Deterritorialized Identities. The sense of national belonging among teenagers proceeding from immigrated families

Abstract

The identificational integration is a dimension already recognized in the both academic and institutional treatments of the integration of the immigrated population. The «second generation» within immigrant families constitutes a specific area of research in which to analyze the cultural processes involved in this dimension of integration. This paper arises from a wider project of research on the cultural adjustment experienced by teenagers proceeding from immigrated families. One of the aspects approached in this study has been the feeling of national belonging. The article is based on the transversal analysis of more than ninety interviews gathered by the project. The analysis of these biographical statements shows that their national identification with the country of reception is rather weak and ambivalent with regard to the identification with the origin. This leads to the discussion of two general ideas: on the one hand, that the processes of hybridization expected from a postcolonial or transnational theoretical frame seem to be less manifest than what was expected; on the other hand, that the observed resistances to the national identification with Spain might be closely related to the rejection of the migratory project of the family.