Professional transformation and identity construction: A tale of an immigrant mother and her daughter in Hong Kong

This study is a narrative inquiry into the professional transformation and identity construction of a mother and a daughter as two immigrant generations in Hong Kong. This study presents a picture of how two generations have responded to marginalisation, accumulated human capital, and developed different acculturation strategies, to facilitate academic success and professional development. The study suggests that compared to the mother’s, the daughter’s ways to empowerment are more complex and more relevant to issues of cultural compromise and linguistic accommodation. It is found that while the mother attempts to erase the heritage identity from the daughter to counteract the disadvantageous social position of ethnic minorities, the daughter identifies significant symbolism in heritage identity and language. The findings indicate that the language ideology of the two generations tends to transform from monolingualism in English to bilingualism or multilingualism. The implications of the findings for immigrant children, the host society and policy makers are discussed. Copyright © 2017 The Chinese University of Hong Kong.