Local or Global: The Effects of Generation Y’Ethnic Struggles and Cultural Values

Abstract

Named as a “melting pot”, the United States is known for its diversity. People of different colors, languages, heritages, and lifestyles are constantly constituting and constitutive of this multicultural society. Most studies have focused on how people from minor ethnic cultures adapt to the host society or Anglo-Saxon/Whites dominant culture. However, in the year 2050, the Anglo-Saxon/White population will quickly become a minority within the U.S. (Kelly 2008). In fact, U.S. Census data (2005) reveals that more than 50 million U.S. households speak a language other than English at home, and the recent U.S. Census projects that number to increase significantly by the Year 2020. Perhaps, college students are more sensitive to those changes since the majority of their ethnic identity exploration project happens during college years (Syed and Azmitia 2010). In addition, through ethnic experiences, they also encounter the sense of (non) belongingness. It is found that non-White students are generally more susceptible to fluctuations in belonging uncertainty than White students (Mallett et al. 2011). College students or Generation Y (Gen Y) is the most culturally diverse generation in U.S. history, given that 35% of the U.S. population is identified as minority (Kelly 2008). This generation was born between the years 1975 and 1990. Together, they comprise of 76 million consumers (Kennedy 2001), with unprecedented purchasing power of $200 billion a year (Gardyn 2002) and they have had an unparalleled impact on the U.S. economy (Noble et al. 2009).