Youth as Contested Sites of Culture: Intergenerational Acculturation Gap Amongst New Migrant Communities

This article explores the intergenerational acculturation gap amongst new migrant communities in Greater Western Sydney, Australia. It discusses how migrant youths cope with acculturative stress and intergenerational clashes while trying to integrate into new cultures and maintain their cultural values. The study identifies the need for an inter-generational approach to healthy family dynamics and negotiating the sensitivity and complexity of forging cultural identities. The article also highlights the challenges faced by migrant youths seeking higher freedom and the weakening of traditional social measures in regard to parental authority.

Running head: YOUTH AS CONTESTED SITES OF CULTURE
Social
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1YOUTH AS CONTESTED SITES OF CULTURE
This article by Renzaho, Dhingra and Georgeou, published in the year 2017 has
focused on the issue of immigration in the Greater Western Sydney, New South Wales of
Australia. It has identified how the migrant youths in this region cope up with the
acculturative (upbringing) stress and the intergenerational clash present here and how they try
to move on a positive settlement with the people of this region. The youths in this region has
become a challenging site of the culture while they try to stabilize the integration into the new
cultures and maintain the cultural values of their own country of origin. It is to note that the
schools plays a major part being the sites for the migrant children where they are socialised.
It suggests that there is a need for an inter-generational approach to the healthy family
dynamics within the communities that are migrant while dealing with the youths and
negotiating the sensitivity and the complexity of forging the cultural identities of theirs. It is
also to state that intergenerational clashes are characterised by the increasing sense of agency
within the children and that is what challenges the parental authority. The lack of
understanding from the parts of the parents regarding the desires of their children for social
independence and privacy is the core element that leads to the parental anxiety related of the
activities of their children when they move away from their home (Renzaho, Dhingra &
Georgeou, 2017). According to this article, the two major issues that are related to the
intergenerational acculturation gap are the intergenerational conflicts and the loss of family
capital. Furthermore, one of the major finding of this article is that despite getting help, the
migrant youths experience huge amount of pressures from both the mainstream society as
well as their own families for doing well. They compelled by the expected host and home
cultural and social norms and this sometimes tend to become incompatible for them. It has
also been identified that the migrant youths seek for higher freedom and this gets increased
with the weakening of the traditional social measures and this further requires some
significant changes in the core cultural ideals and values in regard to the parental authority.

2YOUTH AS CONTESTED SITES OF CULTURE
Apparently, it has also found that the factors that protect the positive family values are the
economic poverty, generational hierarchies, cultural beliefs and gender relationships
(Renzaho, Dhingra & Georgeou, 2017). However, there are certain limitations of this study.
One of the limitations is that the study have excluded the youth belonging from the age range
of 15 to 17 years and it primarily focused on the one above the age of 18 and below 24 years.
It is a limitation worth acknowledging because it is likely that the youth from 18-24 years age
range are having more sense of agency to resist their parental pressures and are more
resilience. Hence, further studies on the youth below the age of 18 years are required in order
to validate the findings of this study.

3YOUTH AS CONTESTED SITES OF CULTURE
References:
Renzaho, A. M., Dhingra, N., & Georgeou, N. (2017). Youth as contested sites of culture:
The intergenerational acculturation gap amongst new migrant communities—Parental
and young adult perspectives. PloS one, 12(2), e0170700.