Overview

In a world where cultural identity is often defined by national borders, this book follows the compelling journeys of young adults caught between preserving the culture and language of their migrant parents and navigating societal pressures to fit into the country in which they were born. Through intimate “walk-and-talk” interviews, the book gives voice to young adults who reflect on their experiences growing up with multiple languages and cultures. These personal stories offer a rich exploration of language, place, and belonging that resonates with anyone familiar with the struggle to reconcile different worlds. The book provides an insight into their multifaceted lives, inviting readers into the intimate spaces where personal identity meets societal expectation. The book challenges conventional paradigms of cultural conformity and examines how these young adults define themselves beyond simplistic labels. Erased Voices and Unspoken Heritage offers fresh perspectives on why some second-generation migrants embrace, reject, or negotiate their heritage languages. It also critiques the harmful consequences of “passing” within homogenous constructs and highlights the broader implications for diversity, hybridity, and multilingualism. This thought-provoking book will appeal to anyone interested in the complexities of identity, race, and language in multicultural societies.

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9781032873121

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Reviews

In this absorbing and accessible book, Zozan Balci looks at the adult children of culturally and linguistically mixed families. Amid the assimilatory pressures of educational institutions, social expectations and racial positioning, being hybrid and ethnically ambiguous entails silences and struggles over heritage and identity, but also possibilities for other ways of being. Fascinating, painful, rewarding.Alastair Pennycook, Emeritus Professor, University of Technology Sydney This book is a rich, insightful and passionate plea to recognise mixed identity as a valid and significant way of being for millions of linguistic and cultural ‘in-betweeners’. In a time where the norms of nativist nationalism, monolingualism and monoculturalism are overwhelmingly hegemonic, the importance of this forceful argument for cultural hybridity cannot be overstated.Ien Ang, Emeritus Professor of Cultural Studies, Western Sydney University Through a compelling examination of cultural hybridity in Australia that resonates globally, this book reconceptualises hybrid identities not as deficits to be managed but as valid ways of being that deserve recognition and nurturing, particularly in educational settings. This accessible yet theoretically sophisticated work offers vital insights for scholars across sociolinguistics, migration studies, and education, while its call for normalising hybrid identities provides an essential framework for contemporary policy discussions around diversity and inclusion.Julie Choi, Associate Professor, University of Melbourne Zozan Balci elegantly weaves personal anecdote and empirical evidence into her discussion of identity, complicating otherwise reified understandings of this complex component of human self-understanding, which sits at the nexus of self and society. She thoughtfully sets out the tangible and intangible ways in which language can shape and contour identity and how these impact conceptualisations of cultural hybridity and the drive toward belonging.Bilquis Ghani, Lecturer, University of Canberra

Author Information

Zozan Balci is an award-winning sociolinguist and academic at the University of Technology Sydney. Born in Germany to immigrant parents, her experiences shape her work on language, identity, and migration. Her research focuses on advancing inclusivity and belonging, especially for those who have been ethnically minoritised.

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