Introduction: The Experiences of Second-Generation Canadian Youth

Research on the second generation is relatively recent, but growing quickly in Canada and internationally. This issue of Canadian Ethnic Studies/Études ethniques au Canada has its origins in a workshop held at the Tenth National Metropolis Conference, which was held in Halifax. In many ways it continues a conversation left unfinished in that session.

The nine articles deal with various experiences of second-generation Canadian youth through qualitative and quantitative research and in-depth and nuanced analyses. Several of the articles discuss the conceptual challenges and ambiguities of the second generation (Byers and Tastsoglou; Gallant; Hébert et al). The majority deal with the term in a pragmatic way according to their research needs. A broad definition of second generation is adopted to include the 1.5 generation (those born outside Canada but coming to Canada at an early age (Hassan et al.; Amarasingam), as well as the new generation youth from visible minority immigrant families, which also includes the 1.5 generation (Miu et al.).

The focus of the issue is on youth — the stage in life when major transitions usually take place, such as graduating from school, entering post-secondary institutions, entering the labour market, forming new households, but also coming to terms with ethno-cultural identities. It is in these junctures that the most "telling examples of the things that make the second generation distinctive" (Kobayashi 2008, 3) take place.

The majority of articles in this issue center on the nature of ethno-cultural identification in the second generation and beyond, its difference from that of the immigrant parents, as well as its relationship to being Canadian, and how this relationship plays out in particular localities, cities, and regions of Canada or within particular ethno-cultural groups. Jurva and Jaya deal with the identity and ethnic identification experiences of Finnish second-generation youth in Ottawa and how the latter balance their Canadian identity and appreciation of multiculturalism with their ethno-cultural roots. Being Canadian in the context of multiculturalism includes the possibility of being Finnish. Although the connections with "Finnishness" vary greatly, overall the Canadian cultural identity is highly salient, while the meaning and practice of "Finnishness" is selective and symbolic. Gallant's findings speak about a great variety of identities among second-generation youth in Quebec that are generally different from the ethnic identities of their parents. Furthermore, even those who identify with their immigrant parents' origins have very different representations of these ethno-cultural groups than their parents. At the same time, they also profess a strong civic allegiance to Quebec or Canada. For Sodhi, second-generation Indo-Canadians engage in a life-long process of striving to amalgamate Canadian individualistic and East Indian collectivistic value systems and to accommodate the "best of both worlds" into their lifestyle, i.e., to foster bicultural identities. In this process, the researcher suggests that intergenerational dialogue is paramount in achieving a "third space," whereby individuals are able to live comfortably in both cultures, as they also become aware that ideas, practices, and traditions are continuously evolving and changing.

Byers and Tastsoglou focus on the particular character and process of forming ethno-cultural identity, as well as its relationship with "Canadian-ness," through a comparative analysis of the accounts of second-generation Greek and Jewish youth in a smaller urban centre, Halifax. As a result of Canada's multicultural philosophy and policy, but also the dynamics of multiculturalism, in second- and third-tier cities in Canada with smaller immigrant populations, youth experience tension and ambivalence between maintaining an ethno-cultural affiliation and being fully accepted as Canadian. In contrast to the experiences of the Greek and Jewish youth in Halifax, Ali argues in her article on the second-generation youth in Toronto that Canadian multiculturalism in the highly diverse schools and neighbourhoods of the city has successfully created the perhaps questionable impression of inclusivity and equality, as a result of which the multi-ethnic second-generation youth of her study can comfortably identify with the ethno-cultural origins of their parents without feeling the need to identify as Canadian. Amarasingam's findings about Tamil youth...