CHAPTER 12: “I WANT DUAL”: Transnational Identity Among Filipino Immigrant Youth

This article examines how a group of eight Filipino immigrant students from an urban high school in Washington State negotiate their identity to adapt to their complex ecologies of family, school, and homeland. Using interview and observation data, this qualitative study provides accounts, perspectives, and attitudes of these youth toward their lived social transformations through immigration. It highlights their multifaceted experiences as members of transnational families in the Philippines and the United States before and after migration and marginalization in school. The findings suggest that the Filipino immigrant youth actively engage in transnational activities and construct transnational identities to resist their marginality in U.S. society, reclaim their status and sense of belonging, and create opportunities across borders. The significance of this study is to fill the void in scholarship by providing insights to transnational realities among many immigrant youth today and school adaptation experiences of Filipino immigrant students who have been understudied and thus less understood in educational research. Pedagogical implications suggest that schools and teachers acknowledge and respond to transnational participation as a valuable asset to enhance student learning and facilitate their adaptation.