Adolescent immigrant youth: Creating spaces of belonging

Abstract

Drawing on 24 months of participant observation and interviews with adolescent arrivals in the central coast region of California, this study examines how recently arrived immigrant teens create spaces of belonging. This immigrant population is simultaneously undergoing two life-changing transitions—adolescence and immigration. These two, life-altering transitions, greatly shape the trajectories of immigrant youth in the host country. Unfamiliar with US customs, the educational system, or the mainstream language, adolescent arrivals constantly struggle to belong in a place they hardly know. I advance the concept of immigrant youth vitality to conceptually analyze how shared experiences based on the age of migration and context of reception shape how immigrant youth create safe spaces for themselves. As recent immigrants and teenage newcomers, adolescent arrivals are experiencing for the first time the wrath of anti-immigrant politics directed at them. This study shows that adolescent arrivals often navigate life in the host country by relying on the familiar and their collective experiences including discrimination and exclusion to create spaces where they feel safe and welcomed. I find that by claiming safe spaces the youth actively engage in redefining what belonging means, looks, and feels like for newcomer teenagers.