This book provides a complex and intricate portrayal of Asian American high school girls – which has been an under-researched population – as cultural meditators, diasporic agents, and community builders who negotiate displacement and attachment in challenging worlds of the in-between. Based on two years of ethnographic fieldwork, Tomoko Tokunaga presents a portrait of the girls’ hardships, dilemmas, and dreams while growing up in an interconnected world. This book contributes a new understanding of the roles of immigrant children and youth as agents of globalization and sophisticated border-crossers who have the power and agency to construct belonging and identity across multiple contexts, spaces, times, activities, and relationships. It has much to offer to the construction of educative communities and spaces where immigrant youth, specifically immigrant girls, can thrive.

Richly grounded in ethnographic data, it provides fundamental information on the identities and experiences of Asian American high school girls, an under-researched population Adopts an interdisciplinary, transcultural, and hybrid approach, using the “Western” concept of home and the “Japanese” concept of ibasho (a place of comfort, safety, and acceptance) to uncover sites of belonging Offers a new understanding of the roles of immigrant children and youth as agents of globalization and community builders who have the agency to construct belonging and identity Includes concrete suggestions and implications regarding how to develop effective programs and communities where immigrant youth can thrive