Social Identity with Multiple Citizenship of First-Generation Immigrants in the European Continent and the European Union

Abstract

Over the decades, the European continent and the European Union accepted more than a million immigrants from different parts of the world. However, many non-European heritage immigrants may face challenges in their social identity, sociocultural problems, and understanding. The purpose of this study is to understand and explore the sociocultural experiences, social identity, and social challenges of first-generation immigrants who were originally born outside of the European continent and currently living in the European Union for life-long developments and investments. With the interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA), six East Asian Portuguese citizens were invited to share their lived stories based on two interview sessions, focus group activity, remarkable item sharing, and member checking interview sessions. The results of this study indicated that multiple citizenships with different social identities played important roles. The results of this study outlined the social identity of a group of non-European heritage European Citizens who gained their European Union citizenship by the right of blood in the East Asian setting. The outcomes of this study will fill the gaps in the fields of social identity, immigrants, and non-European heritage citizenship who are facing challenges of sociocultural problems, social identity, and multiculturalism in the European Union. Government leaders, policymakers, NGO leaders, and researchers may further reform the current immigration and multiculturalism policies to help people from different places and locations have better life backgrounds and environments in the European continent and the European Union.