Cultural and Corporate Belonging in the Course of Transnational Biographies: A Case Study of a Sierra Leonean Immigrant in Germany

• Main Author: Jan Küver
• Format: Article
• Language: deu
• Published: FQS 2009-09-01
• Series: Forum: Qualitative Social Research
• Subjects: biographical research; cultural identity; Sierra Leone; African diaspora; postcolonial studies; migration; social integration
• Online Access: http://www.qualitative-research.net/index.php/fqs/article/view/1375

How does cultural and corporate affiliation emerge in transnational biographies? How does it develop under the influence of global and national power structures? These questions are addressed in this study that combines epistemological approaches dealing with the interplay of social and individual factors in identity formation with a structural analysis of historical power relations in form of racism and colonialism. Empirically this paper identifies how immigrants deal with challenges of integration into the host society and incorporate these experiences into their biographical self-construction. It concentrates on African and particularly Sierra Leonean immigrants in Germany. The findings are generated from a reconstructive analysis of selected biographical narrations which were scrutinized from different perspectives. URN: urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs0903234