Hybrid and Suprahybrid: Complex and Conflicting Identities of Immigrant Youth in the Canadian Nation-State

• In Event: Then, Now, and Here: Possibilities, Freedom, and the Complexities of Citizenship

Abstract

This research analyses the question of identity formation with regard to an understudied ethnic group, Turkish immigrant youth, in Canada. The empirical data draws upon a critical ethnographic study with fourteen first- and second-generation immigrant youth between 15 and 25 years old. The findings of the study indicate that cultural practices, social institutions and emotional attachments are significant reference points of the cultural identity formation of minority youth. The study suggests that young people, particularly second-generation immigrant youth, are supra-hybrid; they have the ability to live in-between lives; the capacity to switch between different settings; and the capability to liberate themselves from ideological impasses and religious orthodoxy in both their home and host countries.

Author

• Dilek Kayaalp, University of North Florida