European Identity - Individual, Group and Society - HumanitarianNet

216 EUROPEAN IDENTITY. INDIVIDUAL, GROUP AND SOCIETYPortuguese students in the school feel the same as you do?). Nearlyall except… may be one. Except Joana because when she startedschool she joined a group… (…) They want us to join their groupand Joana let herself be carried away by them just because they are acool gang. None of the other Portuguese were influenced but shedid…So, as was highlighted in Nadia’s comment, maintaining herPortuguese cultural identity created conflict in her relationships withcolleagues at school. She knew that when they chose to speak inPortuguese in their peer group at school, it sometimes caused uneaseamong their English colleagues. Carmo, a 15 year-old girl, explainedthat in her view, this might reveal a lack of empathy for orcomprehension of their bilingualism; the English peers were unable totry to step on the Portuguese colleagues’ shoes.Yes, but if they went to Portugal and if they had English colleagues,it would be obvious that they would speak their own language.These Portuguese girls who cried at arrival are the same girls whoin a couple of months took control of vital functions for the survival oftheir families. Their English proficiency may not be sufficient to achievehigh grades at school, but is perceived as sufficient to help theirnuclear and extended families. Thus, these children live between twoworlds, which are not free of conflict. One is the world of the schoolsthat expects them to behave as teenagers of particular age groups,whose main working responsibility is studying, and, who show acertain degree of dependency from their parents. Another is the worldof their homes that expects them to play a substantial contribution insustaining their family’s lives, assuming adult roles, that sometimes maytake priority over schooling, such as when there is a need to go to thedoctor. At home they are not dependant upon their parents, butcontrol the relationships between their families and the Englishinstitutions.At this point I am already tempted to ask why these girls have notsuperimposed a European identity above the dichotomous Portugueseversus English identities. Within such a framework, as exemplified inthe women’s case studies, some of the differences become “normal”instead of a deviation from the norm (for instance, bilinguals andbiculturalism becomes an advantage)! But, let me first explore theextent to which the schools supported the development of identitiesthat transcend one of the cultures, which following Suarez-Orozco andSuarez-Orozco (2001) require a transcultural style of adaptation.