Coping With Two Cultures: British Asian and Indo-Canadian Adolescents (Multilingual Matters)

This book makes a significant contribution to our understanding of the issues and concerns of the second-generation Asian young people living in Britain and Canada. It is based on extensive fieldwork data collected through an attitude scale, a questionnaire and interviews with young people. Also a large number of parents, teachers and a small number of community leaders were interviewed to place the discussion in a broader framework. Verbatim extracts are used liberally to give the reader both the flavour and tone of responses. What emerges is an optimistic picture. The young people in the study are developing a bicultural outlook to reconcile the differing values of school and home. The majority of them are at ease with both cultures - the Indo-Canadians more so than the British Asians. The book deals with the bicultural identities of young Asian people at school in Birmingham (UK) and Vancouver. It discusses the history, religion and culture of the people from the Indian sub-continent and features analysis and discussion of the data obtained through interviews with young people, parents, teachers and community leaders. Paul A. Singh Ghuman. Includes Bibliographical References (p. 149-153).