The Shape of Identity

Migrations abroad for a better life take place within the context of complex lifelong trajectories. While Ghanaians coming to the United States are usually motivated by specific aspirations, frequently having to do with education or professional opportunities, their aspirations often change over time and in response to opportunities and setbacks. They are constantly revising their aspirations while also negotiating their identities along dimensions of race, ethnicity, and nationality. Furthermore, this process is deeply embedded in the relationships they hold on to from home and the new ones they form abroad. In that sense, revisions of aspirations and negotiations of identity are embedded in social networks. This chapter steps slightly away from the topic of religion to the more general issues of aspiration and identity, in order to support the ultimate argument that religious-based relationships of personal trust influence such revisions and negotiations.

Aesthetics · Argument (complex analysis) · Business · Context (archaeology) · Ethnic group · Geography · Identity (music) · Identity formation · Identity negotiation · Immigration · Nationality · Negotiation · Order (exchange) · Political science · Social science · Sociology · Diaspora, migration, transnational identity · Gender Studies · Law · Multiculturalism, Politics, Migration, Gender · Psychology · Religion, Society, and Development · Social Psychology