Fitting in and standing out : immigrant youth negotiating new citizenships in multicultural Canada

Youth are forceful political actors who challenge mainstream conceptions of what it means to be a citizen, immigrants and a young person, contesting what it means to be representatives for these titles. We fail to realize that these individuals, especially youth who don’t fit neatly into these categories, have their own personal stories and experiences that often go unheard. This project is about the process of negotiating belonging and citizen action in Vancouver, British Columbia. The primary contribution of this project is towards understanding how Service Provider Organizations (SPOs) can create space and guidance for immigrant youth. My thesis rests both on academic and popular research, and interviews with refugee youth who have participated in an integration program called MYCircle. I present some of the ways people feel (dis)connected to the place they live, and integration in a multicultural society. Ultimately, this project sheds light on the youth’s attitudes and opinions towards the integration process as well as conflicts and collusions between migrant youth and Canada during that process.Arts, Faculty ofGeography, Department ofGraduat