'Who am I?' : a narrative analysis of cultural identity amongst born bicultural, young adults in Malta

Abstract

Biculturals, individuals who incorporate two cultures into their identity, have become somewhat popular in recent research. This study focuses on 'born biculturals' (Haritatos & Benet-Martinez 2002; Phinney & Devich-Navarro, 1997) born and raised in Malta with one Maltese and one non-Maltese ('foreign') parent. It aimed to investigate the experiences, views and feelings participants felt related to and were affected by their bicultural identity together with the process of integration into mainstream Maltese society. All participants were young adults, attending University and between the ages of nineteen to twenty-one. Recruitment of participants took place using snowball sampling (Levy & Lemeshaw, 1999). The research design chosen was 'Biographic-Narrative Interpretive Method' (BNIM) (Wengraf, 2001; 2008; 2011). This design enabled an intense narrative interviewing procedure to be carried out on the four participants, which captured the 'psycho-societal' (Wengraf, 2011, p.173) aspects of the bicultural experience; its' 'interpretation' together with the associated 'behaviour' and feelings of biculturals (Wengraf, 2001; 2008; 2011 p.173). The process of analysis used was thematic analysis, following a 'contextualist method' and 'latent approach' (Braun & Clarke, 2006, pp. 83/87). Analysis produced seven 'overarching themes' (Braun & Clarke, 2006, p.97). Findings showed that all participants are happy with their bicultural identity, demonstrating high 'bicultural identity integration' (BII) (Benet-Martinez & Haritatos, 2005) and 'cultural frame switching' (CFS) (Cheng, Lee, & Benet-Martinez, 2006; Hong, Morris, Chiu, & Benet-Martinez, 2000). Like all life experiences, biculturals experience The variation between integrative experiences amongst participants' narratives enabled the formation of variables which influence the process of integration and which could be used to promote cultural integration nationally and internationally with regards to the Maltese context.