New American Terminology and the Immigrant Identity

Many cities in the US have a “new” American Welcoming Center with welcoming programs aimed at helping immigrants integrate into American society (NAWC, 2022; COC, 2022a). The language used by these centers implies that (1) there is a desire for immigrants to change to fit into the society (Wang & Mallinckrodt, 2006), (2) all immigrants are new to America and need to fit in and (3) American identity is the primary identity of a new immigrant. 19 immigrants shared their stories with us. We used Riessman’s (2008) thematic and dialogic analysis approach to analyze their identity and attitude toward the terminology used by immigration processes. We explored 4 emergent themes of tensions: independence vs dependence, stability vs instability, comfort vs discomfort and belonging vs alienation.