Racial and religious contexts: Situational identities among Lebanese and Somali Muslim immigrants
Ethnic and Racial Studies, Volume 30, Issue 1 January 2007 , pages 72 - 94
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Kristine J. Ajrouch; Abdi M. Kusow
"This study addresses the racial and religious contexts of identity formation among Lebanese immigrants to the United States of America and Somali immigrants to Canada. Each enters with a different racial status: Lebanese as white; Somalis as black/visible minority. Interviews explore the strategies of adaptation and identity development within these groups. Specifically, we compare and contrast the Lebanese and Somali experience through an analysis of ethnic relations in the country of origin, the conditions of immigration, and through accounts of their encounters and identity negotiation with the host society. Our findings reveal that each group attempts to make their religious identity evident, however, Somali immigrants must negotiate the effects of 'othering' processes with both race and religion, while Lebanese immigrants build a religious identity from privileges afforded to them by virtue of their white racial status."
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