PATHWAYS OF MIGRANT IDENTITY MAINTENANCE AND REVISION: AN ANALYSIS OF HOPE AND OTHER DANGEROUS PURSUITS AND THE BEAUTIFUL THINGS THAT HEAVEN BEARS

Abstract

Migrants are often oppressed groups, and non-migrants often poorly understand the challenges they face, even if they empathize. The two main problems this project seeks to address are, first, migrants’ ability to maintain and/or revise a secure identity, and second, host-culture members’ lack of understanding of and prejudice toward migrants. This dissertation described the challenges that migrants experience premigration, during migration, and postmigration, and explained how these experiences impact their identities. The analysis of the migrant characters’ identities in Lalami’s Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits and Mengestu’s The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears demonstrated that migrants suffer from unmet autonomy, competence, and relatedness needs due to migration challenges. Moreover, the analysis investigated the problem of how migrants can redirect the identity crisis pathways of separation, marginalization, and assimilation towards integration (the secure pathway). By applying the skills of identity revision, migrants can achieve a viable and a fulfilling identity. Providing an understanding of migrants’ identity needs and challenges will help the host country create more welcoming environments, replete with resources necessary for migrants to develop and maintain their new identities. In addition, the analysis of the two novels promotes the understanding of migrants’ cultural and non-cultural identity challenges. Awareness of migrant identity issues should contribute to host countries’ cross-cultural competency and therefore lower prejudice, intolerance, and xenophobia against migrants. It is my hope that this study will be of benefit to migrants and to both sending and receiving countries and their members. It should also be of interest to scholars and educators in the fields of migration studies, identity theory, and world literature.