Research on Cultural Identity on Mother's Side in New Immigrants' Children: the Case of College Students

• Main Authors: WU, PI-SHENG, 武弼聖
• Other Authors: LIAO, SHU-CHUAN
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2018
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/3bny36

碩士 === 亞洲大學 === 社會工作學系 === 106 === In recent years, statistics and research reports on cross-border marriages have shown that multicultural families in Taiwan have been rapid grow over the years, with a majority of women from Southeast Asia. As time passes, Taiwanese families with an immigrant background have reached a considerable number, as well as a gradual rise of the next generation being children of new immigrants, the cultural identity of children in cross-cultural families is an important issue. The Taiwanese government's promotion of the New Southbound Policy focuses on the children of new immigrant families. They hope that, in the future, they can create assets through the immigrant mother's language and cultural strengths. This research aims to explore the cultural identity experiences of children of new immigrants, taking university students as an example. This research examines how their cultural identity experiences have impacted them growing up and how they adapted to two different cultures. The author attempts to understand the cultural adaptation of children of new immigrants and their experiences on cultural identity, the difficulties they have encountered as well as what they consider their strengths are. It further explores the expectations of children of new immigrants for Taiwan’s multicultural policy and develops a multicultural-friendly policy. There are five objectives using a method of qualitative in-depth interviews. Through data collection and analysis, the findings are revealed: 1.Children of new immigrants understand and recognize the importance of their immigrant mother's home country and culture. However, it does not shape their learning environment, and they lack the motivation to learn. As a result, even though they recognize their mother's culture, they cannot build onto their strengths. 2.The customs, clothing, language, eating habits of their mother's home country affect the cultural identity of children of new immigrants. 3.How the children of new immigrants interact in the community, school, and the family affects the way think of their mother's culture. 4.Social discrimination towards the cultural atmosphere of children of new immigrants affects their identity towards their mothers. 5.Children of new immigrants hope that the government can value their mother's culture, and reduce the negative stereotypes of Southeast Asian countries by using education system. In the meantime, they hope to use their own cultural characteristics as an advantage for future employment. Based upon investigations and results, the researcher provides some recommendation and inspiration for the further research.