Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Abstract: In this paper, I present an empirical analysis of the cultural activities of a particular group of upper-middle class immigrants of color. I apply the notion of boundary work to immigrants in the multi-faceted context of the San Francisco bay area where they might give salience to differing and contradictory criteria for status depending on the multiple cultural repertoires available to draw from. Based on participant observation and in-depth interviews, I find that Bengali immigrants, in the face of racialization and internal differentiation, construct immigrant cultural capital by fusing “tolerant” multi-cultural (Bryson, 1999) and “exclusive” ethnic cultural capital (Carter, 2003). I argue that segmented assimilation, currently, the most influential theory on immigrant identity, fails to elucidate how racial formation in the U.S. impacts upon highly skilled, non-white immigrants who identify ethnically but are not based in an ethnic enclave. My findings display that scholars of immigrant identity need to acknowledge the role of multidimensional cultural capital in adaptation and identification processes.