BEING CHAMELEON: THE INFLUENCE OF MULTIPLE MIGRATION IN CHILDHOOD ON IDENTITY CONSTRUCTION

• Authors: Agnieszka Trąbka
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

This paper focuses on the identity strategies of people who experienced multiple migrations in their childhood. They are sometimes, especially in the USA, referred to as Third Culture Kids (TCK). The author claims that serial migration is connected with some challenges as well as with unique opportunities. The former encompass sense of temporariness, feeling uprooted, difficulties with building deep and stable relationships and constructing cohesive identity. Obviously not every TCK experiences this challenges, and some TCKs cope very well with them, but these are problems mentioned most often by participants of this research. On the other hand however such lifestyle enables young migrants to gain cultural and linguistic competences. In this paper identity dilemmas and strategies in three dimensions are highlighted: agency and control over one’s life, cohesion and continuity and social relations. The paper is based on 53 biographical interviews with adult TCKs of different nationalities.

Keywords

EN

MIGRATION; MOBILITY; THIRD CULTURE KIDS; IDENTITY; BIOGRAPHY

• Publisher: Wydział Studiów Międzynarodowych i Politycznych Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego oraz Polska Akademia Umiejętności
• Journal: Studia Migracyjne - Przegląd Polonijny
• Year: 2014
• Volume: 40
• Issue: 3(153)
• Pages: 87-106

Contributors

author

Agnieszka Trąbka

• Pontifical University of John Paul II, Kraków