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ABSTRACT
Developing a stable adult identity is a key process during youth, which unfolds in ongoing interaction between the individual and their environment. For immigrant youth, this process also includes the formation of an ethnic identity, which is complicated by potential differences between the young person's culture of origin and the dominant culture. But we currently know little about the ethnic and self-identification of White immigrant youth in new immigrant destinations in the United States. The case of Bosnian second-generation youth in St. Louis addresses this gap in the literature on ethnic identity and immigrant incorporation. The analysis shows considerable context-specific variation in how Bosnian youth self-identify. The ability to pass as members of the dominant racial group also indicates that the ethnic boundary between Bosnian youth and native St. Louisians is rooted in a set of shared histories and experiences and a resulting sense of knowing that governs within and between group interactions. The discussion section arrays implications for future research.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 The study was approved by the University of Missouri – St. Louis IRB (Ref. Nr. 1041791).
2 English was the preferred language among our respondents.
3 All of our respondents could choose their own pseudonym to protect their privacy.
4 Hariz Halilovich (Citation2013b) similarly observed how in urban centers in Bosnia-Herzegovina standard language replaces regional dialects among internal migrants, whereas these dialects are carefully maintained as important identity markers in the Bosnian diaspora.
5 Ana Croegaert’s (Citation2011) ethnographic account of Ćejf among Bosnian refugee women in Chicago illustrates how the practice of slow coffee drinking enabled them to (re-)establish dignity and a sense of stability.
6 The recent launch of a St. Louis MLS expansion team and the growing popularity of soccer in the United States raises important questions about how this will affect the acculturation experience of immigrant youth (see Valeriano Citation2014 or Suarez Montero, Citation2011).
7 Typically used as short-hand to denote non-Bosnian White peers or Americanized siblings.
8 This is also reflected in the fact that most non-Bosnian St. Louisians reported not knowing any Bosnians (Sichling et al. Citation2021).
9 Almost all our respondents agreed that there is a distinct Bosnian look they are able to identify in any public setting. But attempts to define the main features of this look diverged greatly and often settled on a diffuse sense of ‘knowing’ other Bosnians.
10 This resembles Berry’s (Citation1997) bicultural mode of acculturation.
11 Colic-Peisker (Citation2005) found that the inclusion of Bosnians in Australia was not only shaped by their racial features, but also by their command of English. Drnovšek Zorko (Citation2019) noted that while racial hierarchies in the U.K. shaped encounters of Bosnians with other migrants, their experiences have to be interpreted in light of the particularities of Yugoslav history. Similarly, Croegaert (Citation2015) underscored that while the parent generation experienced difference in Europe primarily in ethnic terms, their children in the U.S. must contend with difference established along racial lines.
12 In her study of Asian/White multiracial people in the U.K., Song (Citation2021) challenged assumptions of a universal desire among these groups to be seen as White. She argues for more nuanced conceptualizations of identity that move beyond simplistic binaries of White/non-White and allow for the simultaneous association with multiple racial and ethnic ancestries.