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Ethnic Identity among Second-Generation Iranians in the United States

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Ali Akbar Mahdi
Ali Akbar Mahdi*
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Ohio Wesleyan University
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Extract

For Second-Generation Iranians in the Untied States the question of identity is not as easily settled as it is for their parents. Their parents claim they are genuine Iranians because they were born and raised in Iran, they relate to Iranian culture more than to American culture, they were active members of the Iranian society for decades, they might still have immediate family members in Iran, and they still hope to go back there someday. Are second-generation Iranian youths able to make these claims? Do they think of themselves as Iranians? Apart from the fact that some were born in Iran, might still know the Persian language, and are familiar with some aspects of Iranian culture, what else about these young people makes them distinctly Iranian?

Sociological studies of immigrants indicate that the first generation's pattern of adaptation is quite different from that of the second and third.'

Type
Articles
Information
Iranian Studies , Volume 31 , Issue 1: Iranians in America , Winter 1998 , pp. 77 - 95
Copyright
Copyright © Association For Iranian Studies, Inc 1998

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Footnotes

*

I would like to thank Ohio Wesleyan University for providing funds for mailing the survey on which this article is based, those Iranian cultural organizations and individuals who assisted me in the distribution of this survey, and Maboud Ansari, Ahmad Khalili, and Mehrdad Saba for their assistance and advice in various stages of this project.

References

1. See Alba, Richard D., Italian Americans: Into the Twilight of Ethnicity (Englewood Cliffs: N.J.: Prentice Hall, 1985)Google Scholar; Portes, Alejandro, ed., The New Second Generation (N.Y.: Russell Sage Foundation, 1996)Google Scholar.

2. These organizations were in Ohio, Illinois, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Michigan, Colorado, Texas, South Carolina, Kentucky, Washington, D.C., and Florida.

3. These papers include Aftab, Asre Emrooz, Asheghaneh, Ava', Ayeneh, Bida'r, Cheka'meh, Gha'sedak, Golchin, Iran News, Iran Star, Iran Times, Iranians, Irankhabar, Ispand, Javanan, Kayhan, Mirass-e-Iran, Najva', Neda, Nimrooz, Par, Parastoo, Payam-e-Ashena, Payvand, Payam-e-Iran, Pazhvack, Rangarang, Rouzegare-Now, Shahrvand, Sobh-e-Iran, and Tofigh Ejbari.

4. See articles by Mahmood Falaki and Mehdi Falahati in Dafter-e Shenakht (A Persian Collection of Texts on Cultural Studies) Special Issue on Iranian Emigration Poetry, Vol. 5, Spring 1998; Naficy, Hamid, The Making of Exile Cultures: Iranian Television in Los Angeles (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1993)Google Scholar.

5. Examples of this notion of identity can be found in the following: Ismaeel Rafiee, “Biganehe AshEn'a'” (The Known Stranger) and Masaud Jabani, “Moshkela'te Koodakan-e Irani dar Khaarej az Keshvar” (Problems Facing Iranian Children Abroad), Mirasse-Iran 2 (Summer, 1996); Mansoori, Hormoz, “Hadaf Chist… Maqsood Kojaa Ast” (What is the Purpose? Where is the Destination?), Mirasse-Iran 6 (Summer 1997)Google Scholar; Ansari, Maboud, “Iranian dar Amrika, Shenakht-e Waqeiyat-haye Jame'eh,” (Iranians in America. Knowing the Facts of Society), Iran Times 26, Nos. 32–42 (October 18-December 27, 1996)Google Scholar; Yermian, Ezzy, “Sare khod ra’ ba'la’ begireem” (Let's Keep Our Heads Straight), Ispand 5, No. 17 (1994)Google Scholar; Nemat Mirzazadeh, “Baznegari-e Farhang-e Meli,” “A New Look at National Identity,” Shahrvand 321; and Azadi, Hossein Dr. (Zartosht, ), “Amoozesh va Parvaresh-e Koodakan-e Irani dar Amrika” (The Education of Iranian Children in America), Mirasse-Iran 4 (Winter 1996)Google Scholar.

6. Ansari, “Iranian dar Amrika.”

7. For an excellent discussion of the idea of “national identity” in the context of Iranian history see two issues of Iran Nameh 12, Nos. 3 and 4 (Summer and Fall 1994), and Boroujerdi, Mehrzad, “Contesting Nationalist Constructions of Iranian Identity,” Critique 12 (Spring 1998)Google Scholar. For the debate on the religious, secular or national nature of this identity see Mahdi, Ali Akbar, “Farhang-e Irani: Orfi, Mazhabi, ya Meli?” (Iranian Culture: Secular, Religious, or National?), Arash 23–24 (January-February 1993)Google Scholar.

8. Alejandro Portes and Richard Schauffler, “Language and the Second Generation: Bilingualism Yesterday and Today,” in Alejandro Portes, The New Second Generation (1996), p. 10.

9. See Taylor, Charles, Sources of the Self: The Making of the Modern Identity, (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1989)Google Scholar; and Waters, Mary C., Ethnic Options: Choosing Identities in America (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990)Google Scholar; and Abrams, Dominic and Hogg, Michael A., eds., Social Identity Theory: Constructive and Critical Advances (New York: Springer-Verlag, 1990)Google Scholar.

10. For further discussion of variables determining second-generation identity see Waters, Ethnic Options; and Ali Akbar Mahdi, “Determinants of Adaptation for Second-Generation Iranians,” C1RA Bulletin 13, No. 1 (March 1997), 37–40.

11. See articles by Bozorgmehr and Modarres in this issue.

12. Examples include Hegland, Mary Elaine and Zahedi, Ashraf, “Payvand and IFWC: Maintaining Iranian Identity in California's Bay Area,” Danesh Bulletin 3, No. 1 (Summer 1998)Google Scholar; Higgins, Patricia J., “Adolescent Ethnic Identities: Iranians in the United States,” Danesh Bulletin 1, No. 2 (Summer 1997)Google Scholar; Chaichian, Mohammad A., “First-Generation Iranian Immigrants and the Question of Cultural Identity: The Case of Iowa,” International Migration Review 31, No. 3 (1997)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Laleh Khalili, “Mixing Memory and Desire; Iranians in the United States,” The Iranian (an electronic magazine at www.Iranian.com) (May 1998).

13. See chapters by Campbell, Jane, Fuller, Linda K., and Naficy, Hamid in Kamalipour, Yahya R., ed., The U.S. Media and the Middle East; Image and Perception (Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 1997)Google Scholar. Also see Y. R. Kamalipour, “Window of Opportunity,” The Iranian (August 11, 1998).

14. See, e.g., Bahar Jaberi, “Identity Crisis,” The Iranian (May 1996).

15. Sabagh, George and Bozorgmehr, Mehdi, “Secular Immigrants: Religiosity and Ethnicity Among Iranian Muslims in Los Angeles,” in Haddad, Yvonne Yazbeck and Smith, Jane Idleman, eds., Muslim Communities in North America (Albany, N.Y.: SUNY Press, 1994), 445–73Google Scholar.

16. For an example of this problem see Bahar M. Jaberi, “Identity Crisis: Who Am I?” The Iranian (March 1996).

17. On Iranians in Los Angeles, see Bozorgmehr, Mehdi and Sabagh, George, “Iranian Exiles and Immigrants in Los Angeles” in Fathi, Asghar, ed., Iranian Refugees and Exiles Since Khomeini (Costa Mesa, Calif.: Mazda Publishers, 1991), 121^4Google Scholar; and Kelley, Ron, Friedlander, Jonathan, and Colby, Anita, eds., Irangeles: Iranians in Los Angeles (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

18. The most dynamic and representative examples of this experimentation can be found in The Iranian and Chanteh, where second-generation youths are engaged in lively dialogical interpretation of their parental culture and history. For theoretical works on this issue, see Hamid Naficy, The Making of Exile Cultures: Iranian Television in Los Angeles; and Bhabha, Homi K., “Culture's In-Between,” in Hall, Stuart and Gay, Paul du, eds., Questions of Cultural Identity (Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications, 1996), 53–60Google Scholar.

19. Although my discussion is based on Anderson's theoretical works, my argument here applies only to the characterization of the Iranian culture by the Iranian immigrants abroad. See Anderson, Benedict R., Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism (London and New York: Verso, 1991)Google Scholar.

20. Azadi, Hossein (Zartosht, ), “Amoozesh va Parvaresh-e Koodakan-e Irani dar Amrika” (Education of Iranian Children in the United States), Mirass-e-Iran 1, No. 4 (Winter 1996), 72–75Google Scholar.

21. Ansari, “Iranian dar Amrika.”

22. Ramin Bahrani, quoted in “A Persian game is at the center of a search for identity,” The Winston-Salem Journal, February 20, 1998.

23. Sara Sedigh, “Safeh-e Bina'm,” (A Page Without Name) Nameh-ye Doost 2, No. 9–10 (July 1997).

24. Sohrabi, Naghmeh, “Mama Fakhri.” Chanteh, The Iranian Cross-Cultural Quarterly 9 (Winter-Spring 1995)Google Scholar.

25. See Fereydoun Saflzadeh, “Children of the Revolution; Transnational Identity Among Young Iranians in Northern California: Selections from a Video Project,” The Iranian (December 1997).

26. A review of writings of the second generation in Chanteh, The Second Generation, and The Iranian produces the same results.

27. Portes and Schauffler, “Language and the Second Generation.”

28. Maryam Ovissi.“Chaos,” Chanteh 9 (Winter-Spring 1995).