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Emine Fidan Elcioglu is an Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Toronto. Her research spans migration studies, political sociology, and racialization. She will deliver a talk as part of the Sociology Department's speaker series, titled "A Canadian Dream Delegated: Parental Deskilling and the Moral Weight of Adulthood among 1.5-Generation Egyptian Canadians."

ABSTRACT: What does it mean to become an adult when traditional milestones—secure employment, residential independence, financial self-sufficiency—are increasingly out of reach, and public anxiety over immigration casts your very presence as a burden? Drawing on in-depth interviews, we examine how 1.5-generation Egyptian Canadians make sense of the transition to adulthood in the context of their families’ migration stories. While the deskilling of immigrant professionals is well documented, the literature on young adults’ coming of age seldom considers the intersections of migration or deskilling with notions of adulthood. We show that the emotional and symbolic toll of deskilling extends to migrants’ children. Narratives of parental sacrifice reshape the terms of the immigrant bargain, turning adulthood into a moral project defined by the imperative to honor what one’s parents gave up. By centering this intergenerational moral logic, this talk offers a new lens on how structural inequality is refracted through intimate family narratives and how migration continues to shape the meaning of adulthood long after arrival.