Growing Up as a Migrant. Identity and Belonging in Janice Kulyk Keefer’s 'Honey and Ashes'

Abstract

In recent years, there has been growing scholarly interest in migration and identity formation among children, as well as in cultural production that focuses on their representations. For young people, migration changes almost every aspect of their lives and occurs during the most formative years. This paper adopts an interdisciplinary approach, drawing on acculturation theory, identity, and cultural hybridity to explore how migration influences identity and a sense of belonging in childhood and youth, particularly in the Ukrainian Canadian context. Using Janice Kulyk Keefer’s Honey and Ashes as an example, the analysis demonstrates the pressures that first-generation migrants often face to preserve their culture from their country of origin while adapting to the expectations of a new country. By focusing on Janice Kulyk Keefer’s memoir, this paper illustrates how life writing enables the observation of identity-formation processes at the microscale, capturing how a sense of belonging is shaped in everyday experience. The analysis also explores how the dominant group constructs the ethnic characteristics of minorities as markers of difference that signal non-belonging in society. The paper aims to demonstrate that, for migrants, hybridity is foremost about experiencing various hardships on the way to building a new home and a sense of self. Ultimately, this analysis reveals identity formation in migration as a process shaped not only by individual internal struggles but also (if not foremost) by family influences and the social and systemic context of the country of resettlement.