The long road home: migratory experience and the construction of the self.
Using autobiographical narratives, this article explores the experience and role of childhood immigration in the ongoing construction of self-identity. A variety of border-crossings are considered in the child's journey from cultural marginalization to acculturation into American society. Continuing feelings of displacement and loss into adulthood-common tropes in adult narratives-are then examined, as are immigrants' efforts to creatively address aspects of a hybrid identity, e.g., via "return trips" to the homeland or through the deployment of a double vision in the interest of social and political inclusiveness.
Department of Religious Studies, DePaul University, Chicago, IL, 60604, USA. ffurman@depaul.edu
Frida
F
Kerner Furman
D000069:Acculturation; D002648:Child; D004641:Emigration and Immigration; D006801:Humans; D012649:Self Concept; D014171:Transients and Migrants / Q000523:psychology*; D014481:United States