1-139 - Migration/Immigration, Culture Change and Youth Adaptation

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

International migration and immigration is a global phenomenon and continues to rise. Migrations pose unique opportunities and challenges for youth development. Youth may be a voluntary or involuntary immigrant. Their migrating pathways vary, ranging from a safe and lawful to a traumatic and life threatening. In addition, many children grow up in immigrant families. Even if they were born in the host country or came at a young age, Asian American youth, as children of immigrant and/or ethnic minority, may straddle between at least two contrasting cultural contexts. This organized symposium presents three papers to illustrate how Filipino and Korean Americans and immigrants and North Korean youth who fled to South Korea (called “defectors”) reconcile culture and identity. The first paper compares acculturation strategies among Filipino and Korean American youth using a large scale survey data that included data from youth as well as their parents. Using the same data, the second paper probes into the more detailed picture of ethnic-racial socialization with a particular focus on how youth perception of parental ethnic-racial socialization can influence youth development, mediated by ethnic identity. The third paper provides an international comparison by examining how North Korean defectors find meaning of culture and identity in South Korea, which is supposed to share the tradition with North Korea but has evolved into a very different cultural and economic environment for youth. Three papers collectively illuminate the complexity of cultural and identity changes and how they impact youth development.

Sub Unit

• Race, Ethnicity, Culture, Context

Chair

• Yoonsun Choi, University of Chicago

Discussant

• Yishan Shen, Texas State University

Individual Presentations

• Acculturation Strategies: Comparative Analyses of Subtypes and Correlates across Filipino and Korean American Youth - Presenting Author: Yoonsun Choi, University of Chicago; Michael Park, University of Chicago; Tae Yeun Kim, City University of Hong Kong; Miwa Yasui, University of Chicago

• Ethnic-Racial Socialization and Developmental Outcomes among Asian American Youths: The Mediating Role of Ethnic Identity - Presenting Author: Tae Yeun Kim, City University of Hong Kong; Yoonsun Choi, University of Chicago; Wookjin Kim, Seoul City University

• Negotiating Identities during the Process of Early Settlement among North Korea Adolescent Defectors - Presenting Author: Kihyun Kim, Sungkyunkwan University; Jaehee Yi, University of Utah