Abstract:

The youth of any society is its core and its foundation and rightfully, the great majority of research and literature in the developed world is geared towards and conducted on this sector of society from every aspect and for purposes ranging from psychological, physical, to academic and cultural. In these parts of the world, the youth of immigrant and or diasporic communities have also been of great interest to academic scholarship examining issues of assimilation, enculturation, and identity formation, to name a few. But the youth in the Arab world are relatively sidelined in academia, and only recently has research begun to take them into consideration. This paper aims to examine Arab students’ perception of self and identity in the Arab world context in the beginning of the 21st century. Many of these youth may be living in their so called ‘native’ cultures yet seemingly inhabit gray areas and are “in-between” different cultures, at identity cross-roads in this sensitive time of their lives.

Keywords:

Identity, Arab World, culture, academics.