-0.5 Generation: Acculturation Strategies and Multifaceted Identity of Pakistani Graduate Students Navigating U.S. Culture

• In Event: 233 - Regular Session. Assimilation Across Diverse Immigrant Communities

Abstract

Using Rumbauts’ (2004) generational categories, I conceptualize international students, temporary worker and migrants as the -0.5 generation . I use the case of Pakistani graduate students studying in the US to understand the acculturation processes for the -0.5 generation. I carried out twenty-eight life history interviews of 13 female and 15 male students, whose duration of stay varies from 5 months to 5 years. I present an alternative framework to understand the processes of incorporation in the host society. My findings indicate that the students adopt a keepers and explorers approach, facilitated by a select and drop process, as they navigate the different cultural elements of the host society. Pakistani graduate students make use of their pre-existing ideals of the home culture to navigate the host cultural settings. I argue that the multi-faceted identity of the Pakistani graduate student, specifically their religion age and duration of stay influences their every day interactions in the host culture.

Author

• Maheen Haider, Boston College