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‘This is our home, but we cannot stay here forever’: Second-Generation Asian Youths in Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates

  • Naomi HosodaEmail author
  • Kyoko Matsukawa
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Part of the Asia in Transition book series (AT, volume 8)

Abstract

This chapter investigates future prospects and a sense of belonging among second-generation Asians based on case studies of Filipino and Indian youths in the Arab Gulf states (AGS), in particular Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates. Due to the strict migration and exclusive citizenship policies of the AGS, second-generation Asians in the region mainly grow up within their respective ethnic groups where they are segregated from the host society as well as from other ethnic communities. Many of them are simultaneously unaccustomed to the physical and social environment of the countries that their parents come from. Their sense of belonging thus appears to be multifaceted in that their ‘home’ is an ethnically segregated community in a Gulf country, but where they are permitted to stay only as temporary residents. As a result, these second-generation Asians are forced to search for places where they can cultivate a real sense of belonging.

Keywords

Arab Gulf states Second-generation migrants Belonging Global education Citizenship Youths 
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Notes

Acknowledgements

The study was supported by the Japan Society for Promotion of Science (JSPS) grant-in-aid for scientific research number 2026257004B1 (2014–2017). An earlier version of this chapter was presented at the Twentieth Asian Studies Conference Japan at the International Christian University, 2–3 July 2016. We thank the participants for their insightful comments. We are deeply grateful to Filipino and Indian expatriate families, community leaders, schoolteachers, administrators and embassy officials in Kuwait and the UAE for having shared their everyday lives and views with us.

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Copyright information

© Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2019

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.School of Global Humanities and Social Sciences, Nagasaki UniversityNagasaki CityJapan
  2. 2.Department of Sociology, Faculty of LettersKonan UniversityKobeJapan

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