Las Pluralidades del Pertener: An Ethnographic Study in Granada an Murcia of Young Latinas/os Transnationalist Sense of Belonging

Youth is understood as a life phase in which the young person has more freedom than a child. Although their decision and actions are still influenced by the parent, as they have less agency than an adult. Nonetheless, this notion does not reflect the entire reality of a young transmigrant. In the moment a person decides to migrate, the relationships with the country of origin do not end after moving abroad; instead, these connections are constantly influencing the life of the transmigrant. In contrast to an adult trans-migrants, for young transmigrants, the decision to migrate is done by their parents. Likewise, the parents will influence the way the young transmigrants get to know the new society. But, once they start the high school, their experiences will be marked by the physical and cultural dissimilarities between them and the ‘others’. These experiences will affect the identity construction, the transnational interactions, and the everyday lives of the young transmigrant. So, is the sense of belonging is related to the identity and developed through the social interactions and daily practices that happen in specific places, for young transmigrants, their belongingness is perceived as plural rather than fix to a specific group, community, or country. This paper is the production of an ethnographic research (with complementary qualitative techniques) in Granada and Murcia (Spain), two cities impacted by the transnational migration. The paper illustrates the complexities of ten young Latina/o transmigrants while growing up in a transnational family and being young transmigrant students in a Spanish high school. These complexities were due to the cultural and physical differences between Latin-American countries and Spain. To overcome the difficulties, the young transmigrants came up with different practices. Some of them made changes in their appearance and their Spanish accent to diminish the differences in relation to the ‘others’, meanwhile, other participants embraced some of the customs of their country of origin to be with ‘their’ people. These practices along with the transnational interactions impacted in the development of a belonging sense that was expressed by the young transmigrants as multiple rather than fix to their former or the new country.