intrapersonal as

well as the interpersonal resources. Culturally, youths may possess a single cultural self and they

may move from one self-state to another of the same culture depending on the situation. For

example, when the immigrant is a young person, she or he may conform to traditional immigrant

culture at home and in an analogous manner, embark on the formation of a youth culture outside

the home. Or they may attempt a fusion of both the bicultural self, self. However, making a

synthesis of the both the host and the home country culture formations can sometimes prove to

be a tad difficult because the receiving societies’ cultures compel the immigrants to shed of their

ethnic traditions. Young people will healthily reconcile if the social environment that they find

themselves encourages Identity Integration rather than Identity compartmentalization or Identity

assimilation.

Externally, research shows that such multiple selves need sanction, narratives and connections

that render them culturally intelligible. Immigrants ensure that the second-generation feels

comfortable and receives acceptance of their immigrant status Multicultural education,

Immigration history, Ethnic studies courses which depict the second-generation’s life as normal

Role models who have embraced both cultures and good mental status Mental health care givers

who are conversant with the Immigrant family. We also share the authors’ opinion that such

resources contribute to those second-generation immigrants who engaged in the process of ethnic

identity reconstruction being in the middle of American and ethnic cultures.

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- Impact of Globalization on Identity

Globalization has impacted on the development of identity among second-generation

immigrants. Nationality, ethnicity, language and culture as self-declared national identity is under

tremendous pressure due to technological, transport and communication changes that are opening

up national boundaries. Especially the second-generation youth belong to two or more worlds,

and often they stand in-between in two or more societies: the society of their parents’ home

country and that of the host country. This creates problems of identity crises because they have to

try as hard to be the way their culture dictates, while at the same time being a part of the

American culture.

The external acculturation experiences that result from globalization present a second-

generation immigrant with many openings within which they can practice ‘the globalization of

culture or segmentation-cum-culture smorgasbord’ in which youths can select culture elements.

For example, they get up listening to music from their parents’ native country by changing to

softly American hip hop in the later morning and in the evening listening to British pop singers.

They might literally run to go and partake in Christmas or Easter or any other event that calls for

the championing of traditions from various societies. That allows the appearance of new ‘hybrid’

ethnic belongings in the framework of cultural consumption from the menu, prepared for

globalization. The end product of the cultural blender is the flexibility of the people to construct

their history and identity with the help of the origins blended with the features considered to be

imported from the given society that markers are grounded in. Of course, this also comes with

tensions or rejection by their ethnic community from which they are fused as this hybridity

threatens the purity of the ethnic group’s identity.

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Consumption of media by immigrant youths also gets incorporated into the creation of self-

identity of young people from immigrants. Ethnicity, sex, aesthetics, class, worth and behavior in

cinematic, musical, adverts and other similar production industries are affirmed and

simultaneously mirror societal standards. Youth on their part place selves within local, national

and/or global discourses through which they interpret, embrace adoption of, engage in

contestation or outright rejection of such messages. Second, smartphone use that allows them

unrestricted access to media at any one time means that they are constantly in a state of identity

work with regard to the multiple cultures. Altogether, it means that the process of globalization

has the potential for creation of rather complex identity in the context of multicultural world but

at the same time, it is rightful to mention alienation, confusion or, in the worst scenario, complete

identity loss as the threats. Despite the complicated and somewhat pessimistic overview

immigrant parents and communities fail to meet the dilemma because they combine tradition

with practical accommodations to the receiver state children growing in a progressively

integrated global world.

3. SOCIAL INTEGRATION AND ASSIMILATION

The second-generation of immigrants who were born and raised in multicultural society goes

through an intricate and a rather hierarchical process of construction of their self-image. In this

way, while first-generation immigrant parents themselves were socialized in a relatively

monochronic culture, their second-generation children are faced with managing a multichronic

culture. At home they are protected and develop initial socialization in terms of the culture,

beliefs and expectations of the immigrant parents and the language used by them. But in school

and the rest of the social world, they encounter certain cultural features of the receiving or the

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dominant culture. When cultural socialization occurs in two or more directions one gets identity

crises and the feeling of being in two places at a time.

Second-generation immigrants use identity work so as to equally situate themselves according

to their cultural mediocrity. This has been labeled as ‘‘selective acculturation’’ where the Salish

people maintain some elements of the immigrant’s experience that provides meaning and order,

at the same time embrace elements of the dominant Anglo culture which will enable enrolment in

school as well as employability in the labor market. However, the two cultural orientations can

hardly be far from each other for time before one of them subdues the other as a result of factors

such as the dynamism of the population density of immigrant, the pressure that comes with

family socialization, peers and Situational factors. For example, second-generation young people

may play the socialization game of conformity at school in order to achieve good academic

results but defiance at home with reference to their families and ethnic groups. However, an

ethnic enclave may make it possible for the person to integrate the immigrant identity in all the

spheres of life. Other gender differences are as follows, young females’ accommodation is

known to be socially and linguistically superior to that of males. It is however a battle within that

most of the second-generation lives through, though the manner in which the youth demonstrate

this may not be as observed by the previous generations.

- Definitions of Social Integration and Assimilation

The most prominent framework which describe the experiences of second-generation immigrants

are acculturation and social integration and determines the way immigrants are able to get their

positions in the society, economic, politically, culturally and even socially, in a process referred

to as assimilation. This is a shift to the core of diversity management that will seeks to reduce

differences between various categories for more general openness. On the individual level

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integration occurs through acquisition by the recipient of the practices and standards of the

majority through a process called assimilation. But it does not mean that you have to forget your

culture and your identity of origins. This entails that through earning substantial economic

capital, any immigrant can integrate into the mainstream economy; mobilize socially upward;

forge intergroup relations; and code some aspects of American character while exercising

political participation and voting, without having to deculturate. Acculturation thus deals with

superior levels of integration where the ‘immigrants’ in the stream analyze and adopt the cultural

norms, values and behaviors of the receiving or host society to the level that their pre-

immigration background cannot be easily discernible. This is one directional process in which

the ethnic group just accepts the standards of dominance and fails to include their norms, values

and beliefs. Of all these effects, assimilation may lead to between the young immigrants and their

parents in that the youths are closer to the Anglo mainstream culture than their parents.

Integration is therefore significant as far as second-generation immigrants’ identity formation is

concerned and vice versa for assimilation: various forms of social marginalization. The second-

generation’s youth might find themselves trapped in a cultural dilemma between the cultural

norms of the country their parents moved from and the cultural norms of the society that the

parents’ migrated to and raised the second-generation in. They also become the key for managing

the social connection with the co-ethnic networks and acquiring a bicultural script with the

mainstream organizations.

- Factors Influencing Social Integration

Second-generation immigrants have some features which define their social belonging in the new

societies. Employment probability is one of these factors for instance, employment probability is

higher among educated people as compared to the probability of employment among the

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illiterate. Those students, who proceed to universities, studied or received an enhancement of

language knowledge, cultural consciousness and social acquaintance that facilitate in the

transition. That is, the social interaction that the second-generation immigrants have in life at

university does enable them to develop friendship with other students of other origin. Hence, the

relationships are generated by which integration may take place if the parties involved have a

common knowledge about them. In addition, such skills as problem solving and writing and

speaking skills developed in higher education help immigrants to operate within the key social

institutions of the society.

Stability in the economy also brings most of the results to the factor of social integration. The

more second-generation immigrants acquire the potential to be productive economically the

more time and chances they have to gear up for friendship, engagement in community activities

recreation and all other integration chances. It also empowers them to move around in racially

integrated geographical locations and occupations, and therefore, come across various people

from the society. It provides them with a kind of financial liberty and a discretion and an

autonomy in the choice of the place to live, the child to send to school, the cultural activity to

participate in and other aspects that determine tracks of integration.

The host country’s culture and its ability to accept and welcome the second-generation

immigrants and the society’s ability to integrate the second-generation immigrants is an

important force. Social inclusion is impeded where social disadvantage deprives people, or

classes of people, of their fair chance of accessing adequate housing, employment, schooling,

and other amenities and where social categorizations and ethnicity cause discriminations against

employments as well as failure in equity of opportunities for individual or social advancement.

Equal opportunity employment and anti-discrimination legislation, provision of services for

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immigrants, provision of information in the community that encourages acceptance or integration

of people of different cultures are measures that facilitate social inclusion because they are the

enablers which permit immigrants to mesh with mainstream society. It is valuable to pay

attention to the acculturation of the immigrant-oriented attitudes of gatekeepers, as well as the

regular, non-elite members of the receiving society.

Integration still an ongoing process that is shaped by the immigrants themselves partly because

they are products of certain culture, motivation, and competence. For those who pursue academic

and economic stability, integrated institution and settings are promoted. Intercultural relationship

as well as intercultural network is seen to be more easily developed by those with outgoing

personality rather than those with reserve personality. The time and energy spent in ethnic

subculture consumption is time and energy inhaling on the overall society. The second-

generational youths’ identity and its value, is reflected in the relationship they have with co-

ethnics and the parents’ homeland is built upon the tension of the pull towards separation and

assimilation. Finally, social integration can be formulated as a mutual process that implies the

participation of an immigrant and the society; the essential complexity may be distinguished at

the individual level.

- Education and Social Mobility

Schooling is the main determinant of integration, or the lack of it, of second-generation

immigrants in the process of transitioning in their mobility patterns. On one hand, the outcomes

of education, particularly, if receiving higher levels of it, have proved that this factor increases

the prospect of gaining income status, improving one’s life condition and becoming a member of

the middle or upper class. This relative vertical social mobility through academic achievements

means that it is integration to the power and leadership positions in the communities of the host

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nations for the immigrants and their offspring. However, there are many barriers that preclude

equality in as much as education, and thus in terms of opportunity. The achievement of second-

generation immigrant children is low according to the research because the schools they attend

are mostly in high-poverty areas, the schools’ funding is therefore low. Also, some of them grew

up in low income and education households themselves and thus cannot offer their children the

relevant material and practical help to guide them through. Language differences, perceptions,

bias, discrimination, background models also played a role in the institutional integration crisis.

Insofar as identity formation is concerned, role of the educational system in their successful

integration or further marginalization cannot be overemphasized. Positive archival context for

diversity makes it possible for second-generation youths to retain their ethnic attachment while

accumulating funds for affirmative movement. But when one is isolated from other people or is

set in a position where they are forced to conform to the cultures of the dominant group, this

takes a toll on their mental health while undermining the level of self-esteem they have. Thus,

this paper is identifying the relationship between education and integration as a multifaceted one

and as a formative element for integration trajectories as well as a part of persons’ identity.

Access contributes to twining and integration of backgrounds and barriers severely isolate and

cover authority and progress of whole groups. Forces including the policy support for funding,

culture relevant, training for English learning programs and community partnership present

opportunity. In the same regard, the only immigrant families that can brag of such experiences

are those who are privileged to experience such supportive environment, therefore, would feel

more like they are part of the larger society and hence would be more concerned with the welfare

of the general society. Their children can then build two worlds which according to the child can

be built by him or her and which makes it possible for the child to take his or her roots of origin

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and embrace the other culture. Therefore, for second-generations’ community, academic

environment is the key sphere, which defines all the hues of integration trajectories. Education as

the primary method of ‘access and inclusion’ is equivalent to opportunities for growth within

personal as well as social domains; systematic exclusions125 as the continuation of the erasure

of identity and personhood. Thus, when there is meaningful and integrative policies and

practices, education is capable of lifting all groups while penalizing systems put in place barriers

that takes a generation to overcome.

- Employment and Economic Participation

For second-generation immigrants there are only two ways in which their education level defines

their employment situation as well as their contribution to the economy, asserting that

employment opportunities, opportunities to get paid and professional jobs of managers and

officials and earning capacity is higher among educated people. This pattern is not in any way

limited to the Asian group alone but applies across the different ethnic groups as well. For

instance, a study by the Mexican second-generation immigrants: Mexican immigrants with

college education have earnings that are comparable to the white, unlike the co-ethnics with low

education levels who earn less wages. As their outcomes reveal, the children of immigrants with

low human capital, who themselves did not complete high school, suffer the worst labor market

outcomes and makeup the new permanent underclass.

Hence, with the elements of structural, cultural and ideology, a system that defines the

dispersion of immigrants’ children education achievement from different origins is complex.

There are also structural barriers like badly resourced and segregated by race schools in the

impoverished neighborhoods of immigrants that can hamper learning. Beliefs elucidate priorities

in immigrant families, education and migration culture and when home and school culture differ.

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The children of immigrants, at the personal level, also have diverse abilities, dream and attitudes

towards schooling and working that fuels their difference. Some of the government policies

which are aimed at enhancing the enrollment in postgraduate studies and other certification

courses, which have the ability to help disadvantaged students to enter well-rewarding

employment.

The type of social relations that second-generation immigrants build at school is no less

burdensome for their economic futures. Co-ethnicity peers and positive reference individuals,

cross races friendship assist in acquainting the immigrant children to advantageous resources

contacts and information to mobility. It is such social capital that assist them in issues to do with

collage enrollment, job search, exercising the transition to adulthood and dealing with

mainstream formal institutions. Thus, the first life course educational context availability

determines the relative foreign born economic integration path of the children of immigrants

depending on the features of the settings which they can obtain. It affirmed that employment

status they achieved in adulthood as well as earnings they accrue in their working careers are to a

very large extent a function of how schools deployed or procured their human, cultural and social

capital.

- Challenges of Integration in Host Societies

Various factors that make the acculturation of such second-generation immigrants into the

societies of the respective host countries charged with challenges that are social, cultural,

economic and political as well. The first factor is that most of the second-generation youths are

in a cultural and social ‘margin’ between to the new country and the country of origin by

developing a dual system of values. Each of them is a different generation, which has different

experience of identity in contrast with the previous one. Work is required for accommodation,

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and consequently, language and cultural standards of the dominant society are claimed, even

though it can be attained by means of boring schooling and media intake at the expense of

abandoning the family and a cultural background. Such a conflict may make the second-

generation switch between culture and identity as if between two streams This of course in those

countries of immigration where integration is a dominant process – such as America or France –

the cultural hybridity is viewed not as an asset but a liability and a threat towards the prevailing

cultural heritage.

Second-generation youth do better in the host countries, Canada, Australia and Sweden where

there are cultural diversity policies that support diversity and where the diversity is valued but

second-generation outcome remains however disparate and less than equivalently favorable in

terms of education and employment opportunities for all second-generation youth. The perceived

and real lack of economic opportunities can demoralize young people and hinder their physical

coming of age. Other discourses that are likewise potentially harmful are discourses that fixate

upon second-generation youth as criminals, violent, angry, and ‘non-acculturated’. Racism and

discrimination are distinctive to each nation, but they are also obstacles that probably persist in

each nation. Thus, the host society public opinion, the multiculturalism versus assimilationism

paradigm, economic opportunities and barriers, minority and social adversity in schools, cultural

conflict and pressure, family conflicts, identity crisis, emergent anti-immigrant nationalism and

other factors, multiple-sided, build up the integration hurdles for second-generations.

Integration therefore is not a one-way process and involves both host societies and the main

population who are always in a transitional stage as a result of immigration and the resulting

Diversity. That although integration is the task of immigrants, the government and society is

equally has a task of hosting the immigrants by accepting them warmly. Different developmental

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perspectives and the capacity to negotiate new diversities are the perspective for the future of the

pluricultural society.

- Policy Approaches to Integration

As far as large organizations are concerned, it has to be their privilege to formulate policies that

facilitate integration while not completely eliminating the possibility of immigrant’s ethnic

enactment. The accommodation policies ensure that the immigrants cut their cultural affiliations

and embrace the society of the receiving country, which in most cases means that they give up

their record of their cultural language, practices and even organizations. In the opinion of this

writer, such policies compromise the process of youth particularly second-generation youth

because they don’t know whether to hold on to their immigrant background or to become more

aligned to the dominant Anglo-Saxon norms. For a contrast, multicultural policies legalize

immigration and allow immigrants to preserve their cultural practices of their home countries

and offer financial support to ethnic festivities, media and education of their languages.

However, critics have pointed out that this a) makes it possible for immigrants to end up in

ethnic bonded jobs with little, if any, contact beyond in the ethnic realms. It is in between

integration as the citizens get to be politically and socially active while they also get to learn

other languages apart from hiring the workforce, but it also allows the ethnic and cultural groups

to be maintained. One of the elements among the propositions of the integration policies is

second-generation immigrants and their interaction with the process of identification and

integration. Possible policies are those that would be capable of financially endorsing

intercultural activities that cover native and immigrating youths, those policies that would foster

diversification of the media, and those that would enhance ethnic curriculum that embraces part

of the immigrating force history and culture. It also implies that the specialized mental health can

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help second-generation youth overcome the distress resulting from processes of acculturation

and identity search. In total, the policy making is concerned with how needs vary, with

immigrants’ integration rather than assimilation and with putting forward appropriate and proper

perspectives to support integration without diminishing multiculturalism. In undertaking the

process of integrating immigrant, it is seen that there are certain impacts under the parameters of

identity, economy and social acceptance for the immigrants. As for the making of sound policies,

these various processes and concerns with relation to assimilation, multiculturalism and

integration must be considered with a view of changing the situation where these minorities

youths find themselves and more importantly with a view of creating a diverse, richer and

tolerant society.

4. EDUCATION AND SECOND-GENERATION IMMIGRANTS

The second-generation immigrants, their education and how the identity they acquire as

determined by the welcome accorded to them in the societies affects them. Educational prowess

and academic success may enhance their chances of being able to become part of the middle

white culture while at the same time maintaining their ethnic culture with a positive self-image.

However, several suffer from system injustice which may comprise language barriers, no or

limited funds, and parents’ low level of awareness of the school. Independently, failure may dent

their self-esteem if they align themselves to the cultural narrative of deviance if they do not

succeed. While on the other end discriminated or rejected at school may entail search for

rebellion against norms, the end results is conferring on them a low level education that locks

them into a particular social or economic stratum.

Fortunately, such practices as culturally responsive teaching and learning and multicultural

education help with such integration. A culturally diverse lesson is an assurance that their culture

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is recognized and perhaps more absorbed. Besides, it is equally wrong to say that bilingual

education becomes a barrier to the learning of academic English since in bilingual education the

child is able to use his or her own language while at the same time learning academic English at

a pace they consider most appropriate. However, this is a reality that not all the institutions put in

place such programming. It also defines some of the inter-group differences which are also large.

For instance, some Asian ethnic groups attain higher education and income than what could be

regarded as the ‘normal’ or ‘traditional’ American of native descent. For some ethnic groups,

occupational integration is facilitated through their performance in postsecondary schooling,

while for other groups, such as Latinos the likelihood of even enrolment in postsecondary

schooling is high but are likely to be undocumented hence limiting their options for occupational

integration. However, it is important to bear in mind that a lot more than skill and funding comes

from their families. Despite the fact that parents would tend to maintain high educational

expectations for their children, their capacity to assist them with home-work may be affected if

the parents are educationally or linguistically or economically disadvantaged. Hence, second-

generation integration through education entails handling of many a social cultural and economic

aspect for a gradual experience that in the process builds up as well as being shaped by their

youthful developing character.

- Educational Attainment and Challenges

Second-generation immigrant adolescents face major barriers that manifest in relation to

schooling and these barriers are socially constructed through structures and relations. Language

issues in learning, and especially in the classroom, school finances, prejudice coming from

fellow school-members, and clashes of the cultures in an immigrant families and cultures within

school setting might interfere with the learning processes and the academic results. On the same

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note, faith and optimism of education with a view to elevating the status of the family is another

common feature found among second-generation students’ and parents.

Negotiating attainment tasks and goals becomes the immigration identity and integration for the

second-generation. Experiences of participating in mainstream education trajectories influence

the conceptualization of the self, the perceived opportunities and acceptance and inclusion.

Education enables and limits the ways in which meaning is made regarding these youth to

position them, to understand themselves in light of rights and responsibilities residing in their

subjectivity as emergent citizens and in light of the possibilities that relations can offer that are

livable.

Mainstream schools are more bureaucratic, competitive and independent systems of

management in opposition to collectivists, cooperative model that is often characteristic of many

immigrants’ traditions. Such tensions of multiculturalism in the population could even result into

identity-conflicts and social marginalization from both the source and the host cultures. At the

same time, school as an interface testing of identity and as the context of peer relations crucial

for differentiation and integration of the practices of hybrid identity construction. Implemented

interaction situations in the classrooms thus give intercultural potential for construction of

commonalities or solidarities and possibilities of political mobilizations in similar justice

concerns.

This is because opportunity and outcome differentials characterize the second-generation

immigrants’ complex integration in the latter country. Education inequity and disparities deny

and affirm social marginalization. In contrast, in attainment and treatment parody occurs, moving

more clients ‘out of the closet’ into a more structured/socio culturally integrated state. Schools

are ethnoscopes or sites of ethnic socialization, as well as of ethnic confrontation and

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contestation for the fair share of resources within the determined ethnic struggles for ethnic

opportunities in education as well as for ethnicity-based claims to cultural citizenship. Education

is therefore not made guiltless of being both the oppressor and savior of second-generation

immigrant communities.

- Role of Schools in Identity Formation

Schools are at the heart of the process that shapes the young second-generation immigrants’

identity. This paper underscores schools as a social institution where young immigrants:

emancipate themselves in interpretation of multicultural hybrid identities as they are operating in

an institution outside the home daily. Starting from what is taught in class and the sort of

grouping required in the classroom to cliques, social clubs, parties and organizations, all have the

ethnic and national identity and type embedded in them. Teachers also impose on the students of

immigrant origin their presuppositions and biases exerting which they contribute to youths’

positioning in relation to a variety of identity orienting points.

In cases where these children go to school, second-generation immigrants as they are referred

to, can experience cultural contradictions in their lives where on one hand, they are socialized in

the immigrant way at home and on the other, they live in the Anglo-American acculturation and

New World assimilation mode. On one side, access can be defined by feelings of alienation and

distance from curricular and pedagogical practices because the young immigrants do not see

their lives and families represented in what is offered in classrooms. When cultural models,

expectations and role models are not diverse and not in authoritative positions, education systems

can also demoralize such students and therefore intensify the total sense of cultural mismatch at

home and school. However, schools also mean that students can ‘come out’ or ‘closet’ aspects of

their hyphenated selves depending on the social contexts – in privacy, students can celebrate and

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affirm immigrants’ identity, while in public, students try to assimilate to mainstream norms.

Code-switching and shape-shifting were identified being used as strategies that the bicultural

students had to undertake in order to cope with the social prejudice. As for the other peer

networks in which intercultural contact and meaningful dialogue are conceivable, healthy hybrid

selves are also possible as well. This implies that schools have to be well prepared to enable the

immigrant-origin students to cope with all these tensions and contradictions in a positive way for

their psychosocial integration as immigrants. While ensuring that schools offer culturally

relevant program and services and where additive cultural production for a logically coherent

bicultural self is necessary, the notion of subtractive assimilation diminishes the minority

languages, reading and cultural worth.

- Bilingual Education and Language Barriers

Equally important is the fact that a large proportion of children of immigrants in public schools

are also educationally disadvantaged by language. Parents, who came to a new country for the

first time, often retain their mothers’ language and know very little English themselves. In this

aforesaid social setting, their children if in school learning English end up speaking English at

home as well, thus expunging their parents’ native language at a rather fast pace. These

immigrant students thus can do well in mastering written form of English as used in school but

may struggle at times to converse with other monolingual parents who cannot assist a lot with

homework. Therefore, limited involvement by the parents due to such barriers in the language

diminishes the accomplishment of learners negatively. Some parents enroll their second-

generation children in bilingual education classes because they want the children to retain their

home language as well as home culture, and at the same time learn social language, which in this

case is English. Nevertheless, the effectiveness of such programs is tied to the idea of families’

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income and education level. Some may counter this by asserting that the elite immigrant groups

are able to get their children to enroll in the rich suburban schools with dual immersion learning

resources while the poor immigrants cannot, they are stranded, attending massive urban school

where the issue of how best to deal with students’ language weakness takes center stage. In this

research, low performing ELL students, who have little or no first language education, and those

who have poor academic English skills will be compared to native English-speaking students as

far as their academic achievement is concerned. The achieved low literacy levels among natives

of the first-generation compel the later generations of immigrants to finish high school and

college and also improve their stock of social capital to improve their mobility in the ranks of the

economy while the non-native speakers are left in academically low classes or consider dropping

out due to language barriers that hinder their integration in the social and economic systems.

They discovered that education based in the first language while introducing academic English

for second-generation immigrant students increases both cultural identity and social integration;

but it is a deficiency both in amount and distribution between socioeconomic status or country of

origin and current language dominance.

- Disparities in Educational Outcomes

These comparison with the first-generation of immigrants and with peers native to the country in

terms of achievement reveal that second-generation immigrant students are disadvantaged and

this may impact on the identity of the students as well as their incorporation in the society. I

concur with this analysis though some second-generation immigrants like Asian student perform

better that natives the same can’t be said of others like the Hispanic who do worse in high school

and college completion figures. These gaps are occasioned by a number of factors such as

discrimination and stereotyping at schools, difference in the income levels of families, education

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level and fluency in English of parents, available support structures, quality of schools second-

generation imitates attend and cultural factors towards education. Parent illiteracy and weak

English proficiently hinders the process of assisting them with the school works. It is unfortunate

that wherever there are students, there will always be those that are financially struggling hence

finding themselves a position where they will have to be working in order to cater for their needs

in school rather than be studying. In the same way, ability grouping and tracking may affect the

disciplinary practices concerning engagement and advancement are also biased. Students who

can do better only fail to obtain proper guidance and information as when and how to apply for

college; hence they fail to proceed to the next level of education. For instance, Hispanic students’

scores are lower on achievement tests, but they have either higher or similar goal aspirations,

implying that barriers stifle goals. Such learning attitudes and perceptions may lead to students

experiencing academic difficulties to create subcultures incongenial with organized learning

institutions which marginalize their competency. Insofar as social integration is concerned, those

with more positive progression move along comparatively lesser steep gradients. The

effectiveness arises from the academic processes in helping students to establish positive ethnic

self-organization for functioning in the dominance of ethnic environments. Erasing prejudice

diminishes alienation: Showing the good side of Diversity. Services corresponding to language

disorders, pressures to assimilate, discrimination or from unstable families assist students to pay

sufficient focus on the schooling process. The policies that foster increased enrollment in quality

programs such as early childhood education; post-secondary programs; entrepreneurship and

post-secondary career and college guidance increase engagement. Thus, only by drawing upon

various interventions that are gradually taking into account the structural and cultural conditions

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for successful learning in second-generation students, those gaps that shape identity and

distortion of opportunities for social integration will be addressed.

- Peer Influence and Social Networks

Close friendships and other social interactions with peer groups in school, friends and other

contacts are important in the identification and the experience of being accepted as belonging to

that community. These youths attend local schools and as such come in contact with youths of

other ethnic groups at a close proximity in their daily lives unlike their elders. Hence, they have

friends, activities and norms other than the family and cultural diversity but peers and popular

youth culture activities. It does this in a way that the wider social exposure does by affecting

second-generation youths’ self-perception. On one hand they make multiethnic friends which

allows to use the mainstream language and enjoy the mainstream pop culture referencing

attending mainstream events. This in turn helps in the achievement of the stereotypical socially

acceptable assimilation into the larger national society. Second-generation on the other hand has

other challenges, and some of them include the ethnic model to emulate, the pressure to maintain

the cultural norms and ethnicity of their families and communities. These are the claimed Realms

in that they attempt to renegotiate the ethnic identity and also attempt to resolve their plight into

the mundane society that is why these subjects move in between two social worlds as well as

their identity. For some, it results in conflict while, for others, it results in the flexibility, or even

a more mobile or fluid, or even a dual cultural identity. However, it emphasizes the intensive

function in the processes of cultural change and identifications second-generation youth

undergoing during the growing up in such aspect of social relations outside the family

microcosm. Secondary socialization agents are also social networks and social media sites that

have shortened young immigrants’ circle of interlocutors. Social media makes them not only

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expand their networks beyond geographic and ethnic constraints but also. Here, one can easily

meet and deal with different types of social interrelations, different ways of using language, and

different spheres of interests and values. The site also allows youths to build an avatar in a bid to

establish what cultural features to present to peers or even to emulate. Therefore, parents and

families, when they were young and growing up as second-generation are active players in

culture formation and retention by practice; but pressure from peers in local and online groups

exerts an even stronger pull. The formation of the self and the sense of inclusion occur due to the

experiences with the values and the roles assigned by and the comments from the multiple

communities they come across.

- Higher Education and Career Aspirations

Second-generation immigrants therefore have high education and occupational expectations

because they hold the view that education is a key to better job opportunities in life. However,

they fail to achieve them and face barriers like economic constraints, lack of orientation as well

as appropriate support in handling complex systems, discrimination, and as carriers and victims

of gendered domestic and cultural roles.

Second-generation youth are fully aware of the fact that their parents faced difficulties in a bid

to offer better chances to them. This generates wants directed at gaining education to meet the

expected family roles, and to become social climbers to prevent being classified in society. Also,

schools and other community environments back the development of occupational visions. But

some of them are not educationally well endowed as they ought to be, due to poor quality of

elementary and secondary education. In addition, referring to the institutions of education

systems, these are also said to support meritocracy which is more of a theory; however, on the

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ground, post-secondary support structures are inadequate in assisting immigrants to enroll and

complete support.

For most of the second-generation youths, white collar and high paying careers are that single

goal many aspire to as part of the American dream. Continental preferences entail Asians and

Africans studying medicine, law, engineering, as well as business; Latin Americans choosing arts

and business. But some immigrant parents use cultural values specific practices that would limit

children from the areas they deem to have no interest in. In addition to that discrimination in the

process of hiring also thwarts the achievement of a highly professional job goal especially where

names associated with an ethnic group elicit pre-set prejudices.

Despite second-generation immigrants being as eager as the first-generation to education and a

career, they are socially and family restricted in mobility. Increasing access and engagement for

institutions may assure more youths more abilities to use motivation to provide contributions

which will improve societies. Changes in the systemic policy and better availability of

community services are required to maintain a correlation between the level of the given promise

and future opportunities and those accomplishments of the individuals who will be building the

American future and multiple socio-cultural diversifications.

5. FAMILY DYNAMICS AND INTERGENERATIONAL RELATIONSHIPS

This makes family structure to still be of paramount importance in the lives of second-generation

immigrants as they seek to integrate themselves in the society. While first-generation immigrants

are adults who perhaps know fully well who they are, the second-generation child immigrant

needs to grapple with the immigrant culture and the American culture that they are raised in. This

can lead to acculturation differences between the generations particularly the parent and children

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in that the parents are eager to retain their culture but the children are forced to integrate with the

host culture as demonstrated in schools and on television. Parents and children are expected to

acculturate in different rhythms to the pull, adorable effect of which is the imposition of pressure

on family relations if unnoticed. Nevertheless, it is the family unit which goes on being charged

with the rightful responsibility of bequeathing to the generations that follow the beliefs and

culture, the historical relics and even language of the people. Preserving the cultural practices in

the families of immigrants provides children with essential values derived from cultural

backgrounds that are enshrined into the complicated transitional personalities. It is however a

different challenge which the second-generation youth have to deal with, that of having to live

between two worlds and trying to explain the dilemmas of the culture practiced at home as

opposed to that practiced in school. These are the family structures that facilitate communication

and try to keep intergenerational acculturation differences to the minimum in as much as young

immigrants develop their identities and acquire incorporation related competencies within the

broader social structures of employment, education, and other cultural and social domains. The

ways that families adjust themselves determine the support and chances second-generation youth

get as they progress through the developmental stages of adolescence and emerging adulthood to

access their place identity, social, and cultural in two worlds that may not overlap.

- Parent-Child Relationships in Immigrant Families

Parent–child relationship is a dynamic reality especially with regard to immigrant families and

the theme gets a raw deal because of immigration and acculturation. The parents of immigrants

still retain their cultural attitudes and parental outlook on their children even if the latter embrace

most of the behaviors of the new society in which they grew up especially in the new society

where they were born. This can lead to; Large generation gaps within families over aspects such

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as decisions to have independence, dating and relationship, choosing of a career, language used

in the household and the keeping up of certain cultures among others.

First-generation immigrant children may have rebellion and question their parents and their

authority as they emulate the dominant culture and go about altering structures in their families.

children also have to think about their place in the society because they are always in between

two cultures as they try to fit in school with children from birthplace yet they owe allegiance to

their families and society they came from. That this division can create potent emotions, it is

real; for others, it produces psychological disorder or solitude. Some of the issues that young

adults may encounter as they struggle for independence may be affected as most of them observe

their cultural extended family responsibility and values, which are not quite similar to the

westerners’ liberal culture that espouses individualism.

The relationship between genders equally influences the immigrant parent-child relations, for

instance, daughters are more adaptable to the new culture and quickly absorb the new culture of

the country as opposed to the parents, especially those hailing from traditional society; they are

likely to be more concerned with issues to do with marriage or sexuality among their children.

Such tensions can lead to Open Wars that involve Psychological Fitness for Family System

stakes. Promoting healthy intergenerational relationships is crucial, nevertheless, barriers include

for example poverty, discrimination, post-traumatic stress, language other than English as the

medium of communication, no health insurance and other important services in families’

stressors are overwhelming among immigrants. In sum, the dynamics that are associated with

immigration and resettlement touch on parent-children’s relations and intergenerational

configurations in immigrant families in a very delicate way.

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- Intergenerational Cultural Conflicts

Intergenerational cultural transgression are in many times seen in immigrant families specifically

because second-generation youth tend to assimilate and adapt to the culture of the new country

that the belong to. Since the children go to the local school and therefore are likely to imbibe the

norms and language of the majority, a cultural and perhaps friendship, television and all other

forms of media gap is created between the immigrating parents and their children. While the

first-generation immigrant parents raised their children with the purpose of preserving the

cultural aspects or values from the country of origin and the collectivistic aspects as expected in

their culture to honor thy father and mother and other relevant values, expectations and beliefs,

the second-generation youngsters prefer individualism and the equality of men and women that

is observed in the new world order.

The cultural ways and approach of these two paradigms generate furor and tensions that affect

generations. The immigrant parents may frown upon their children’s embrace of the American

culture and change their behavior as follows contempt for order and discipline, inclination to

reject family, and prefer to be with a group, dressing indecently or going for a date. Conflict

happens in incidences that are of generational conflict in social functions where the teenager is

uncomfortable with ethnic expression. Furthermore, immigrant children seem to be in-between

two poles of home/School identity cultural Immigrant as they battle between their cultures.

During the day they have to live like their peers by dressing, speaking like them, watching the

movies their culture cherishes, and living by their rules; but once they are home, they have to

follow the rules of their parents’ native country. But it also depicted others as wanting to sever

ties with their families so that they could be acceptable in mainstream society.

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Such transitions are a catalyst to social concerns such as incidences of generational rivalry as

well as to the overall well-being of the family members. the availability of hierarchal structures

of the family that provide support system to the first-generation immigrants has a tendency to be

less available in the successive ones. There are waves, however, that show evidence of at least

some conflict even in assimilated families – much less suggesting that teenage drama plays a

role. In any case, it is still a question of how to balance the preservation of heritage culture, on

the one hand, and integration into the dominant culture, on the other, which is relevant among

immigrants and their descendants to this day.

- Role of Extended Family in Identity Formation

What one can observe is that in varying a number of ways the role of the extended family in the

formation of identity of second-generation migrants is very crucial. It must also be said that,

whereas the first-generation of youth and their parents and grandparents physically uproot and

transport themselves to another country, the second-generation of youth is grounded in a state of

cultural and possibly, but not necessarily, pole of values. It is in this respect that the manage both

their own families’ ethnography as well as the American dominant culture that they encounter in

the schools, the social, and the mass media. From this context, the strong support is the extended

family where the bio relatives, the nearest or the distant ones, use the digital mode to remain

enjoined with each other, and thereby make the family structure coherent to offer the

generational knowledge and the stories contrary to the individualism and homelessness that

define the social existence in the present society. This is so because elders in the family like the

aunt’s, uncle’s and grandparents offer young members of the family histories of the family and

ethnic background, family legends and taboos as well as traditional foods, music or beliefs which

make the young understand “who we are and where are we from”. This is in conformity to the

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trend of informal tradition education that enables the young to develop a sharper perception of

the culture and the knowledge of the historical achievements and set back of identity. Thus, the

behaviors of members of different generations may conflict with conservative elders who insist

on language and assimilation, ‘sell out’ youths compelled to speak the heritage language fluently,

or scolded for dating or mingling with non-group individuals. Inquiring, rebelling or selectively

embracing traditions on one’s own builds up and negotiates value conflicts enabling a person to

have a better voice. In addition, as children are isomorphic of culture as interpreters in such

linguistic situations related to economic or bureaucratic matters, which the elders are unable to

negotiate for their needs, then the children are privileged and given a higher status in performing

these crucial familial responsibilities. Hence the caregiving as well as the advocating that

second-generation finds among relatives, it is the constructive encouragement and the conflicts

in the family that constitute the identities of individual, group and ethnic that is formed by

second-generation of Indians.

- Gender Roles and Expectations

Second-generation immigrants’ gender role expectations in families is not as straightforward

since it involves the parent’s gender role idea in the home country and the evolving gender roles

of the host country. Parents especially immigrants arrive with clear cultural beliefs on expected

conduct of male and female as well as their duties in the family. For example, a study

demonstrates that immigrant families from patriarchal cultures appear to remain highly gendered

in that fathers have a lot of power and decision-making power of financial matters and other

concerns, while the mothers are engaged in domestic work and child care, more frequently in

conjunction with little education and job opportunities for girls. Such division of roles leads to

conflicts that the second-generation children, especially daughters experience because while they

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have been trained in the liberal education of the adopted country and have interacted with peers

from that country, they are restrained by the different, stricter standards at home and within their

ethnic community. As much as it has been evidenced that intergenerational conflicts over choice

of partners, friends, attitudes towards study, and expectations for the future affects immigrant

parents and their daughter’s communication patterns, all these conflicts should be understood to

take place in the understanding that certain patterns are preferable over others. Some studies

show that irritation with backlash on assimilating attitudes and behaviors makes second-

generation females more likely to gain early liberation from the mother control to conceal some

elements of her social activity, or to isolate herself from the family, which can potentially harm

the long-term functioning of the family integration. On the other hand, there are some research

papers expounding on how there is a difference in the degrees of assimilation among the

different immigrant families some being more willing to adapt in a way to enable children to be

more independence at a tender age. In the same families, siblings are observed to experience

these forces of gender roles in different ways concerning birth order, intelligence, friendship

circle, amongst others. Consequently, the differences of state between the gender roles of the first

culture and the new roles dictated by the second culture when immigration is compounded with

other cultural elements occupies a central place in identity formation and integration in the

second-generation immigrants. The hope for long term social integration for immigrants within

families or achievement among them, I suggest, depends fundamentally on the desire or lack of

desire of immigrant parents and more so, their children to listen well and empathize and

negotiate through the conflicts each face in the inter-generation level they occupy.

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- Family Communication and Language Use

It is therefore possible to affirm that the way the two generations of an immigrant family

communicates carries many implications for the overall growth of the entire family as children of

immigrant face the growing process. This leads to many a child of immigrants being a member

of two cultural worlds – that of the parent and kinship, who use one language at home, and that

of the peer and school, to whom a different language is used. This is even more the case where

the second-generation is made of persons who were either born in the new country or arrived at a

tender age; the language tends to be that of the new country rather than that of the parents. This

can result into healthy communication between the young and elder people in the families as

well as strife in the families. That is why parents desire their children to speak the native

language since it is full of traditions of ancestors and their values. Language in and of itself,

already contains the culture, the paradigms as well as the manner of perceiving the world that is

characteristic of a determinate language. However, they may decide not to speak the language if

they have such feelings because it robs them a chance of learning the language that offers better

prospects or language preferred by their peer group. They also may likely experience social

insecurity concerning the show of immigrant culture or customs in the other regions of the home.

On the similar grounds, familial relationships are also appreciated due to immigrants’

background, and parents rely on the elder siblings as interpreters and bridge between two worlds.

This linguistic distance is enough to flip the more conventional roles in the family whereby the

parents are depending on the children for something they cannot control. Degree and adjustment

of family constellation and roles involve factors like relation of the family to the ethnic

community, parents’ language competence in the new language, duration of the family’s stay in

the host country, degree of match between the family rules and roles and personality. There is the

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resentment/embarrassment for and the pride/respect of language communication and integration

speakers and patterns.

- Intergenerational Mobility and Expectations

The discipline, which parents and families of second-generation immigrants’ place on their

children, may of course determine the chances of the youthful years in a society. Thus, it can be

seen that parents – specially immigrants, have no qualms about heavily investing in the future of

their children with regards to the prospects that lie in such aspects as schooling, neighborhood,

and credentialing. This sacrifice, therefore, breeds high expectations that the children should

avail themselves to these chances to achieve the mobility perhaps a dream of the immigration

gen. However, the specific expectations have to do with the career, education level or any other

parameter of a successful young person, can also put pressure, create tension and identity crisis

for the young people as they attempt to balance between the cultural responsibilities towards

their families and the new found DNA within the cultural setting of the new country. Thus, there

may be dissimilarities between the immigrant parents raising those children and teaching them

their own educative, materialistic perspectives on life: the parents who brought their children into

this country and who define success narrowly, in terms of either repute or the remuneration of a

job, and the children who may themselves have a much more pluralistic understanding of

different career options and various concepts of individual accomplishment that their parents

may not comprehend or may Thus, to the credit of the representatives of the second-generation, it

is feasible to resort to the conclusion that the construction of a new identity of a person as a

synthesis of selected aspects of the parent and culture values, as well as the constantly arising

and developing individual and social roles and goals, is a very intricate apprehension. It can lead

to formation of family splits or crises where children and youth are unable to reconcile

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themselves to parental decisions or cultural exclusion as regards more individualistic decisions

like education, occupation, or mode of life. However, it is equally necessary to realize that some

vital ‘culture intermediaries’ within ethnic communities could best bridge the gap between

parent’s expectations and second-generation youths’ reality and offer the ‘means’ that would

allow the latter to ascend the social hierarchy ladder, while not severing the familial supportive

branch altogether.

6. ECONOMIC PARTICIPATION AND LABOR MARKET OUTCOMES

This is because their economic interaction with the economy of the host country and their

position in the labor market prescribes the manner in which the 2nd generation immigrants

construct identity and integration in the societies in question. The job status, the earnings, the

ability to get promotions, the chances of upward social mobility that children of immigrants have

in workplaces are the things that define or shape their identification with or their sense of

belonging to the larger society. For example, young immigrants of the second-generation who

cannot secure a job in the ‘new middle class due to Discrimination or lack of social capital and

thereby unable to join the new ‘proper’ white-color category may not fully fit into this category.

It results in the exclusion from the economic activities which in turn may create a sense of an

ethnic identity and identification with the co-ethnic immigrants and not the host society.

Nonetheless, those, who have a chance to reap the benefits of the parents’ sacrifice, and

assimilate a better social and/or economic status might be privileged not only to freely cross

between different cultural contexts and choose which cultural identity to embrace but also to

maneuver easily in a variety of settings. The second kind of change that impacts on identity and

integration is in relation to the second-generation youth labor market – economic deterioration to

decrease the types of occupations available can serve to retain the ethnic sub-cultural youth

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identity whereas improvements to prosperity and job opportunities accelerates youth assimilation

into middle class roles. In sum, as occupations, careers, income, or as feeling of citizenship/

alienation in a given economy define who the second-generation is and how they are engaged in

differently subculture, classed and socialized societies, the positioning in or work worlds carries

high significance. More specifically, a high level of economy involvement reduces ethnic barrier

and promotes better ethnic mixing than discrimination and blocked mobility that asserts a clear

ethnic selves and marginality at the outer fringes of the core, thus illustrating the potential of

second-generation youths’ contact with the labor market.

- Employment Patterns Among Second-Generation Immigrants

Analyzing the second-generation, children of immigrants, for economic participation and labor

market results, employment trends that point to better and worse emerge. Second-generation

immigrant formally educates themselves more than their immigrated parents so that they can get

better and more skillful jobs as well as better wages. Nevertheless, there are still differences that

can be observed between some of the subgroups of second-generation and the native-born

American youths which implies that there are still barriers. For instance, Mexican and central

Americans of second-generation have less employment and job status than white native-born

Americans. Sociologists have noted that this may have been caused by low levels of human

capital development of the immigrant parents most of whom are low skilled and continued

discrimination. Yet, majority of the second-generation immigration from Asia and Europe has

similar median earnings and occupational attainment as native whites, implying relatively fast

rate of social incorporation. There are also gender employment patterns; though, second-

generation immigrant women get better education than the first-generation immigrants their

opportunities to advance in the business careers especially in the technology fields remain

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limited. This means that, special efforts must be had on measures in areas of skill development,

low-cost child care facilities, equal wages for women and no sexism to boost the women’s

economic participation. Thus, the employment characteristics of second-generation; Parental

human capital, educational opportunity, race and gender discriminatory factors, and geographical

distribution form the Economic Profile. There is some gain in efficacy, but it can still be apparent

that ethnic gaps are present in the general tendencies of improvement, particularly as regards

literacy. It follows that policies that facilitate formation of human capital and reduce the

constrains imposed by labor market institutions will enhance children of immigrants’ economic

integration.

- Discrimination and Labor Market Segmentation

There are evidences that second-generation immigrants can be discriminated rather strongly on

the labor market and when it comes to the labor market outcomes and the degree of economic

incorporation, the problems may stem from the concept of a segmented labor market. Second-

generation youth though more educated and skilled than the first-generations themselves are

more inclined than the first-generation to be in the secondary jobs that have relatively low wages,

low promotion or mobility prospects. Ethnocentrism racism and firsthand prejudice and

prejudice in language accent and religious belief in have established that minority ethnic second-

generation groups are demographically unacceptable to gain first sector employment in well paid

professional and or managerial occupations. Rather, they are trapped in insecure jobs that are

services sector jobs that are vulnerable, informal, probationary, toxic, and peripheral such as

cleaning, construction, care-giving, driving, factory-work, and the like. Ibarra and Mivedo

established that in both secondary labor markets there is no bargaining power over wages or

working conditions, and no protection by laws in the case of immigrant workers. In addition,

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constrained in ethnic enclaves, both residential and social, there is very limited access to

circulating job information and the necessary contacts to secure employment and shift into

primary industries. All in all, discrimination from employers, what is more, employers’ latent

biases, together with recruitment procedures that naturally select native-born majority

candidates, entrap second-generation immigrants into segmented secondary labor markets even if

they improve their human capital. This socially and economically disconnects them from

promotions or other opportunities within the higher classes. The measures that will help fight the

modern segmentation of the labor market involve the exclusion of discriminative barriers on all

the stages – recruitment, employment, wages, promotions, and working conditions – in order to

give equal opportunities to the second-generation groups in the current labor market, in various

and diverse sectors, occupations and levels.

- Entrepreneurship and Self-Employment

Forced to seek their own opportunities for entering more into the economy, second-generation

immigrant persons, born in the new country to immigrants of the first-generation, are now having

to turn to self-employment and business. This includes aspiring to preserve the culture and, in the

process, having suffered discrimination in the conventional formal employment positions. There

are others too, however, it embraces more of the freedom of the individual such as flexibility and

being your own boss, it is established that the factors that compel second-generation immigrants

to set up companies These factors include, education, capital and network support, business

family history, and perceptions on self-employment. The educated are more confident in the

management of the regulatory bodies than the less educated are. And that is why, even though

many theorists believe that the term ‘glass ceiling’ is more suitable to the traditional model of

labor market, some highly skilled personnel always report of experiencing the problem. It can be

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a self-employed kind of market and all the competence of a person can be used while being

ethnic-loyal. For instance, young immigrants, who established their own law offices, can

professionally take care about the legal requirements of the immigrants. The industries the

second-generation immigrates have entrance range from diverse, however; majority of them still

retain their jobs in areas that their parent selected for them such as restaurants, retail and personal

services. To a certain extent, such ethnic food, handcrafted items or cultural event that the

second-generation immigrants offer can indeed help connect them with their roots while at the

same time also meet the requirements of the society. Since a vast majority of folks who enter

entrepreneurship must undertake seed capital investment, those individuals who can find family

funding opportunities or business loans are preferred. The following is a list of main issues; The

low credit rating for vulnerable groups such as immigrants without documentation are a main

issue. Nevertheless, ethnic enclaves may provide the opportunity for Shinyuki’s non-

heteronormative source of invisible informal credit associations and guidance. They begin to

garner investment from second-generation immigrants and second-generation immigrants also

begin to invest in their respective ethnic enclaves. In a nutshell, entrepreneurship as business

ownership is a multifaceted path through which second-generation immigrants may construct

occupation and identity and/or reproduce constraints structurally and culturally set in the context.

- Economic Contributions to Host Societies

In a similar manner, second-generation immigrants are employment status and economic mode

of operation determine societies and Likewise, Immigrants bring their children into this country

and as they grow to adulthood and starts working, they pay taxes, consume, introduce new ideas,

start businesses, innovate and work. Literature studies show that second-generation groups are

much more likely to achieve education levels and be employed in the work force compared to

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their first-generational parentage in the ethnic context. For example, second-generation Mexican

or Central American, those who were born in the United States, but came from Mexican or

Central American immigrant parents, or first-generation other non-Anglo-Saxon immigrant gets

a higher level of high school education, goes to college, as opposed to their elders and even

native-born Anglo-Saxon whites. And this does not only imply a higher average income and

more purchasing power, and therefore more taxation base throughout the working life span.

As with the employment status, second-generation immigrants have proportionally higher

business genesis and higher self-employment status. It also seems that immigrant background

has a two-pronged function of notifying the motivation to start firms and of providing scarce

network relations for doing so. Ethnic enclaves offer information on other aspiring ethnic

entrepreneurs, fund and start-up capital and the required markets also known as ‘ready markets.

It has been welfare and innovation from immigrants and the immigrant’s business activity that

has been central to silicon valleys and New York city. Similarly, the examination of literature

suggests that immigrant share of headship in metropolitan areas in the United States is

proportional to rates of patenting and higher wages, as well as appreciation in housing wealth.

Last, such second-generation youth, being the inhabitants of the new society, do not burden the

ageing societies of the receiving countries, being both economically active taking the important

occupational positions and financially independent. Demographers agree that with the declining

fecundity rates and more so with the increasing elderly population in the US and other parts of

Western Europe exerting pressure to the social security systems, the working young immigrant

population is very important in offsetting the negative dependency ratios. They participate in

propositional investments which they probably would not attempt to redeem for about 20 years

or so. Therefore, extrapolations have revealed that immigrant have contributed far more than

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what they benefits received from Medicare’s HI Trust Fund. By agreeing to majoritarianism, it is

thereby unveiled throughout the three sources that the second-generation assimilation and

incorporation benefits not only their host societies and nations of settlement, but also the nations

of self-interest of those societal formations themselves.

- Barriers to Economic Advancement

Second-generation immigrants also face various difficulties that prevent them from dissolving

problems and upgrading their standards in the economics of the new world their families moved

to. These barriers can limit their chances in labor market as well as their economic activities even

if socially and culturally assimilated in the birth country. One is discrimination in the labor

market; research show that when applying for jobs, a person with an African American name is

less likely to get a callback than a person with an equally good White name. First-generation

folks or those whose parents have an ethnic look or English with an accent are discriminated

against as being of low ability or having a low work ethic. Discrimination at the workplace is

normally said to affect wages, promotions and occupational attainment and does not spare

second-generation immigrants born in the host country and fluent in the first and second

language.

Recognizing social capital as an investment, there is also evidence that this form of capital can

also be the basis of social exclusion and interference with the economic promotion of a particular

individual. Family bonds that could assist the immigrants to get well paid jobs in the countries

are often missing among the families. Most of the existing vacancies are low paid and have

numerous dangers and few perks and upgrades. Cotterill’s (2003) correlation between obstacles

to mentor access and blocked mobility in the social order means that if one cannot find a mentor

whose influence is solely sourced from a high rank in the social totem pole, one cannot ascend

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the social ladder quickly. Education paid for is associated with higher income and linked to

wealth, but the gift of money for education is not what most immigrants receive; there will even

be the feeling of the burden of tuition fees in relation to post-secondary education. Just like many

argue this debt impacts students in a negative way, and more especially puts an extra burden on

the minorities. Again, low family resources and high interest rates on loans also plays a role on

the level of entrepreneurship. All these, in turn, reduce income and earning opportunities.

There are certain norms and cultural beliefs that restrain women from educating themselves and

on job seeking that will confine the second-generation of immigrants. Early marriage and child

bearing have the effect of stopping any furbearing or employment which is important in one’s

career path. Among other things, the lack of support systems like cheap child care reduces one’s

ability to go for promotions. As a result, structural and systematic barriers limited to the

immigrant groups continue to infuse economic barriers in the society right to those who earned

their educational promotions dutifully. In conclusion therefore, it is not unlikely that second-

generation immigrants will continue to wallow in the vice of being over represented in

underemployment and constantly low economic mobility as long as political systems do not

wake up to these facts and individuals get conscious.

- Policy Impacts on Economic Participation

Policies and practices in immigration, employment, revenue, learning and other facets of public

service determine the ability as well as the willingness of second-generation immigrants to seek

employment and be productive in the economy. As highlighted here, this must be a pointer to the

fact that stringent measures in immigration may drastically reduce the inflows of immigrants in

future, and by extension, restrict labor supply. On the one hand, legalization, and the way to

citizenship offer legal structures for employment, education, and other necessary social services,

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through which the participation of workforce is boosted. Others are minimum wages and

overtime which protects the rights of immigrated workers who are easily exploited at their

workplaces while others like the work permits limit one to smaller companies and domestic work

common with immigrated families only. Both target the selfish interests of individuals,

promoting work and business by making the attainment of income more lucrative than, say, tax

evasion due to low rates and an elaborate system complemented by immigrations laws. Policies

of affordability, accessibility and aid options for the second-generation learners, for instance

produce employment advantage and economic integration and raising mobility status as

compared to school funding cuts that diminish the educating of immigrant students and

exacerbating social justice. Apart from policy impacts, perceived discrimination in policies

negates economic participation; school disciplinary measures & recruitment, hiring are cases in

point. All in all, governmental measures facilitate or exclude second-generation immigrants into

the employment market, affect their position, further advancement, opportunities to set up own

businesses and become an active part of the economy. Distinguishing the favorable policies when

prescribed accurately can make the children of immigrants contribute efficiently in the economic

sector and have superior economic status.

7. SOCIAL NETWORKS AND COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT

Demographic characteristics, friendship patterns, patterns of social networking and community

activities constitute the second-generation immigrant’s Social Self. Hence, in contrast with first-

generation parents who rely on the ethnic or the first-generation people for support, the second-

generation youth are brought up in the two worlds i.e. ethnic within the home, and the Anglo-

American outside. Since they are involved in social institutions; schools, community, religious

organizations, and through the social media, internet and other means, they are exposed to

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various social networks from which they choose to sample in order to fashion multiple selves.

According to the results of the study, insofar as acculturation stressor and the degree of

integration are concerned the following conclusions can be drawn: Ethnic social density keeps

the ethnic group together during a period when the community has to face acculturation

stressors, yet, it also acts as a barrier towards integration. As much as close-knit bridging ties

with the rest of the society assist in integrating the ethnic group into the societal network, the

same ties are likely to erode the ethnic identity as there are no ties with the core heritage culture.

The extent of bicultural accruement or inclusion is however therefore defined by the basic types

of the bonding and bridging relation that second-generation youth is synchronously

institutionalize themselves in.

For instance, participating in ethnic religious centers and hobby groups help to maintain first-

generation’s language, and culture preservation. But when involvement is overdone; it has the

effect of making ethnic groups reallocate with barely any relation to other structures in the

society. Whereas Traditional NGOs Religions organizations and service clubs on the other hand;

provide chances to get contacts in the host culture and learn about engagement in civil society –

relationship and language mediation and social capital. However, if feelings of commitment are

to the mainstream culture the youngsters’ become strangers to their families and origins. They

thus continually re-commission and re-submerge themselves within the networks in order to

achieve satisfactory ethnic and mainstream resource acquisition – sufficiently ethnic to derive

value from ethnic capital and sufficiently mainstream to tap the pool of organizational resources.

Internet and social networking sites today present readier possibilities of the additional identities

young people can switch to or can possibly be ‘in-between’ on. However, ethnic silos can also be

a consequence of the digital space when the bonding social relations emerge as primary. Hence,

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it is precisely fine tuning both weak, geographically diverse multiplex ties and strong, high

quality primary ethnic contacts that promotes identity regulation or social incorporation.

- Role of Social Networks in Integration

Second-generation immigrants happen to use social sites like Facebook in a manner that has

enhanced the integration process. By such sites and groups, the immigrants are able to mobilize

themselves and stay connected with other immigrants from their home country, and also relate

with the other members of the community in the new country. This is because an immigrant

needs to find a place to get support when depressed or to get some advice, to know where

vacancies are, services which exist to get a job, to join something with similar people to have in

common – an interest, an activity, a belief, a profession, etc. Therefore, through the media,

second-generation youth is offered the opportunities to stay in the interstitial space and create the

needed relations for integration on their own.

As to the second-generation immigrant youth, social networks are platforms where one can

come to confrontation and define as a member of two different communities, ethnic and

universal, to remain tuned into both. They can follow news and media of parents’ birthplace and

they equally can follow the American popular culture and other related news in their own

community. It as helps with the integration and the confidence that comes with identity in

meaning making moved between the two contexts of personal and collective-self constructions

depicted. They aggregate them into different social domains, and they become aware of the

views, matters, and cultural contents of both the communities which in turn shapes their

characterization and values.

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Also, the relationships second-generation youth cultivate with friends in social network sites or

with friends from diverse or only similar to them provide with resources and affirmation.

Through these digital interactions, the immigrant youths masters social skills, culture, and the

support network that can help him/her solve some of the challenges that the immigrant youths

face in the process of integration into the new country such as language barrier, discrimination,

and segregation, and unfamiliarity with the new cultures. They have the support and good warm

response on the social media that helps them to be strong while they have to face the everyday

challenges of living between two cultures and meeting the demands they come across.

- Community Organizations and Support Systems

However, the variable that remains most significant to second-generation immigrants is the

social support offered by such ethnic organizations and the social networks that these groups

create for them as individuals and as members of society. These could be cultural groups, or

advocacy organizations and these assist young persons of immigrant origin to find

companionship and like-minds providing a sense of approval and belonging during some of the

stormiest years in a person’s life, specifically during the teenage and early adulthood. For

example, the Indian American college student can be in campus organization of South Asian

students where she-he can nurture that side of him-her with other students who know the

difficulties of facing two cultures. Likewise, a young Latino activist could one day stumble upon

his calling by offering his time to a local immigration organization; besides gaining a sense of

direction and self-esteem, he gives support and fellowship because the goals are similar and past

experiences are usually, if not always, related.

Being a Second-generation immigrant is not without its challenges, such organizations help the

youth handle complex emotions resulting from questions as to their state of identification as the

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children of immigrants. I think that it plays an anti-loneliness role, as they are exposed to role

models and support characters coming from similar environment as well as they have to meet the

expectations of the immigrant family as well as the requirements of the mainstream culture. Such

networks can encourage the accumulation of social capital or actual support that the young

people may require when they are seeking ways and means of getting to college, or getting a job.

To others, it cultivates worry and worry for their communities by promising to ‘enlighten’ and

‘assist’ them through education, law or social work or other professions. However, it cannot be

denied that most of 2nd generation immigrants’ youth should remain in the community

organization to bring about positive and healthy change and constructive self-identity as well as

assimilation within society. That particular attribute may mean the difference between them

feeling that they are proud of the fact that they are duals or ashamed of their family’s

immigration to the Americas and their struggles, angry or even they might completely reject that

aspect of their being. Having strong community engagement means that they would be in a

position to be productive members in the society of America in respect to their cultures.

- Religious and Cultural Institutions

In addition to this social network and religion and culture has its’ critical place in determining the

extent to which second-generation immigrants can be involve in the society and the shaping of

their identity. These institutions therefore also perform the task of ethic reference points since

they uphold ethnic norms and standards as carried out with the ethnics while at the same time

ethnic also changing them in order to suit the new social realms. Churches for instance offer the

youngsters a place where they can feel at home and in touch with one part of their cultural

background as they fight to be part of the new culture that the hybrid culture they live forms. It

also assists second-generation youths mix it up with the other adult members in the ethnic group

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since they can significantly play a role in the youths’ lives either as role models, or mentors since

most are affiliated to religious or cultural organizations. Therefore, the sorts of institution that

culture values, mother tongue languages, culture rituals as well as culture foods and utensils as

well as artifacts prop up a positive self-image. They also foster social incorporation and this is so

because youths are enabled to get knowledge on culture that is required of them once they have

to integrate in society but at the same time the institutions ensure that a youth’s identity is

upheld. Hence, cultural centers, heritage schools, ethnic media group and so on provide unity to

the co-ethnic groups in the diaspora. Second-generation can sometimes come to secluded

situations like these and accept or be forced to put a show of the expected behavior by members

of such generation. Immigrants’ descendants’ distinct identity, behaviors and attitudes appear and

are shaped in a process where people decide what of their ancestors’ culture they would like to

retain or change. The difficulty is that relations with ethnoreligious and cultural institutions

remain crucial and have a more or less profound effect on second-generation immigrants during

their childhood and young adult years. Therefore, based on the limitations, the religion and

culture which the immigrants bring to the recipient society can foster the identity and social

integration of second-generation through avenues like cultural sustainability, networks and

external link.

- Social Capital and Civic Engagement

We are now turning to two broad areas, social capital on the one hand and an aspect of civil

participation on the other hand, as the two main aspects that are most likely to influence the

second-generation immigrants’ sense of belonging and integration. Transculturation influences

ethnic identity with reference to social networks in enclaves and liaisons with other networks

among persons in cross-cultural situations. In the sphere of the political activity, Second-

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generation youth more often than first-generation immigrants write and participate, vote, and are

in the membership of community organizations. It is to be known as employers who have special

language and cultural competence in environments more and more internationalized. However,

their voting is also still dependent on the positive endorsement of families and friends, leaders

and the likes They are usually inward looking especially where they have a high bonding social

capital within their ethnic enclave but low, or at most moderate bridging capital outside their

community. On the other hand, we could have people with fairly good bridging capital, but no

apparent close ethnic connection; something that can lead to not needing to support ethnic

community but rather mainstream mobility. As for the second-generation family, bonding social

capital should assist the cultural reproduction of the immigrant’s social identity, and build up

solidarity among themselves while bridging social capital should integrate the immigrant into the

larger society. Large and multifaceted programs and youth operations can foster both forms of

CSOs social capital. Availability of more economic and educational opportunities to immigrant

families would also mean right social mobility in the society. In sum, social capital and civic

assets are possible to facilitate second-generation immigrants to widen the conflict between these

aspects and integrate them into becoming active citizens and shape the constantly regrowth

multicultural society. It is in the same light that promoting both of their social relatedness and

their citizenship is beneficial to these youths as well as the broader social interest because it

empowers their individuality.

- Volunteering and Public Service

New players such as the World Wide Web and social networks have presented new possibility of

the second-generation immigrants volunteerism and service. It also makes it easier to search for

causes which are dear to one and it challenges the youth to contribute regardless of their position

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or the time they have at their disposal. For example, a young man from an immigrant family in

California can use technology to serve in a nonprofit organization situated in a different part of

the United States, but focused on a problem affecting his ethnic community. It is basic and

available and strips away all the structures that are put to guarantee that only the effective

civically participate.

Furthermore, the linking connections that are captured by the online networking sites socialize

or rehearse the second-generation immigrants to activist practices that are social and political in

nature and are linked to identity. In this way they are alerted to more opportunities that are

founded on community membership and which arise when relations are established with other

alike followers. Think about it: an activist from immigrant rights could mobilize hundreds of first

or second-generation children to lobby at their own level in Instagram for coverage. These are

ready-made support structures from which the youth can easily transition to performing activism

roles.

To the same respect, the digital space empowers second-generation immigrants to be

themselves and self-organize for what they consider are purely their issues that are very different

from their families or immediate circles. To them, the internet provides a buffet of other views

and nuanced twists on issues they can use as the prism through which they view themselves. The

liberty that is permitted when individuals are given an option to browser the internet on their own

quota entails that they choose how far they want to be involved with social responsibilities

without tradition or expectation. This independence in itself is a way of charting out forms of

public services that are developed from intersectionality of identities. Last but not least, the

second-generation immigrants’ activism finds the most relevant environment in social networks

and online communities.

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- Case Studies of Successful Community Integration

Among the examples portrayed by various cases some of the methods show how the second-

generation immigrants have embraced social networks as dully signs of integration into societies.

Several of such include empirical research that involved Hmong refugee families in California

who were emanating from Laos due to war and relocate to the United States of America. This

research uncovered that second-generational Hmong American youths occupied themselves in

the new community group, the sports team and after school opportunity where they have open

access to meet other individuals of different cultures a boost their friendship. These relationships

offered these teenagers, who were in essence most of them were rebellious, against their ethnic

past, the fellowship, which helped them embrace both their Hmong identities, and American

lives.

The second was carried out with Dominican origin youths in New York City; their perceptions

were that to be actively engaged in their neighborhoods the youths engage in community centers,

activist settings and summer enrichment pursuits. Engaging themselves as the leaders of the

group and participating actively in one way or the other whether as organizers or facilitators of

events such as selling items on the streets or painting over graffiti on buildings, these teenagers

were in one way or the other building social capital, not mentioning the fact that they were

locating the boundaries and definition of the Dominican- American community. A youth

organizer argued for the need to attend to the physical settings for social interactions when they

posited that for the families that are living in the cities but are feeling so locked out of the

mainstream society because of their exclusion the physical spaces of interactions should be made

more welcoming so that such families are not left to feel solitude and alone. She provides the

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ways in which the second-generation youth can cope with multicultural self and construct

positive communities.

Lastly, as the above examples are indicative of, there is the chance when second-generation

immigrants can interact other people in their communities through voting and through other

means, one is able to feel as fellow neighbors, and thus, can in effect comprise the bridge

between the two cultural worlds. The social relations that are produced in these integrative

settings consume the mixed immigrant status as well as sustain their families. Therefore, the

amount of funds and support to the community programs and other more integrated, open

neighborhood amenities maybe useful for immigrant youths’ self-identification within the

context of their home.

8. RACIAL AND ETHNIC IDENTITY

A rather delicate process is the acquisition of a racial/ethnic identity in second-generation

immigrants. Whereas the first-generation comes to the United States as an immigrant and joins as

an adult with clear identities, the second-generation youth are in the process of identity

development in the culture of the country of origin and the American culture. This is the ethnic

socialization that the parents were exposed to in the home environment, their experiences in

school and peer relations, their experiences with the ethnic media and experiences in the larger

society that ‘racializes’ them in particular ways. For ethnic people there could be a change from

the ethnic to the mainstream/dominant identity, and the consequences of this process of identity

oscillation may be various – closer to the ethnic identity or the mainstream/dominant one, up to

the simultaneous realization of both. They also may report change in aspects of the self as well as

change with regard to the situational self. In conclusion, the level of first-generation youth

integration into the mainstream society can therefore have a positive or a negative impact on the

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youths’ identity and psychological well-being. That is why if they have to face such an effect as

racism and marginalization, they will experience the phenomenon of internalization of

oppression which may lead to the feelings of pressure to surrender the ethnic identity and begin

to strive for assimilation. In contrast, in the latter they are empowered to seek and, thus, find all

parts of their personalities and selves. Therefore, in the process of growing, one needs to have

stable racial and ethnic identity which in turn assists in developing ways of coping with

discrimination. Simultaneous cultural identification which may be then defined as the ability to

affiliate with two or more cultures at once is positive and is associated with such positive effects

as high self-esteem, good mental health and active citizenship – benefits which do not only inure

to those second-generation immigrants but to the society at large that is gradually becoming a

multicultural society. While before it portrays immigration as a zero-sum game where a

majoritarian identity portends the diminution, even disappearance of immigrant generations, the

construction of immigrant identities is the enactment of how a multicultural society reinvents and

reconstructs itself in America’s fostering narrative.

- Racialization and Ethnic Identity Formation

Racialization process defines how the second-generation of immigrants regarding themselves

and how other people regard them. Categorization from the perspective of the host country’s

dominant culture can result in immigrants being viewed collectively rather than as individual

people with individual differences: to that type of categorization such racial categories are

inflicted on immigrant groups. This influences the course of identity formation particularly in

children of immigrants because, maybe they grew up in a different country, but, on the same

note, their parents have cultural roots in another country. Another aspect worthy of discussion is

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race and racism in the host countries, where colored people have to deal with the new type of

discrimination on the basis of race and other stereotypical views.

Ethnicity for a number of second-generation young people is expressed in language, cultural

norms and values which may not be followed by the first-generation, appearance, first and

second name indicating origin, and experiences of discrimination based on race. It also shows

how they are connected or disconnected from their parents’ cultural roots, which in turn defines

how their own narrative of self, their personhood stories, merge with their assigned racial scripts.

One of them is assimilation, they are compelled to adopt the dominant culture which in this case

is the white culture that they are forced to think racist, while other forces tug at their ethnic

socialization.

Therefore, it is in the interdependence between these two poles of social differentiation – the

subordinate minority position assigned to them and the dominant mainstream culture they

assimilate into shaping that child of immigrants’ identity shaping pathway is defined. It might be

even harder for them to Americanize because they do not comprise this culture, but neither do

they fit into the ethnic group their parents originated from. The suffering of attempting to know

one’s place does not follow the normative maps of the world, for identity is located in a specific

nation or culture. In this way, they bring to the foreground of the social construction of identity

as something that is complex and located in interaction, as a process of a hyper-ritualization of

whiteness and a racialization of subject positions wherein ethnic meaning can be attributed as

empowering or disempowering. Exploring how ethnic identity is bestowed to second-generation

youth, as well as the process of racialization among youth in multicultural societies, highlights

the model minority stereotype and how stereotyping takes on meaning for the development of

self-image and cultural relations within the society and beyond.

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- Experiences of Racism and Discrimination

The second is the vulnerability of children of immigrants for, on the one hand, they are brought

up in the host country of their parents, but on the other hand they have ethnicity and cultural ties.

Apart from this, these second-generation youth encounter the other problem, which begins as

they develop another, discrimination and racism in the society, this shapes their identity in the

society. There are people who have had personal interaction with racists in schools,

discrimination during the job interviews, and remarks they received which question their

America or their right to exist in the country under sun because of their color. They elicit

psychological disorders and diminished self-esteem but may enhance ethnic identity and

cohesiveness at the same time.

Second-generation teenagers reveal that they were aware of racial epithets and mimicking of

English of the or their parents, and doubts that despite having been born and raised in the United

States the young people still are unable to speak ‘proper’ English, or questions as ‘where are you

really from?’ or ‘you will always be immigrants here, even though you were born and raised in

America’. One can only imagine how this alters the experience of adolescence, particularly when

the contested definition of self is over skin color, nationality or ethnicity; racist attacks simply

intensify the adolescent’s struggle with the social construction of self and other. It can also be

that young immigrants do not aim to engage in conflict or tensions, they prefer some aversive

reaction, they may try to conceal their ethnicity or, conversely, they may defiantly affirm every

feature of ethnic identification as a protest against adversity. Both courses impact self-attitude

and social inclusion, whenever aspects of self-constitution that are personalized are demonized.

Apart from school bullying, in other studies that closely follow second-generation youths into

adulthood, it is well known that discrimination at the workplace does not disappear as well.

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Some of those who participated in the survey said they are paid less, or have been promoted less

than their white counterparts, even when they had the same level of education; others said that

corporate America’s view of the ethnicity and being considered as leadership material is still

white domination. Other factors such as financial insecurity and work precariousness are other

pressures that put a check to the immigrant’s social mobility even if credentials are possessed.

However, the negative racialized experiences also result in higher rates of political participation

and activism on matters of race and ethnicity for some people.

- Ethnic Pride and Solidarity

That ethnic pride and belonging to a generation of the same root is a major concern for second-

generation immigrants speak louder on their process of identity formation as well as social

injection. Unlike the first-generation parents, at least, migrate physically from their original

country, the second-generation youths are brought up in both American culture and culture of the

country that the parents came from. As such, how they deny or fail to integrate racially or

ethnically may not be clear and may vary. At first, some are in a state of being a marginal

inhabitant, that is, they cannot fully integrate themselves into the American society and at the

same time they cannot fully be accepted by the ethnic group of origin of their parents. Yet, as for

me, I believe that, in general, when second-generation youths grow older, many of them begin to

comprehend their roots better and, therefore, they have no grounds to regard these two pushes as

being mutually destructive any longer. This serves to promote ethnic pride to enable them accept

fully the cultural practice they grew up with as they adopt the American culture. It also retains

this cultural identity, and this makes second-generation immigrants proud of themselves because

they are associated with people who have passed through a like experience. It is through the

cultural associations, clubs, community centers, religious bodies and friendship circles where the

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Second-generation immigrants’ ethnicity is embraced that fraternity is created. Similarly, the

ethnic social relationships that prevail marginal period of adolescence and young adulthood are

very strategic in reproducing the second-generation ethnic immigrants’ ethnic identity and the

feelings of dignified reference to their cultural roots as they move on with their lives. Thus, the

formation of the ethnic pride and aspiration to ethnic solidarity is a significant work of identity

for the children of immigrants while they define the selves American and the families’ more

diverse history.

- Intersectionality of Race, Gender and Class

The immigrants in the second-generation in the United States pass through the process of social

integration, in which the subject’s formation involves the social categories of race, gender, and

class. Some theories propose that the identities of children of immigrants are mediational,

bifurcated, postmodern in the sense that they are constructed in not simply relationships but

relations of power between social categories and subject positions. This is why problems like

gender cannot be contemplated or studied in isolation from problems of race and class among

this group. On the contrary, women of color of second-generation immigrants from working

class background experience different type of stereotyping and exclusion proportional to

combined facets of personality. These are; labelling them as domesticated women or reliant on

state handouts, sexual racism in areas of workplace or zones where their bodies and sexualities

are policed, and family and cultural ‘choosing’ of correct dating and marriage material.

Hence, the adolescent and young adult children of immigrant parents should know that the

immigrant ethnic values on gender and gender identity are different from those of the receiving

American culture. This negotiation leads to clashes with the older generation of female family

members for young women with progressive attitude on matters of relationships, sex before

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marriage, career before marriage and children. Regarding second-generation immigrant men, the

mainstream culture is also capable of disrupting the normative ‘ethno-community’ masculinity

that enshrines the creation of strong, invulnerable men who are able to fend for their families; at

the same time, they are also vying for a place in this new society that on the one hand expects

them to uphold patriarchal gender roles and on the other hand demands that they adhere to

assimilation. Gender, racial and ethnic stereotyping also come into play in decisions which make

it easy or difficult for second-generation youth to openly embrace their culture in USA, speak

their native languages and even dress traditionally, dance traditions and so on; this is because

regardless of being born and bred in the USA and therefore citizens of this country, their color

and physical appearance give away their foreign origin.

- Media Representation of Second-Generation Immigrants

Due to the fact that media is the main source and provider of information and knowledge, it

performs a direct impact the perceptions and beliefs that people develop concerning the

performance of those minorities such as the second-generation immigrants. Representation and

stereotyping techniques, which are the topics that the media narrates, create identity and

belongingness of children in immigrant families. Second-generation youngsters carry out a

continuous ‘cultural resistance’, most especially in the way they are stereotyped by the dominant

media group. Where the lives of second-generation immigrants are depicted, it is not a more

detailed depiction; they are either epitomized as the media models or the membership of the

gangs and those involved in criminal activities. Such representations compel youth not only to

embody the model minority stereotype or the parallel to out-group perceptions in a twisted

manner. Another stereotype dimension includes how second-generation youth is portrayed by

‘narrow’ media that shapes them into a new breed of ‘real Americans’ further to develop an

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insider outsider dichotomy that which thwarts integration. Both kinds of identity processing are

quite frequently observed, if people respond to the perceived media stereotyping, and the second

type can be specifically attributed to adolescents. Last but not the least, the framing of race in the

media determine the public policy perception that the community has on immigration and

multiculturalism. The positive, humanized representations are needed to affirm the diversity of

the second-generation immigrants and challenge the anti-racial and ethnocentric epistemologies

inherent in the assimilationist paradigm and promote the social model of integration instead of

the assimilation model, and to promote the notion of identification with the larger community

irrespective of the color of their skin. The reform campaigns of Byan and Immigrant advocacy

organizations are about protesting biases, creating organizations that reveal the prejudice, owning

communities and media and celebrities and social networks to alter media prejudice. However, it

is change that is gradual, the rising consciousness and shifts in demography could also begin to

reverse the media representation, abolish the threats frame, and free the second-generation

immigrants from the rigidity of their identity and the constant pressure about their nation.

Since the media is the primary source and disseminator of information and knowledge, it has a

direct influence on the perception and attitudes that people have towards these minorities

including the second-generation immigrants. The media plays a role in shaping identity and

belongingness of children in immigrant families by representation and stereotyping techniques.

Second-generation youngsters perform a constant ‘cultural struggle’ as a response to the

stereotypical portrayal by the dominant media group. With regard to second-generation

immigrants, the media does not paint a more complex picture of their lives; either they are

portrayed as successful models or as criminals and members of gangs. These kinds of portrayals

force youth to not only meet the model minority stereotype or parallel out-group perceptions in a

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perverse way. Other stereotypical depictions include how second-generation youth are portrayed

by narrow media that sets them apart as a different breed from ‘real Americans’ further creates an

insider outsider view that hampers integration. The two forms of identity processing are

relatively common when people react to the perceived media stereotyping, and the second form

is often characteristic of adolescents. Finally, the stereotyping that the media frames around the

race influences the policy stances that the public holds about immigrations and multiculturalism.

Positive, humanizing portrayals are required to acknowledge the complexity of the second-

generation immigrant population, and dispel antiracial and ethnocentric discourses, support a

social model of integration as opposed to an assimilation model, as well as support identification

with the larger community irrespective of race and ethnicity. Immigrant advocacy organizations’

reform campaigns aim at protesting biases, setting up organizations that expose the prejudice,

owning and operating media in communities and using celebrities and social media to change

media prejudice. Although, change is incremental, the growing awareness and demographic

shifts can also start to mend the media portrayal, eradicate the threats paradigm, and give the

second-generation immigrants the freedom to be fluid in their identities without constantly being

asked about their nationhood.

- Identity Politics and Social Movements

The children of immigrants grow into adults in these new nations and struggle with the hybrid

selves that encompass their parents’ original homelands as well as the countries the youths are

now raised in. The changing psychic structures and personal identity compel the individuals to

engage in social movements seeking recognition, inclusion, and equality for ethnic communities.

In this sense, through unity, second-generation youth engage in collective action through cultural

or cultural victimization. The student walkouts of 1968 in Los Angeles, California were in

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demand of equality in education and embrace Chicano existence. The Asian American activism

rose to prominence in the period between the 1960s and 1970s at the backdrop of the Black

Power and anti-Vietnam War activism when students stood up not only against discrimination

but also against exclusion from ethnic studies. Recently, the undocumented youth have emerged

as the leaders in the immigrant fight for rights and legality that will give them and their families

legalized status. Dreamers movement has mobilized youth to ‘com e out’ as immigrant hence

demanding their integration. Be the goal to change institutions, make the cultural identity of a

group as important and acknowledged, or to gain the acceptance of the majority and hence the

citizenship status, second-generation activists struggle to overcome the lack of integration in the

only country they have ever known. It also transforms the self-idea that explores their parent’s

cultural socialization techniques and feelings of exclusion all through their lives as ‘the other’.

Power and recognition through the act of organizing is paramount in groups who struggle with

establishing their identities, cultures and place within the national fabric as they transition from

one generation to another.

Since second gens’ race, culture, and nationality remain questionable, social movements give

them the tools and means to claim the same rights. They might associate with the origins of their

ancestors to negate racist notions that portray them as foreign intruders in America who intend to

steal the jobs of Americans and their virtues. Others may appeal to some form of race relativism

suggesting that they are inherently American. Their identities are situational and multiple, and

depending on which aspect of their personality they adopt when claiming something – either

human rights for all or a group they belong to. Finally, the act of eradicating exclusion is simply

an independence to make decisions rather than be controlled by the decisions of others. Out of

these struggles, self-affirming identities develop that combine the Native American cultures and

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their experiences in America. Contrary to the stereotype that ‘second gen’ is a burden and a

source of xenophobia, second gen effectively uses their position of ethnic and social otherness

and political agency for social inclusion. By shifting from viewing the children of immigrants as

failures and as minorities deserving their fate to a victim of collective prejudice, the children of

immigrants become advocates of the America that is yet to come but is still far away. These

conflicts over assimilation, formation of Ethnic American identity, and the struggle to be seen as

Americans while maintaining ethnic roots are a key reason that informs these characters’

development of ethnic/immigrant difference.

9. MENTAL HEALTH AND WELL-BEING

The studies on ethnical identity change and acculturation among second-generation immigrants

are concerned with their psychological health. First migrants go to a new country in their

adulthood while second-generation migrants grow up with two languages and although they can

feel an identity crisis as if they belong to neither the dominant culture of the country nor to the

ethnic group of their ancestors. Navigating for one’s self-identity and search for acceptance from

peers is a daunting process that is often undergone by most youths, second-generation youths

have to deal with the pressure of the biculturalism and expected conduct at home and at school.

Assuming the two cultural systems cannot be assimilated and become part of the subjects’

experience, presumably the outcomes are not a harmonious subjectivity and a coherent

individuality. Furthermore, it could be stated that in such cases, discriminating a person because

of the immigrant background might lead to the deterioration of the individual’s mental health.

One of the possible negative aspects of the bilingual upbringing is that, in order to satisfy all the

family’s members’ demands, children have to translate from one language to another and this can

become rather exhausting. In sum, it is for these reasons that such experiences of living in two

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cultures may be a reason to develop anxiety, depression or any other form of psychological

dysfunction if there are no right ways of dealing with such stresses as offered by the positive

coping mechanisms and other. It is therefore important for schools and the contexts that support

them, to attending to improving second-generation immigrants’ sense of belonging and self-

efficacy in this context. Such roles of first and second-generation immigrants also point to the

fact that there is usefulness in programs such as ‘Big Brother/Sister’ in which first generation

immigrants are paired with second-generation with the aim of building bridging social capital

through the ‘mentoring’ relationship. Schools can also demonstrate to the students that they do

not have to abandon one heritage or the other but they can embrace both in the face of existing in

the dominant society. Second-generation immigrants should tap right measures towards proper

management of biculturalism so as to boost the confidence level to realize their dreams and be

productive members of the country of their residence regardless the nation of origin.

- Psychological Challenges of Identity Formation

The problem of identity formation also yields a set of psychological questions when speaking

about minority second-generation immigrants. First generation immigrants raised in the new

country try to maintain the norms and values of the primary culture of their parents and the

norms and values of the second country; hence, the child develops the sense of duality; the child

feels alienated; the child feels abnormal and angry at the parents; the child does not fully belong

to either of the two cultures. This sort of mental fatigue, however, does not come easy at all.

Second-generation youth can experience many conflicting feelings because they have not

developed a bit of identity that incorporates the cultural – the wish to go back to the parent’s

country but wish to be accepted by the fellow teenage peers of the society they are in, the wish to

practice or emulate what the parents do but at the same time wish to live in society of the country

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they are in. The result can be confusion, anxiety, depression, withdrawal and problems with for

instance self-esteem.

Second-generation immigrants may cover their cultural values when integrating with society to

‘fit’ in only to find out they are strangers in their own land. Some individuals may come from

compact subcultural groups that while offering companionship disrupt the assimilation of the rest

of society. That is, when two different cultural realities can be preserved as two different modes

of thinking and a person is capable to switch from one mode to another than the advantages of

multicultural thinking or cognitive flexibility is something that cannot be overemphasized.

Otherwise, without the understanding of these concepts, and having no support – a healthy

identity development can be impeded – one is left lonely, upset, confused, between two realities

– what is expected, what is judged, to which side one needs to belong. These are the

psychological stress or difficulties that must be acknowledged so that second-generation

immigrants may establish the sociocultural capital to overcome them. This fact can be useful in

reducing youthful identity pain by informing parents and educators and those community

advocators that struggle could arise from it.

- Impact of Discrimination on Mental Health

Discrimination impacts mental health and psychological well-being in the worst way and it is

most strongly experienced by those, who are minorities in the given society, for instance, second-

generation immigrants striving to claim their roles in the new society. In as much as

discrimination can have different bases it can elicit severe emotionally states such as having no

one to relate with, lack of self-confidence, anger and even depression when one feels that they

are discriminated simply because they belong to a certain race, ethnicity, religion or immigrant

status. Such negative feelings are rather concealed, however, the chronic environment of such

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emotions negatively affects self-esteem and worthlessness in the end. Discrimination and

exclusion, with microaggressions as one of their types, lead the recipients to have the gradually

increasing stress anxiety and withdrawal. If the victim is not protected by friends and family and

is not aware of any advocate groups fighting for the LGBT’s right, the individual begins to think

that they are rightful targets of discriminator and even deserve to be abused for being in the

LGBT. Holmes, of course, watches the stress unfold in all its manifestations over time, and here,

it presents itself as an eating disorder, drug dependency, and sleeplessness. Discrimination also

entails further deterioration of other psychiatric illnesses including bipolar disorder or PTSD.

The negative sentiments arising from this move led to creation of a stigma that reduces many

from seeking counseling for their mental issues since they will be laughed at or their problems

dismissed. Regrettably, a life-long discrimination has been linked to contemplation of suicide

and attempts particularly among the minority adolescents. But wait, the story does not end here

because there are still other approaches whereby information technology can contribute to

learning. While there is no doubt that prejudice obviously boosts the second-generation

immigrants’ psychological wellbeing difficulties, social integration and appreciation of ethnic

identity might perhaps help to avoid the absorption of discrimination. The supported structured

peer groups that enable the participants originating from the disadvantaged ethnic backgrounds

to focus on the common issues, who feel that they belong to a similar situation, and that the

ethnic identity are valuable in asserting the group will reverse the discrimination’s impact on the

members’ psychological health. But to reduce prejudice, restructuring of organizations remains a

crucial exercise. No one should have to wrap an entire callus around his/her heart in terms of

Discrimination or feel that he/she has to discard some of whom he/she is to fit in. Hence, if the

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qualities such as compassion and humanization are attended to then discrimination leads to

suffering can be reduced.

- Coping Strategies and Resilience

Concerning the reasons that underpin the psychological well-being of the second-generation

immigrants, it has also been postulated that the ability to manage stress and other forms of life

challenges, and the ability to revive in the event of a failure is a measure that gives a strong

indication of the second-generation immigrants’ level of meta vigor. A migration on the other

hand has disadvantage of adapting to a new culture which in a way determines the social position

of an individual as well as his or her psychological status. Immigrant children brought up

between the immigration culture and another rather different culture, experience acculturative

crisis such as identity crisis, discriminative experiences and family break ups which adds to their

susceptibility to anxiety, depression and other related problems. A synthesis of literature on the

process of acculturation shows that acculturative stress results in increased behavioral disorders

and poor performance in academic work among immigrants.

Stress moderation and resilience factors that act as buffers between the acculturative stressors

other risky mental health are coping styles and individual, family, and community resources.

Cognitive coping strategies include skills in the regulation and labeling of emotions, in problem

solving, in changing of negative cognitions and images, in relaxation training, exercise, social

support and constructive occupational activity, and in the use of self-identified spiritual

resources. These antecedent conditions are: family and school bonding, peer and community

support, role models, favorable policies and services, self-efficacy, optimism, flexibility and

emotional intelligence as the protective factors which enable the immigrant to overcome the odds

and be successful. Therefore, positive coping skills and resilience are attained from childhood

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and guarantee second-generation youth necessary preparation for acculturation stressors and

hinder the chance of internalizing problems.

While a vast number of works exists in the subject of risk-related factors that immigrants

encounter, the application of the strength’s perspective allows for the identification of the

impressive degree of this population’s resourcefulness. Yet, many of them are able to go through

the acculturation process and thereby adapt after sometime despite all the setbacks. The

expectation that significant cultural differences will gradually be erased or that

miscommunication will be resolved will not reduce the structural factors that affect the second-

generation’s quality of life, while the psychological resources of the subject promote the

integration of two cultures and distinguishes the second-generation psychologically healthier.

- Access to Mental Health Services

Another point in the present study the author was able to identify is the fact that second-

generation immigrant may have certain limitations towards receiving mental health care.

Struggling with racism and prejudice, faced with social taboos associated with mental disorders,

having insufficient health insurance, and limited access to qualified mental health service

providers, born in the country their parents immigrated to, constant racism prevents them from

getting the essential psychiatric treatment they may require. The people from those regions hold

some cultures that believe that any forms of such diseases are disabilities and not diseases, and

therefore, they do not seek any treatment. It is still present among the second-generation of Indo

Caribbean youths in which they can never turn to anyone for help, not even when suffering from

anxiety, depression, trauma or having suicidal thoughts. Lack of insurance is also the other factor

that influence on access since most of the families which are living in immigrate countries are

the low-income earners and the jobs, they get are non-contractual and does not provide medical

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cover. This is because, an immigrant family may not qualify for the many layered options that

are offered when they want to receive the public assistance program. In addition, it has been

reported that there is a critically low supply of mental-health workers who share the same

ethnicity as the above-mentioned students, let alone those trained post-tertiary in

multiculturalism or the pressures that children of immigrants’ experience. This is why even if the

youth and their families are able to overcome social stigma and financial challenges to get

therapist, a youth who speaks for herself/himself if the therapist does not get it is a significant

barrier to having evidence-based practice. Figure 1 presents the general research matrix to

address the five major areas towards improving access, cultural competence and utilization of

mental health services by second-generation immigrants: some of them being reversing the

prejudice encountered when a person is first diagnosed with a mental illness, the opportunity of

having a health insurance irrespective of color or immigration status, a higher number of

diversity among mental health care givers, and more research studies that may find the best

approaches to dealing with the second-generation immigrants’ mental health challenges since

they are torn between cultures that are so different in their systematic and every day ways.

- Role of Cultural Beliefs in Mental Health

Culture is one of the predictors of mental health and the use of health services in persons of color

and second-generation immigrants, who are exposed to two or more cultural worldviews. The

concept of mental health, or particular mental health interests, or even trends and attitudes

toward it can be perceived in different ways depending on a person’s cultural background. For

instance, certain cultures have lesser rent for symptoms of depression as diseases that require to

be treated but as usual ways of responding to stress. Many individuals have wrong attitudes and

thoughts regarding therapists such as feeling that it is shameful to seek help from a mental health

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professional or that they should be able to overcome the issues without seeking assistance. Such

belief systems play a role in determining the time and manner in which second-generation

immigrants look for help in mental health problems.

They are also recipients of the American mainstream culture’s values, which may include

individualism and, hence, may manage stress in a way that differs from first-generation parents’

country of origin. Cultural disembodiment is when one is in what is perceived as a different

culture than in which the person ‘was raised’, resulting in uncertainty and questioning of how

one should approach people with mental disorders. When parents dismiss the necessity of

counseling and medication and when rare watched PMAM depicts therapy as quite ordinary

from time to time, second-generation immigrants interpret all of that. For identifying cultural

specifics of seeking for and receiving mental health services, cultural beliefs and perceptions of

the role of health and a illness, of mental disorders and treatments should be considered. Without

this knowledge, not only the details of the second-generation immigrant families’ all-sectors

nuances, or the role of stress on the emergence of mental-health disorders, but youth simply have

restrictions in developing their social selves.

Prevention, therefore, of neglecting the cultural dimensions of service delivery through the

trainings of mental health workers to become culturally competent allows the second-generation

immigrants to be attended to by mental health professionals without the aspect of stigmatization.

It creates unity/collectivism and individuality for every youth that is liberating them to embrace

and nurture the diverse self without conformity to any culture. Controversy about feelings and

coping supports is also observed among families, which look for service producers who provide

mental health outreach for immigrants. In a more particular way, the present study has revealed

that the knowledge about culture enhances the provision of relevant service to second-generation

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Americans and the right policy on their mental health. Closely understanding how people of

different cultures perceive mental health and possible ways to help youth and families belonging

to multicultural backgrounds, we ensure culturally sensitive assistance.

- Well-being and Quality of Life

The components of well-being include, among others: the assessment of the quality of life,

happiness, self-esteem, sense of purpose and meaning, social networks, satisfaction with leisure

time occupations, health, financial security, and many more. Immigrating to a new country, the

subjectivity and quality of life of the second-generation immigrants is constructed through the

processes of ‘acculturation’- that is, negotiating two or more cultures in order to ‘succeed’ in

both. First of all, while doing bicultural or a hybrid self, they can cultivate diverse multifaceted

possibilities of the internal topography and expand their existential horizons. It can also be also

argued that through the changing from one cultural frame of reference to another, there is

improved attitude and self-regulation therefore improved cognitive flexibility. Nonetheless, as a

result of differences in cultural expectation and practice, cultural conflict or cultural stress may

be prejudicial to one’s individual psychological well-being. Second-generation youths belonging

to ethnic minorities may suffer from social marginalization; they may or may not feel

comfortable with their ethnic roots in their originating country and or with the local culture of the

country in which they grow up. This leads them to have poor perceived self-images and esteem,

high levels of anxiety and depression and other related psychological problems than the native

peers mainly due to discrimination and marginalization, in schools, social places and work

places. Lack of economic security or, respectively, education and work because of immigration

history can also be unfavorable for life satisfaction. On the other hand, an ability to have more

than one cultural tool kit is helpful to second-generation immigrants to be able to select the

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combination of lifestyles and the worldview that will allow them to achieve the maximum level

of wellness. For example, in some ethnic enclaves, cultural collectivism is visible and this

implies that the people have company in the form of community, thus they are not lonely. With

the help of it, the aspect of embodying some fragments of cultural practices to add them to these

new standards, paradigms, as well as belief systems that create even higher levels of ‘meaning

and purpose’ in their mixed-selves. Therefore, the overall quality of second-generation

immigrants depends on six factors: economic capital, educational-professional role,

ethnosectarian and mainstream social integration, ability to have a bicultural identity as seen

from the two frames of references and mental health which should correspond with the

acculturation stressors that the group is likely to encounter.

10. GENDER, SEXUALITY AND IDENTITY

Young second-generation immigrants’ identity formation and integration processes are gendered,

sexual and identity mediated. Bringing with them the cultural perceptions of gender and sexual

conduct from their home country, immigration parents come across Cultural Conflict with the

new nation’s cultural system. For second-generation daughters, there is always conflict or, at the

least tension between the roles/ values inherited from/ imposed by parents/ culture and the

emergent self as a young woman who wants education, a career, to choose her own partners and

make her own decisions over her body. This is also true for second-generations lesbian, gay,

bisexual, trans, queer and any other non-affiliated gender people, whose sexual orientations

cultures of the societies they Live in, approve off. Family broke because of failure to accept the

homosexuality and present themselves in the religious culturally expected way leads to high

internalized conflicts. However, it is also possible to self-identify in ways that resist the

mainstream gender roles and sexual orientations of the context of origin; this is often followed

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by a traumatic demarginalization/deracialization of the culture and religion of origin. In addition,

second-generation youth are caught in dilemmas of ethnicity, culture, religion and nationalism as

they try to decide what kind of hybrid selves they are going to claim in order to renegotiate their

families’ cultures and the cultures of societies that they are living in. The very nature of the

immigration regime and or the social reception granted the immigrant groups by the host society

also quite powerfully determines second-generation life chances as well as opportunities to

‘assimilate’ into the society or nation of residence while being able to retain and preserve such

desired cultural attributes from the country of origin as passed down to them by the immigrant

parents. Cultural, sexual and gendered scripts are therefore a useful setting in which second-

generation immigrants confront each other about the advantages and disadvantages of a double

or multiple life.

- Gender Roles in Immigrant Families

This research looks at how traditional gender roles in the context of the immigrant families play

a central role in the second-generation immigrants’ youths’ experiences on questions of identity

and social incorporation. Almost all immigrant parents bring in and socialize gender expectations

from the collectivist cultures that are incompatible with the gender beliefs in the host nations.

The same can imply a relatively restricted sexual permissiveness and apparel liberty, restricted

dating and marriage for immigrant women as compared to native women. Thus, the basic human

rights of the girls might be limited and are allowed to make few decisions as their parents and

other elders lock them up at home to avoid them associating with boys and hence spoiling the

reputation of the ethnic group. This underlines the fact that inasmuch as the senders’ and the

receivers’ worlds are different, the attitudes to the female morality and honor are rather similar.

Whereas young immigrant men as a group source of the above-described friendships enjoy

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relatively more freedom and latitude with their relationships to include mate selection. But there

are regularities, where the pressures for immigrant boys to advance coercive forms of hegemonic

masculinity and be responsible for the protection and provision of females are also

amplified. They argue that their capacity to meet these macho roles is in proportion to social

class and recognition in society. Consequently, processes of building of personal and social self-

identities of the second-generation youth with immigrant backgrounds presuppose certain co-

ordinations between the demands of/and the expectations towards adaptation coming from the

parents or communities on one side, and the proscription by the integrating society or the peers

on the other. How they negotiate and integrate through such intersecting cultural domains is of

considerable importance to their emerging personal identity and emotional and social adjustment,

as well as the process of acculturation as they grow up. Finally, it is the ways in which these

gender dynamics are played out within the familial versus beyond that shapes these youth’s, in

general, understanding of their marginal cultural statuses.

- Sexual Identity and Cultural Expectations

Sexual subjects as well as their scripts are not simply produced, they are a work with manifold

effects on second-generation immigrants’ subjectivity and social integration. Some of these

immigrants get into sexual orientations which they regard as queer in their culture back home

and in the culture of the country to which they are integrating. Not only do first-generation

immigrant kids still adhere to their native country’s notions of sexuality and gender; they exist in

the in-between, the borderland. Despite that the majority of Asian immigrants arrive to the

United States aiming to preserve the initial cultural identity, and many of them establish rather

closed households with rigid traditional Asian values on gender and sexual orientation, which are

imposed even in the households of immigrant communities, there are other norms and values, or

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scripts offered by the popular culture and native peers and friends. This discord brings about

conflict and stress which in turns shape the development of sexual orientation not benefiting

proper maturation. To some extent, the clash of cultural values against individualism in issues

relating to sexual preference is made even more complicated because the homosexual tradition of

their ancestors is still stigmatized compared with the evidently accepting American society.

Some second-generation immigrants discover sexual orientations which are forbidden in the

cultures of their origin, but are appreciated in the United States but they are pushed out from both

ethnic and continental organizations, which halts the formation of their identities, and making

them into pariahs. The social and mental health impacts can therefore be unfavorable if the

concerns are not addressed through the first-line interventions and frameworks that are culturally

inclusive. Religious, political as well as cultural support groups that are formed for such

marginalized youth are useful in offering helping hand to the youth in as much as they search for

acceptance. Increased recognition and discussion of cultural shifts, in many spheres and for

second-generation immigrants to allow them to exercise their freedom to decide their sexuality in

order to allow them to work through processes of healthy acculturation into the body politic.

These are big problems and yet when personalized with acceptance, respect and empathic

understanding society promises great potential in offering the settings in which they may be

developed.

- Gender-Based Discrimination and Empowerment

Sexual discrimination and exclusion of authority in their turn influence the second-generation

immigrant women’s identity and integration. Hence, although they might grow up in

comparatively liberal cultures as those of their mothers, these women undergo gender prejudices,

culturally mandated patriarchal frameworks and restrictions, and restricted prospects that restrict

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their functions, goals, and possibilities for upward mobility. For instance, girls who are from first

generation immigrant families and were raised in cultures that are extremely patriarchal have a

problem in determining what is expected of them as female members in terms of traditional roles

and expectations in the family or the parents’ culture, or what is acceptable in the host society

they live in. This can cause confusion or guilt in the areas of dating, friendship, dress code,

career choice, etc. Immigrant parents, particularly the fathers, are very protective of their

daughters inhibiting their opportunities to succeed, exercising their rights and liberty, as well as

getting resources in the societies. Consequently, second-generation young women face problems

connected to low levels of self-acceptance, fear, anxiety and depression, as well as an identity

crisis. However, they are failing to stand a chance on demeaning sexual objectification and as a

result leave themselves open for harassment and abuse. All this has an impact on their confidence

of participating and immersing themselves wholly in education, employment, politics and other

activities. Therefore, based on the problems both general and specific targeted campaigns for

letting immigrant families know their rights and ensuring women, discriminated or abused, can

get consultative help, to promote the discussion of these issues and the formation of the gender-

oriented worldview are required. More should also be done to assume a more active involved

participation in the facilitation of the immigration women in their access to health care services,

employment counseling services, second language acquisition services, leadership and

professional development opportunities. Legal frameworks, the culture of communities, chances

and choices make it necessary for second-generation immigrant women to be productive and

engage in a learned demanding claim for their individuality and integration.

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- Intersection of Gender and Ethnic Identity

This is specially felt in the second-generation where the ethnic identity development is so

complex that it comes with gender and sexual questions. It is common these days to find many

young women from immigrant families being socially raised in two ways; the primitive way

within the family and the ethnic community of origin where the roles of women and model of

sexuality as an appendage of a man are prescribed, and the modern way of the host Anglo society

which offers different models of womanhood and sexuality. This can develop a continual

pressure on the part of young immigrant women because they are tradition bound and

nevertheless, they want to live, and this freedom is new to them. In other words, there can be

other ethnically derived concept of masculinity present in their community to which they adhere

to, which may not tally with the general gender conventionalities which the studies postulate for

young men. Such messages are most certainly very challenging to assimilate to when it comes to

matters of identity.

Sexuality is also a major challenge in that ethnic culture expects youth to practice certain

cultural beliefs on dating marriage and family while youths demand for independence in search

of love. This means that for instance for the ethnic group that is very much against

homosexuality, coming out as a gay person in the community will not only cost one the approval

of the entire community, but also of the family members. For that reason, the process of gender,

sexuality and ethnic identity creation for children of immigrants is intricate because they are in-

between two worlds, and the former is European one. This is because they cannot easily describe

how the desired parental roles fit together with the new perceived ethic of the roles they are to

enact. Every decision taken for them is, indeed, crucial, as they either involve the girls sticking to

family responsibilities and obeying their conservative culture or rejecting it to become

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independent. Knowing their own experiences, they describe how these aspects of identity are

connected into a single whole.

- Gender Identity in a Transnational Context

Gender identity, however, can shift slightly for second-generation immigrants because they

locate themselves in the cultural regime of the resident country as well as the socialization they

received from the immigrant origin culture of their upbringing. Sexual roles may be clearly

defined in some cultures but utterly different in the other and the second-generation immigrants

need to make sense of the difference so as to come up with their identities. While the first-

generation immigrants may concentrate on more traditional or not that liberal gender roles and

expectations, the second-generation can actively get exposed to the less traditional or progressive

gender culture they grow in. The struggle that the children undergo as they get to watch such

conflicting gender transmission is evidenced out of them as they grow up in adolescence and

young adulthood.

Therefore, the second-generation immigrants especially the women are likely to experience a

clash of culture on the image that is expected of them both in aspects of dressing code, demeanor

and portrayal of femaleness in general use. It changes their assumptions about what kind of

women they are, or are supposed to be, the importance of things like the ‘honor’ of a woman and

what makes a woman lose it, or maintain it. Despite the fact that they may embrace the cultural

principles of the parents to the dot, they are also certain to embrace social or cultural attributes

from what current discourses and paradigms of the culture of residence present. Finally, second-

generation immigrants are expected to integrate these sources of influence in a manner that will

lead to the construction of a gender that fits their overall sense of self as they negotiate their

transition into adulthood in transnational settings. In sum, the process of gendering, that is, of

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constructing one’s gender, is more complex and ambiguous for the second-generation

immigrants as the latter try to fit into or do not fit into, the gender cultures of the country of

origin and the host country and as they subvert the gender cultures of the country of origin and

the host country to define where they belong or do not belong.

- Case Studies on Gender and Identity

To analyze both the processes of identity formation and the issues of inclusion of second-

generation immigrants, it is relevant to turn to cases that in their title are considered from the

standpoint of gender and sex. The individual case studies also render a detailed analysis of the

many diverse and complex and interrelated expectations of these immigrants as they struggle to

construct their subjectivities and define their places in the socio-symbolic order. It is possible to

document the ways ethnic second-generation immigrants of various roots experience the process

of social living and ethnic gendered and sexualized expectations about their individual and group

interactions with customs and expectations in matters of gender and sexual orientations within

their ethnic community and in the broader society through qualitative methods such as in-depth

interviews and observational methods. For example, such a practice can concern a girl growing

up having Mexican immigrant parents and developing her sexual self, the conceptions she has

about herself and how others may perceive her and her potential boyfriends, her friends, her

relationship with her parents and the ideas she has about a woman in contrast with the notions

learnt from movies, TV shows, magazines etc. A qualitative study of personal identity processes

of closed gay, lesbian or transsexual second-generation immigrant However, one can easily list

numerous imaginable constructive connections of identities with gender and sexuality that, for

example, could or should be explored using such methodology as individual case histories or

more refined investigation of the situation of second-generation immigrants. Altogether, because

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case data allow the researcher to explore the relationship that exists at the most microscopic level

concerning integration, attitudes or even potential difficulties, the absence of systematic

approach in this type of research reveals the key issues or the major barrier s, or, in other words,

the main perhaps, of the integration or non-integration those people who are in transition from

one world to another during the formation and/or recognition of identity.

11. POLICY RESPONSES AND SOCIAL INTEGRATION PROGRAMS

The dilemma of how to keep children of immigrants in check or how to welcome these legacies

into adulthood and facilitate the formation of the right mental set of the country of origin and that

of the country they stay in. Second generation youth can be seen as not being assimilated into

either their parents’ countries of origin or the countries they grow up in. In a bid to improve on

social inclusion, the governmental institutions should come up with programs that will help the

involve these youth in productive activities so that they feel that they are relevant to the society

without necessarily washing out their cultural backgrounds. An example of programs that include

matching immigrant young people with professional and career-minded allies from the same

ethnic background are role models to succeed and to navigate through the schematic structure.

Provider-consumer relationship across ethnic boundaries is possible when there is institution-

based homework help and ethnically diverse after school programs that makes provision of

sports and arts activities possible. Laws against discrimination in employment and non-

discrimination crusades that call for awareness of anti-diversity leave schools and other places of

work more liberal.

I also came to know that; Targeted social services can also contribute to living together of

immigrant families. They include compliance with provision of interpretation services and

multilingualism of informational materials to promote equal access of the minority persons in the

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aspects of health care, education, housing and other supportive services. Education programs for

the immigrant parents, better understanding of the language and recognition of foreign

qualifications improve the qualifying force and the financial situation. Therefore, once parents

attain stability and get a social capital, children have no option but to assimilate to this middle

ground between being fully human and non-human. Further, naturalization campaigns encourage

naturalization that gives the immigrants an ability to exercise full civil and political rights which

in turn will inculcate a spirit to vote and be involved in civil politics among children.

When policies and programs are designed, developed, and enacted in a careful manner, they

convey this message to second-generation youth. So, it can be concluded that they are wanted

and needed in society. Of the social capital investments are the international relations, income

generation, social participation, and anti-discriminative regulations. The process of migration of

the immigrant descendants to avail opportunity, resources and search for identity in order to

become the active members of a diversifying society is supported by family, community and

societies.

- National and Local Integration Policies

Integration policies are envisaged by governments as a mechanism to ensure that the immigrants,

and their offspring, adopt, the host country social economic cultural, together with or political

system. National level policies involve providing the immigrants the modalities of being

incorporated in the United States’ civil realms such as citizenship, the labor market, education,

health and housing and welfare state services for both the natives and the immigrants. Localities

also individualize integration schemes and subjects of funding via NGOs and grassroots

organization for the right services for their context. Based on the analysis conducted in the frame

of Second-Generation Integration studies it is possible to conclude that only affirmative national

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policies promoting multiculturalism, dual citizenship and in general – structural integration

contribute to the higher actually achieved level of structural integration in comparison with

assimilationist policies that promise the cultural homogeneity of the societies. However,

decentralization integration governance also engages in the construction of identity as well as the

manners of inclusion. Culturally diverse towns for second generation immigrants offer

intercultural teaching and learning, integration and multicultural housing, legal counselling

against discrimination, immigrant leadership, and citizenship of urban areas for immigrants.

However, critics argue that the locally led integration policies may also result in the segregation

of the minorities into ethnographic niches that are as a result of a poor implementation.

Altogether, the literature argument suggests that the way of integrated children of immigrants

that mobilizes the nation-state equality policies in collaboration with localized services is the

most just and socially constructive across the vital social spheres where a dynamic identity might

emerge.

- Education and Language Support Programs

Educational enlightenment and language are significant in determining the gifts of second-

generation immigration youngsters and the rightful slot that should be accorded to them in the

socius. Looking at the context of this discussion it can thus be argued that schools can indeed be

seen as formative institutions, however the immigrant learners experience language, cultural and

social as well as; and economic challenges which are likely to influence their learning and

formation. As policy responses one can mention the intentions to implement educational and

language assistance programs that will enable young immigrants, on the one hand, to achieve

academic success and on the other – to be culturally integrated into school. These may include:

ESL lessons, bilingual classroom techniques, translation of the parent information, multi-cultural

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teaching and staff training -Section 91(10), personal as well as cultural support for refugee and

new arrival students with history of trauma and interrupted education: Section 91(10). Different

researches have pointed out the benefits of two-way education and learning, when children of

American and English speaking as a second language are keen in the same class and learn in the

two languages. The approaches serve to raise achievement of all children in the learning

community and their knowledge and appreciation of other cultural and ethnic backgrounds, and

themselves. Apart from undertakings that are offered in schools, secular organizations offer hind-

course homework tutoring, leadership, mentoring, college preparation as well as counseling to

improve the lives of young immigrants of low socioeconomic status. It means that such

disabilities as learning and others can hinder parents’ action to assist children, monitor their

assignments or discuss placement and services. Thus, institutions ought to start creating

strategies that could enable them reach out to immigrant families. Empowering parents to

decode; educating them to read, socializing them, educating them about their civil liberties and

leadership institutes enhances the way they are able to cope with schooling responsibilities as

well as challenge institutions on behalf of their children. Nevertheless, if one has to encourage

positive immigrant origin students’ identity to tackle hurdles and enhance integration, then one

needs prolonged and more compressed schemes. Particular education policies and interventions

are required in order that second-generation youth acquire the language, literacy, and socio-

emotional learning that are required to learn at school, to progress to tertiary study, to gain

effective employment, and to become active citizens in their societies.

- Anti-Discrimination Laws and Enforcement

Policies against discrimination are equally meaningful in the ways that they assist second

generation immigrants in siting themselves within a society and forming their own self-identities.

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Equal legal rights mean, therefore, that they are giving them employment and educational

opportunities without discriminating, and that they are learning the fundamental social norms

and skills necessary to build a positive and safe construction of self and social belonging.

However, effectiveness of such laws can only be seen in their ability to be implementing to the

last letter of the law. If getting information to a reporting center is either difficult or impossible,

and the penalties that are given for the violation are either mild or random, the said marginalized

group is still vulnerable. Thus, the ability to frame discrimination is maintained to justify the

exclusion of some people from the normal society.

Second, for the second-generation immigrants, issues of minorities requiring governments to

address legislation and legal policies of discriminative actions, and to ensure that the policies are

implemented. The existence of these complicated procedures should be clearly stated and

translated and there should be people who assist complainants to write about experiences of

hardship. To achieve efficiency, it has been recommended that these penalties should be severe

and should be administered to anybody found discriminating on the basis of immigrant

background within all spheres of life; housing, health care, credit facilities and employment

opportunities. These are in addition to public awareness posters and campaigns that should

comprise of information from the public and other interested groups in order to increase the

levels of observing the set laws. Authorities should keep records of enforcement measures so as

to be regularly able to gauge the extent to which categories of industries, or categories of

offenses are being targeted.

Well framed and comprehensive anti-discrimination laws can indeed influence Second

Generation immigrants’ economic settlement prospects, education, social relations, rights to

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demand without fearing for their safety, healthcare in particular mental health and most

importantly integration into societies in the receiving nations. But there is what appears to be a

different form of discrimination that current and latest immigrants subject themselves to and this

needs a different type of attention. The enforcers should ensure they recruit persons who will be

conversant with the local language of the affected population in order to assist in intaking the

complains. To build such rapport, it is important to deliver information to these compact

immigrant groups so that they have confidence in reporting systems also. Language access and

cultural competence in all measures in enforcement processes improve the likelihood of filing

claims because clients are afraid of interacting with the government.

- Social Services and Immigrant Support

One of the angles that describe the prospects of immigration policies for the second generation of

immigrants is the focus on their social services and community programs. These are mainly to

address needs in basic life needs including education, health, housing, and employment; and

linguistic and cultural and voting support. Where the children or youths are teenagers or are from

families of immigrants living in the adopted countries, supportive programming will go a long

way in boosting their mobility while helping them find a place in new societies. Policy responses

must translate into channeling funds towards the regional networks created to serve the needs of

Immigrant populations in the respective materials in their languages and frames of reference.

Specialist culture-based communities of ethnic youths establish small organizations for ethnic

youths for the development of healthy ethnic identity and for the purpose of assisting these

youths to appreciate the institutional systems. In the same manner, after school tutorial,

mentoring, English as a second language, child care and many more are facilitated in community

center whereby parents are free to impart on the child cultural belief systems and standards while

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at the same preparing the child for the multicultural world. They also provide those belonging to

different origins the chance to have contact and get to know the other, get media in their

language and also partake in cultural events. However, legislations like the Development, Relief,

and Education for Alien Minors Act (DREAM Act) it seeks to offer the youth an improved

education and employment chances rather than being put at the periphery.

At a macro level social integration emanates from the level of trust that the immigrants and their

families have so as to participate in all social activities. Consequently, the general social welfare

measures that delivery healthcare, housing, income and other assistance to the poor also assist to

police the immigrant families and compel them to be active. Which means that for one to be in a

position to apply for such a program, they will have to surrender an assimilation chance.

Therefore, in the field of immigration, the inclusion-focused policymaking should move to

change of the eligibility criteria of immigrants to social services, translation of frontline workers,

through the utilization of appropriate outreach programs and funding the immigrant ethnic

associations.

- Evaluation of Integration Programs

Some of the educational, employment, language, and cultural initiatives that may be provided for

second generation immigrant are; Evaluating such programs pose a lot of problems because there

are bound to be many goals and actions involved, the assessments should therefore be guided by

well-defined goals measures and data sources. Among the objectives that are thought to be

typical, we can identify education, employment, language acquisition and,

integration. Assessment and measurement in terms of metrics also involves tracking and follow-

ups of things such as graduation rates, earning capabilities, test results, surveys and among others

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for several years. Data collection is therefore discreet and through getting social, economic and

perception data it is also comprehensive.

The rigorous evaluation to determine practical usefulness includes formative and the summative

results with the experimental as well as the quasi-experimental research designs being common.

Higher quality studies employ non-attendance comparably achieving peer comparison groups to

minimize the effects of the program. Regular collection of the data through the means of surveys,

interviews, focus groups and administrative records builds up the more consistent picture of

identification procedure and the dynamics of the processes of formation of social relations at

different stages of existential time. It is thus feasible to talk about quantitative trends on the one

hand and qualitative results on the other hand.

It can be used to inform funding and policies, to improve the development of the programs,

engage and find stories of success. Evaluations, however, involve a lot of experience, time and

attention and, most importantly, participants. Different governmental structures, funds, non-

governmental organizations and scientists perform numerous monitoring tasks. This is in an

effort to follow the ethic that it is right and proper to make studies independent in other to

eliminate situations they deemed as conflict of interest. Some of the most successful integration

initiatives invite the prospect of accountability by holding out their arms to monitoring,

evaluation and learning. Scudder et al, 2002 Mhecks sponsors balance and report on those exact

activity impacts on integration success while summing total overall effects across the

organization.

To evaluate the efficacy of integration programs, there is a need for a comprehensive,

sustainable and long-term methodological plan of measuring quality of life in social cultural and

economic terms. The progress in the three areas thus relies on the continued political will and

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more so public support. Honest and prompt assessments that do not degrade and insult

immigration families, to the contrary, can enhance societal cohesion, law, and responsibility to

the strange ‘other. Hence, there is justification for integration policies focusing on second

generation youth but a thorough and sensible procedure is warranted to guarantee that the

advantages overshadow the drawbacks.

- Recommendations for Policy Improvement

Based on context and results, it is assumed that policy orientations and governmental programs

to soften identity and social integration of immigrants in the second generation should

encompass community inclusion and multiculturalism, education, and family assistance,

economic and social upward mobility, immigration, and legal naturalization. In particular, there

are several techniques which municipal governments can use that may support the integration of

certain immigrants and make them feel welcome. Students shall be educated on history and

culture of immigrants in order to accept them and also host them in school. The services of a

social nature should have interpreters in immigration languages and should take into

consideration certain cultural correlates. More immigrant ownership and financial freedom can

be achieved by providing immigrant access to small business loans, and supporting additional

job training. Thus, naturalization and active participation of the permanent residents into the civil

society and the political processes contribute to the enhancement of the pace of the economic

integration. Increasing the efficiency of Visa processing so as to deal with the backlog and

exercising more efficiency in family reunion has least repercussions on the formation of life in

those countries for the immigrants. More generally, it may contain prevention and combating of

xenophobia through intensive publicity campaigns, positive portrayal of the concerned groups

inures media and in the social networking sites, formulation and rigorous enforcement of anti-

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hate speech laws as well as handling of hate crimes. That is why, if the national and local

governments are setting policies based on the principles mentioned above, one can ensure that

the immigrants can enjoy rather smooth processes and the born-and-raised citizens, as well as the

newcomers, can be proud of the societies they are living in. The economic social and civic

development of the merging and merging globalizing nations depend mainly on how well or how

ill equipped the policy makers are to manage both the opportunities and challenges of mobility of

people and diversity. The right process and outcome patterns are integral in the identity

development of immigrants and subsequent integration pattern of new immigrants, the first and

subsequent generations.

12. FUTURE CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES

The development of new opportunities and new threats of children and young second-generation

immigrants is first of all their identity and their relationships with the society. Second generation

youth, as has been noted, retain the ethnic identity of the parents, but are also socialized from the

dominant culture as well as peers. This re-molding influences the integration into society and

may lead to a formation of assimilation or exclusion. For the future trends, one has to locate the

influence of technology and globalization forces that will characterize the environment ahead. In

one-way, digital spheres can support the ‘proof of existence’ of diaspora groups around the world

and may participate in identity formation. Internet enables debates and gaining more information

about culture, and it provides the ways, sources to turn to, if discriminated or excluded. But it

also supports voting and other related events, as well as the employment opportunities that are

associated with integration. However, at the same time, online environments can be a medium

for the promotion of segregationist attitudes and the use of prejudice against the members of the

minority population. Thus, in the course of globalization there is accommodation and

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interdependence of the economies, this may foster immigration and consequently new second

generation groups. When divided by the purpose for migration, each wave experiences specific

context factors of identity and opportunity That is, some context factors relate to reasons for

migration, as well as the level of acceptance of receiving societies, properties of co-ethnic

communities, etc. The legal provisions of The State as to citizenship, discrimination, education

and social services also determines possibilities. On the one hand it introduces Cosmopolitan

perception amongst the youth and on the other hand, some of the youth perceive new currents as

threat to their nationalism and or religious beliefs and hence become fundamentalist. In sum, the

effects of technology and globalization propose an oppression for more differentiated and

democratic interaction with the other and yet the prospect of segmentation as the other is again

present. The realization of positive possibilities would therefore require the cumulative processes

of institution-building for positive possibilities and the development of a second-generation

capacity for asset mobilization for social progress and transformative life and a positive but not a

false self-architecture.

- Emerging Trends in Immigration and Identity

Even though immigration has a powerful impact on the balkanization of societies on the

international level, the concept of immigrant’s identity is one of the concerns which fit into the

framework of the new tendencies characterized as future gains and burdens. The second

generation – children of immigration – are entering their youth phase as a dominant

phenomenon. With the latter, such young people develop with the culture and framework of the

country that accepts them at birth, as well as at the same time growing up with ancestors’ ethnic

practices in their home. This duality is well manifested in the way they identify themselves and

how the remaining world sees them. Yet, now they are inclined to integrate, while the

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educational and the job markets allow that rather than remaining a closed ethnic group. However,

this identity development may not always be simple as they may experience the following; Such

readers may develop a feeling that they are not welcome in their home country and this is

evidence that negative comment on immigration fosters the sentiment of exclusion. Visits ‘back

home’ portray differences from the size of the extended family in most cultures. The frequency

and richness of these interactions will force many children of immigrants not simply to live

between two cultures, but to repeatedly manage the tension between appreciation of the

uniqueness of their cultures of origin and the necessity of creating new lives for themselves in

the culture of destination of this nation. Outside the class, schools and employers must make sure

that they also provide environment in which such youths will feel that they are willing to fit in

the future. As for the inclusion of immigrant families into the societies of their destination some

scholars have asserted that the second generation without a vote can become rightless. This is a

disadvantage to growth in human capital particularly so for those economies that seek to add

depth to the type of talent they possess. Also, ethno-religious conflict may be triggered by people

who withdraw from normal social interactions and take refuge in sect like association resulting

from social exclusion. The extent to which multicultural youth groups across the globe need

integration as soon as possible and, in the process fostering the celebration of values that are

universal; dialogue, equality, understanding and respect and pluralism as a process that

recognizes the Diversity of worthwhile qualities. However, if countries are admitting to these

emerging challenges, then second-generation immigrants present huge untapped potential – as

the bridge between culture in the Global village – in a progressively borderless world.

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- Impact of Technology on Social Integration

Considering the current and especially the future developments of the art and the growth of the

role of technology in virtually every sphere of life, it will have a lasting impact on social

integration, both affirmative as well as negative, for the second-generation immigrants, in terms

of the first and second-generation countries. On the one hand, acknowledging technology as the

way of producing new forms of connection and communication, building communities, using

social nets and applications for Instant Messaging, the immigrants maintain close relationships

with friends and families in the home country that support cultural and ethical values. They also

enable communication with the diaspora, seek assistance, and acquire and donate cultural

products like music and food; they also have a support structure that assists since individuals

would otherwise feel isolated and integrate into an accepting community, new technologies are

useful, but their application has negative consequences related to the decline in face-to-face, the

spread of fake news, and the generation of isolation, which does not allow people to become

united. Prolonged use of the tablet and other such devices may result in the decrease of the

amount of time that immigrants would ordinarily spend in face-to-face interactions with peers,

role models, organizations, and service providers that are crucial in identity formation as well as

positive ac-culturation. By relying more on the algorithms and AI to bring content to the users

the immigrants may be confined to the bubbles or chambers that provide despotic visions of the

world that does not allow for actual interaction or mutual understanding people. Finally, the

analysis of how the technology enter their lives to understand the effects and essentials of the

risks and opportunities most relevant to life chancing of young immigrants will shall

dramatically change the lives of immigrant youth; the competencies needed for a just and

responsible use of technology and the strategies for sustaining human relatedness in

circumstances that grow increasingly virtual will enable the immigrant communities to acquire

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the knowledge and skills that is essential in using technology as means for continuing

relationship with

- Globalization and Transnational Identities

The advancement of time with the contemporary technologies, transport and communication

systems, the second-generation immigrants encounter new contexts for building up multicultural

and binational synthetic selves in today’s globalized world. While the parents of the immigrants

have a strong bond with their countries of origin the immigrant children grow in the United

States but have the values of the parents. This promotes the construction of what might be called

transcultural subjects, an integration of one culture into another one in forms that are not easily

recognizable. The Internet to the extent of one permits the embrace of media and social networks

from different parts to forge friendship within the youth culture without actually being in the

country of origin hence distending diasporic allegiance. One of them is that they are always at a

position to at least act as cultural brokers for different cultures and be linked to some networks in

another country. They do not, however, have it too bad either because they are faced with the

conflict of boy and girl, conflicts of cultures and in attempts to embrace both worlds being

caught in between two cultures. Because they are change-makers multicultural communication

and understanding can become a strength in a highly globalized world if only the unexpressed

capabilities of these groups are acknowledged and developed. In general, second-generation

immigrants have a tendency to construct new forms of hybrid and complex subjectivity in the

future while overcoming the drawbacks of national models. Whether these new and more

transnational identities should be viewed as opportunities or as threats will be one of the many

outcomes, as nation-states maneuver for a way to reconcile their legitimate interest in social

stability and continuity with the realities of a more polyglot demography. More importantly, there

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needs to be interventions in ways that the second-generation immigrants feel they own the global

citizenship in the locality and at the same time feel they belong to the place.

- Preparing for Multicultural Societies

Since globalization and immigration continue to progress, there are various opportunities which

appear but there are also various threats which societies have to learn and prepare for. Schools

will have to train themselves for producing second generation immigrants capable of fitting in

the society of the host country and at the same time being proud of their ethnic background. This

involves endorsing of bilingual learning whereby one is permitted to code first languages to

communicate with cultural world and equally learn languages of new countries at the same time.

In fact, schools can supply all the way from partial-bilingual education to the complete focus on

heritage learning after normal school. In addition, multiculturalism content and diversity

promoting teaching approaches should be introduced to many aspects of learning; English,

humanities, art, and music, so that diversity is valued and unity is embraced. Teacher training

programs in like manner prepare teachers to teach and to interact with the learners within the

society socially. Apart from school context, the governments can finance and promote contacts

with immigrant groups for insertion and positive contact. For instance, annual festivals

disclosing food, dance, music and other tangible and intangible cultural products, and other

cultural exhibitions where the new comer’s families and the natural inhabitants of certain region

can meet. Mass media also has social responsibility of a portraying diversity that does not

influence people to stereotype others but instead create awareness on how similar people are.

Finally, a number of institutions have to guarantee controllability of integration of second-

generation immigrants into the society and the economy of the receiving state without the loss of

the ethnocultural identity of the country of departure. To avoid converting diversity into an issue

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– to fight – it is necessary to have such policies and a range of grass-root projects that would help

to shift the attention not on the problem of immigrant families, but on the opportunities that they

can open.

- Opportunities for Second-Generation Immigrants

In the case of children growing up in immigrant families, the same is true of educational and

employment mobility that may become the new avenues of success once they grow up. Second

generation youth, therefore, matures with appreciation of the American culture, and at the same

time, learns the cultural values, if not the practices, of the parents’ home country, and thus, are in

a vantage point for active biculturalism. The very fact of being able to master the parents’ native

language in contrast to English means the availability of the potential to discuss multiple levels

of social sphere and peek through different cultural lenses. The immigrants are also the most

educated people in the United States, those with education than the peers with parents born in

United States of America, thus second-generation immigrants will determine future American

working force, huge macroeconomic effects. But they are unable to capture many opportunities

that exist around them. As student and workers, second generation Latinos are in a far better

position than their first-generation immigrant parents; but like their parents, they are not the

same as native born third generation Americans in terms of the discrimination, stereotyping,

allocation of resources afforded schools based on the geographical location of second-generation

Latinos which is predominantly in low-income neighborhoods. Policy makers, educators,

employers and other stakeholders who want to enhance the scaffold, to decrease prejudice and to

offer opportunities for advancement for 2G immigrants to provide the proof of the development

of future leaders in all fields, there is still much that remains to be done. The bilingual fluency

training them for maneuvering through global networks makes them suitable for intercontinental

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business communication as these relations go on improving at a shocking rate in today’s

globalized world. This means that if appropriate mentoring and coaching was provided there

could be created change makers who could propel society into embracing the oppressed groups

from prejudice and discrimination. Since the young is the new demographically important

population in the United States of America, it is the future of the country and the behavior they

portray today will shape the trend. It is therefore still relevant to ask whether existing systems

will grow to build upon fair chances of the children of immigrants to optimally grasp

opportunities.

- Vision for the Future of Integration and Identity

As the young people of second generation grow, they have the opportunities of setting up their

lives within the new society of the receiving countries and at the same time able to uphold the

ethics of the parents that moved to the new host countries. This can be done where future

integration policies, educational systems, community support structures and economic

opportunities will on and on changing in a way that these young people help in explaining one

cultural context from another. It is the best scenario that may be painted, where people are equal

and the fake social status does not depend upon the races.

In its initial focus to the structural integration policies, the change may consist those that could

increase the status of immigrants by naturalization, multiculturalism understanding an

acceptance and no discrimination in areas like accessing housing, employment, voting among

others. These are accompanied by another proven, and not a luxury, the need to beat the social

and media campaigns intensiveness to improve the image of immigrated groups, as xenophobia

is also an issue. At the socio-economic level, public education crusade and other incentives,

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recruitment and sensitization campaigns could target the immigrants ‘word’ to other people of

color within the work force, boardroom and business ownership.

However, education needs teachers, school leaders, teaching and learning processes and

environment that enables second generation students to cope with challenges concerning race,

self-identity and belonging in American society but foremost, with the help of their abilities,

prepare them for employment in identified careers. Teacher needs more professional training,

cultural competence is something that should be addressed, and they also need more materials

that create safe environments and foster positive cultural identity. Thus, a few of the ways, which

can foster better relationships between the two communities, but are still School based are the

following introduction of other activities that include students from the other culture, maybe

through sports. There are also the issues of having adequate mental health services that are

sensitive to the second-generation youths’ additional burdens.

These young people do well under re satisfied that the cultural practices and policies of the

society embrace the cause of androgyny and provision of role models and support structures to

actualize the advantages of fluidity from both worlds. Much of what such integration does entail,

therefore, is actually to engender difference rather than eliminate it, to signify the concept of

victory of plurality. Societal progress is the only way to alter the current state of affairs – which

means collective work of all people, political, and administrative figures, teachers, employers,

activists, artists, and more. Therefore, the integration and the promotion of second-generation

youth will only serve the interest and the development of society and the future generations.

Second-generation immigrants: Identity formation and social integration

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