Choosing Their Own Style: Identity Emergence among Haitian Youth in Quebec

Choosing Their Own Style: Identity Emergence Among Haitian Youth in Quebec. By Scooter Pegram. New York: Peter Lang. 2005. ISBN 0-8204-7868-7.184 pp. $61.95 cloth. Choosing Their Own Style invites the reader to consider an interesting phenomenon, namely the process of identity building among immigrants in the often problematic globalizing society (xiv). In this book, Pegram attempts to trace the web of nestled identities and transnational ties that link Haitian youth in Quebec, Canada to networks that span the local, regional, and international-from Montreal, Canada to Haiti and the U.S. In this ethnoscape, Haitian youth construct a hybrid immigrant culture that reflects and redefines characteristics of Haitian, Canadian, and American cultures. This book sheds light on the relationship between identity politics and adaptation strategies; it also questions the relevance of the nation-state at least as it concerns the process of identity building and immigration. The book is divided into nine chapters, including an introduction and a conclusion. The first three chapters offer an overview of the literature on identity formation and its effect on immigrants, sending and receiving societies. Of particular interest is the discussion of Canada's multicultural ideology and its record as a welcoming host to immigrants from a wide variety of countries. Pegram notes that one in five Canadians are not native born, and Canada welcomes proportionally more new residents than any other nation annually. Allophones are nevertheless subtly pressured to eventually mesh into the fabric of Quebec society, (4) and thus shed their original culture and language. Younger immigrants, however, tend to buck the trend and assimilate into certain aspects of the two (or more) dominant cultures that surround them, while choosing not to integrate fully into one of them (24). The result is the emergence of a kaleidoscope of hybrid cultural groups that are neither Canadian nor subscribe to their cultures of origin. It is in this context that Haitian youth design a dynamic and unique culture; this process is the focus of this study. Francophone Quebec has proven to be a good niche for Haitians, who constitute its largest visible minority, growing from 3,000 to more than 100,000 since 1970; a sizable portion of this Haitian population (95%) lives in Montreal. Haitian immigrants are an active and diverse community whose members can be found in many sectors of Montreal's economic and social landscape. Haitians are attracted to Quebec because of language affinity and their perception that Canada's immigration policies are more lenient that US policies. Haitian immigration to Canada started in the 1960s when upper class Haitians fleeing the brutality of the Duvalier dictatorship found refuge in French speaking Quebec at a time when the Quebec State was modernizing itself during the Quiet Revolution (45). The well educated, professional early migrants had no problem transferring their skills and creating a good niche for themselves. Those who followed, coming from less affluent backgrounds and with fewer skills, found jobs mainly in the service industry. Their adaptation was further complicated by their lack of fluency in French, Creole being their primary language. Pegram mentions that Haitians in Quebec have achieved a level of success unprecedented in the Diaspora, especially by comparison with Haitians in the U.S. However, Haitians in Quebec also face racism, and their poor skill levels in French and lack of familiarity with the job market tend to slow down their incorporation in Canadian culture and society. Pegram devotes the second half of his book to an investigation of how Haitian youth fit into this picture and build an identity that reflects their own understanding of their place in Canadian culture as well as their ties to their culture of origin. Besides a brief chapter on methodology which lays out the research design and techniques used in the study, Pegram devotes the next three chapters to a rather tedious presentation of the findings of this research by focusing on three aspects of the relationship between language and identity-the relationship between identification and language, the connections between heritage and host cultures, and the connections immigrant youths have with Quebecois society. …

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