Immigrants' Identity Negotiations and Coping with Stigma in Different Relational Frames

Abstract

This research describes strategies that immigrants deploy in face‐to‐face interactions with indigenous locals and links these strategies to their relational frames and networks. By focusing on interconnections between identity management and network management, the author further explores some of the key trends already documented in the contemporary literature on ethnicity. The article also adds new insight to the analysis of stigma and identity by showing how self‐friend and self‐stranger relationships present different opportunities and limitations for self‐presentation. Network fragmentation—commonly associated with a weak degree of social integration—is not necessarily an indicator of unsuccessful integration or segregation; it may be part of a wider immigrant identity project, a way to cope with stigmatization, and an important precondition for integration into mainstream society.

Little of Italy? Assumed ethnicity in a New York City neighbourhood

“…black and white racial conceptions in the USA), understandings of authenticity and stigmatized identities. While negative connotations of Albanian ethnicity and Islam proliferate, the ability to put forth Italian face(t)s of identity interacts both with a reality of European origin and perceived physical ethnoracial markers (as in the case of Bosnian migrants in Norway, see Valenta 2009). Moving beyond this specific case, one may ask: Why would Pakistani restaurant owners on Brick Lane, London title their restaurants 'Indian' establishments?…”

Social Contexts and Coping Strategies of Foreign Wives in Korea: Using a Conceptual Framework of Social Identity Theory

“…Their cultural distance and lack of Korean language skills also restricted social relationships with Koreans. Immigrant studies highlight how members of an ethnic group experience varying degrees of discrediting and discriminatory practices in their daily interactions with mainstream society (Colic‐Peisker & Walker, ; Hurtado et al., ; Valenta, ). This research also found that participants experienced diverse forms of discrimination against foreigners, particularly those who are from developing countries.…”

“…This research also found that participants experienced diverse forms of discrimination against foreigners, particularly those who are from developing countries. Such negative experiences may have influenced immigrants' self‐concept about their ethnicity and resulted in their reluctance to interact with Koreans (Valenta, ).…”

“…Participants who married for love or through an introduction by family members or friends wanted to differentiate themselves from foreign wives who married through commercial marriage brokers. Stigmatized immigrants “distance themselves from an ascribed social identity not only by distinguishing their own ethnic group from the general immigrant population but also by distancing themselves from segments of their own ethnic group” (Valenta, ). Participants who had different marriage paths from arranged marriage wanted to step out of the shadow of social stigma attached to “marriage migrant women,” a common name in Korea for foreign spouses.…”

ThisGoffmanian Conundrum: Supporting the Status Quo or Forced to Manage Societal Ramifications?

“…For example, negative stigmas related to obesity (Brewis, Wutich, Faletta-Cowden, & Rodiguez-Soto, 2011), smoking (Stuber, Galea, & Link, 2009), homelessness (Roschelle & Kaufman, 2004), immigrants (Valenta, 2009), HIV=AIDS (Monjok, Smesny, & Essien, 2009;Niehaus, 2007), sexuality (Kaufman & Johnson, 2004), voluntary childlessness (Park, 2002), and felons (Copenhaver, Edwards-Willey, & Byers, 2007) represent only a few articles published in the recent past. Through widely disparate topics studied across nations and cultures, each researcher notes the problems discredited individuals feel compelled to negotiate.…”