Embracing the Second Generation as Youth
by Executive Editor John Yoder
Around the world, teens ask the question “Who am I?” It's an essential part of how they become adults. But the question is more acute for the children of first-generation immigrants. Those of us born in the U.S. have clear identity regarding our citizenship and race. First-generation immigrants in the U.S. have equal clarity—they are citizens of another country who have moved here.
Since the second gen were born in the U.S., they are legally just as American as those of us whose families who have lived here for generations. But they often don’t feel accepted as such. They live between two very different worlds. They experience one culture at home and another in their school or workplace.
They learn how to switch back and forth between these cultures. It's a process we call code-switching, and the second gen can code-switch with ease. Their grandparents might chide them, “Why is your Spanish so bad?” Or “Why don't you deeply love our homeland you've never even visited?” At the same time, their American classmates can make fun of them because of their accent, hair, clothes, or name they struggle to pronounce.
Often the church is as guilty as broader society in expecting the second gen to conform to its cultural norms. But the church can become a place of acceptance and belonging by helping the second gen understand that their primary identity is in Christ. Every believer needs to acknowledge that our primary identity comes from being children of God and members of the global Body of Christ, and only secondarily from our citizenship, race, language, political affiliation, or denomination. The more that adults can embrace their primary identity as children of God, the more we can let go of expectations that others will embrace our language, culture or any other distinctive.
Perhaps you’ve already studied the believer’s identity in Christ. Likely the Bible passages you studied were compiled by teachers who spent their entire lives in one culture. I have added some passages that specifically relate to people from different cultures.
- God created you to bring him glory (Isaiah 43:7)
- Before you were born, God custom-designed your ethnicity, gender, family, nationality and every other facet of your being (Psalm 139:13-16)
- You were passionately loved by God, even before you came to faith (Romans 5:5-8)
- God has washed away all your sins and credited to you the righteousness of Christ. (Colossians 2:13-14, 2 Corinthians 5:21)
- The Holy Spirit lives in you, and has made your body his temple (1 Corinthians 6:19-20)
- God will bring good from all your struggles (Romans 8:28)
- Jesus will never leave you or forsake you (Matthew 28:20, Hebrews 13:5)
- No matter where on earth you live, you will always be a spiritual foreigner in exile (Hebrews 11:13-16)
- Those who hate Christ will hate you and persecute you (John 15:18-20)
- We can find peace through Christ who has overcome this world (John 16:33)
- God has made you his child, and a brother or sister of every member of the global Body of Christ (Romans 8:16-17, 1 Corinthians 12:13)
- In Christ, you and others in the Body of Christ are being built into a holy nation belonging to God (1 Peter 2:4-10)
- Your ultimate citizenship is in heaven, a perfect homeland where all peoples and languages dwell together in unity (Philippians 3:20, Revelation 5:9-10)
Through embracing the reality that we are all aliens on earth and citizens of the global Body of Christ, our churches can build confidence in every generation that they are wanted, loved, valued and safe.
This blog is the third part of a series. You can learn more through our free online course Empowering the Second Generation, available at https://www.immigrantministry.com/secondgen.