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Incorporating Diaspora into the Developmental Science of Immigrant Communities

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Diversity and Developmental Science

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Abstract

Children, youth, and families who are displaced from or voluntarily leave their homelands, such as refugees, migrant workers, third culture children and adults, international students and scholars, and transnational adoptees, are largely overlooked in developmental science. Based on their unique migration histories, they experience mixed feelings about their real or imagined homelands, different forms of discrimination and racism, and challenges to developing a sense of place and belonging in hostlands across generations. In this chapter, we provide a conceptual lens to understand how diaspora as a social and psychological phenomenon can affect different domains of human development (e.g., acculturation, parent-child relationships, ethnic-racial identity development, and ethnic-racial socialization) and highlight correlates and consequences of the diaspora experience (e.g., discrimination, health, and well-being). We present a person-level perspective that attends to the diversity of lived experiences for diasporic individuals and families, positioned within specific sociohistorical contexts and structural forces of racism, classism, and sexism. Throughout this chapter, we also situate ourselves as authors from unique diaspora communities. We conclude with recommendations for how to best study this growing but overlooked population.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Throughout this chapter, we use the term “hostland,” borrowed from diaspora literature to refer to geographical or imagined lands that individuals engage with outside their homelands, without necessitating documented citizenship.

  2. 2.

    For a comprehensive look at the history of Korean adoption, see: Choy (2013), Oh (2015), and Pate (2014).

  3. 3.

    We arrived at this value by combining the data provided by Condit-Shrestha (2018), Kim (2010), Oh (2015), and the United States Department of State (n.d.).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, University of Minnesota–Twin Cities, Minneapolis, MN, USA

    Qurat-ul-ain Gulamhussein & Richard M. Lee

  2. Department of Psychology, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA

    Xiang Zhou

  3. Department of Psychology, Elon University, Elon, NC, USA

    Adam Y. Kim

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  1. Qurat-ul-ain Gulamhussein
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  2. Xiang Zhou
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Correspondence to Qurat-ul-ain Gulamhussein .

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  1. The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA

    Dawn P. Witherspoon

  2. University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Greensboro, NC, USA

    Gabriela Livas Stein

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Gulamhussein, Qua., Zhou, X., Kim, A.Y., Lee, R.M. (2023). Incorporating Diaspora into the Developmental Science of Immigrant Communities. In: Witherspoon, D.P., Stein, G.L. (eds) Diversity and Developmental Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-23163-6_12

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