In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

II TransITIons Negotiating Identity in a New Culture oh, what a lovely life it would be if you could just meet in between: something in the middle—the best of both worlds. Humans are like that; they always miss what they don’t have. —ANNA IN BETWEEN A newspaper article I once read listed life events and the level of stress each causes. Those at the top of the list I expected: death of a loved one, marriage, and divorce. Farther down, but still near the top, was moving. Initially that surprised me, but then I started to remember the sense of utter exhaustion I have always felt during and after a move. Packing boxes, cleaning out drawers, and loading up the car with bags of stuff destined for a charity shop felt like giving away part of my life. The process never failed to drain me both physically and emotionally. On the other hand, new can be exciting. Enthusiasm and hope can mediate the challenges and stress brought about by a move. Regardless of how it may be viewed, moving is a major life event (Fielding 1993, 201). Newness wears off eventually, however, and no matter where a person lands, no matter how beautiful or charming the place might be, there are still bathrooms to clean and laundry to do. The hassles of daily life do not disappear because location has changed. Once the initial honeymoon period begins to wear thin, family dynamics, bills, and everyday obligations loom just as large as they did before. Added to that are the stresses of becoming accustomed to the aspects of the new place that perhaps are not as pleasing or easy as they might have first seemed. Familiarity might not always breed contempt, but it can dull a once-shiny finish. “Immigration” technically refers to the discrete event of moving permanently from one country to another. But the meaning of immigration is not just in the physical move itself—the airplane flight, the border crossing, TRANsITIONs • 43 or the attainment of any particular legal status. Immigrants also cross the imaginary borders of identity that are influenced by historical and political realities (McLeod 2000, 217; Bhabha 1994). The multilayered, continuous experience of migrating has more to do with navigating a life course than traversing a border. Whether a person who has moved to a new country considers himself or herself an immigrant, and at what point that happens, is not always clearcut . Rather than being a decision that occurs at a moment frozen in time, recognizing that one is an “immigrant,” in a permanent sense, is commonly a realization that comes with hindsight. U.s. Census data indicate that for many immigrants there can be a long period, sometimes years, between the time they arrive in the United states and when they decide to stay permanently . Many immigrants cannot pinpoint exactly when they realized that they were no longer sojourners but permanently settled and would not be returning to live in their former homes (Redstone and Massey 2004, 723).1 In the months and years after arrival, there are constant adjustments and adaptations to ways of life and ways of thinking. During the transition an immigrant has to find a way to negotiate a new world, not just in terms of logistics but also on a personal level. The act of crossing a geopolitical border does not mean that emotional ties to the immigrant’s former home will automatically be cut. Particularly in a social or cultural context, one’s sense of oneself—one’s identity and attachments—do not change overnight (Eyles 1985; Glick schiller and Fouron 2001). Living for an extended time in a different place will certainly have some effect on a sense of self, however. Perceptions and feelings about expected life events involving jobs, children, houses—the stuff of adult life—are bound to be altered when they take place under the umbrella of “foreigner” and when feelings about home, belonging, and attachment enter the picture . Anna, Lisa, shirine, and Barrett have led different lives but have all had to find coping strategies to help them move through the transitions of their adult lives in a new country. Anna Young, untraveled, and trusting, Anna left for Norway. When the plane landed in Oslo, she would be in an unfamiliar country where she did not speak the language and would know no one except her husband. Completely dependent on him, she would have no income or resources of her...

Share