Visitors Pass: The Story of a Group of Pakistani Immigrant Students at Sawyer High School
New immigrant populations are shaped in significant ways by globalization. The phenomenon of transnationalism has changed the localized sense of "home" and "local cultures" on a global scale. In fact, "Globalization lies at the core of current sociocultural experiences, especially in processes of identity construction, communal practices, subject positioning, and agency" (Santiago-Irizarry, 2008). This ethnographic study focuses on the question of how agency and institutional structures, in a global society, impact the lived experiences of Pakistani immigrant students at an urban public high school. A review of literature on identity formation, globalization, and institutional structures is essential to answering this question. The impact of agency is studied through interviews, classroom observations, and participation in the Ahinsa and Indo-Pakistani after school clubs. Agency is an important feature for the way new immigrants challenge the phenomenon of deterritorialization through transnationalism, which includes immigrant students' ability to maintain a strong sense of "home" through their new sense of place and space located in a global society (Santiago-Irizarry, 2008). Since the official religion of Pakistan is Islam, a majority of the immigrant students are Muslim. Therefore, the impact of American culture on the Pakistani immigrant students' religious identity will also be explored in this qualitative study.
Agency, Ethnographic study, Globalization, Immigrant students, Religious identity, Educational Administration and Supervision
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