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Preface
- University of Wisconsin Press
- Chapter
- Additional Information
xi Pref ace While re search on im mi gra tion tells us much about re lo cat ing to a host coun try, tran si tion ing into a foreign cul ture, and forg ing a brand new iden tity, much re mains to be ex plored in mi gra tion stud ies, es pe cially for those who con tin u ously bridge two sep ar ate coun tries over their en tire life time. American so ci ol ogy has ex plored in depth the usual as sim i la tion pat tern for im mi grants. In fact, its early lin ear model as sumed it would take three gen er a tions for an im mi grant fam ily to be fully in te grated into the American “melt ing pot.” Cur rent mod els see it more as a seg mented pro cess, one where im mi grants do not have to sur ren der their pre vi ous iden tity. Today we know that peo ple leave their home lands with out for feit ing their mother cul ture. They knew it back then as well—when the early im mi gra tion stud ies were con ducted. But the as sump tion was that in te gra tion would lead to a fad ing of the orig i nal cul ture. This book is con cerned with re vis it ing that pro cess, per haps add ing a per sonal di men sion to it. Those of us who grow up between two dif fer ent worlds spend a life time mak ing sense of the won drous and dis orient ing ex pe ri ence. Take mis sion ary kids, for in stance—they suf fer from a sense of nos tal gia that is hard to ex plain from lack ing peo ple in their lives who fully under stand their two dif fer ent “homes” and iden tities. Chil dren of American busi ness men, mil i tary of fi cers, or ac a dem ics, who spend a good deal of their parents’ ca reers abroad, face sim i lar fates. Bi cul tu ral folks like us are haunted by the same mal ady. As a Bra zil ian I miss the Land of the South ern Cross as much as I miss the Home of the Brave when I am vis it ing fam ily in South Amer ica. We are all equally at home in two worlds, part of our selves al ways there, part here. At times we can pray in both lan guages; at oth ers in only one. Some times the xii Preface song that soothes our blues comes in Por tu guese, Span ish, French, some times in En glish only. We cob ble a life to gether from many pieces of dif fer ent cul tures. But some how, in side of us, it all fits. Though we have learned a lot about im mi gra tion to the United States, we have yet to fully ex plore these as pects of an immigrant’s life, the strug gles and com forts of folks who bridge two sep ar ate worlds through out their lives. After stud y ing im mi gra tion for more than a decade, I have found few stud ies that focus on this par tic u lar as pect of im mi gra tion, es pe cially when both worlds keep tug ging at us for our ex clu sive loy alty. We are not trans na tion als, who flit between two worlds for busi ness rea sons. We are peo ple who grew up with both worlds and whose lives only make sense seen from the prism of both. No easy ex pla na tion is found for those of us who (a) grow up bi lin gual, (b) are ex posed to sig nifi cant life ex pe ri ences in both cul tures, and (c) keep last ing friend ships in dif fer ent parts of the world. As we grow older, our dou ble iden tities be come the con nect ing nodes between our two worlds, the thing that makes our lives mean ing ful. Our friends in dif fer ent coun tries may not know each other; and if they did, they would not be able to com mu ni cate in the same lan guage...