On the Move

Before his 12th birthday, Philip Jia Guo had already lived in six cities spanning three continents, learned three distinctively different languages, and attended seven schools that had almost nothing in common with one another. On the Move traces his global journey to places as drastically dissimilar as his birthplace in South China, a quaint town in Switzerland, the American Deep South, both the poorest and wealthiest neighborhoods of New York City, and an affluent suburb in Southern California. He poignantly describes his struggles to fit in as a perpetual outsider and his feelings of being constantly forced by circumstances beyond his control to adapt to new environments, schools, languages, and cultures. On the Move interweaves candid narratives of this immigrant boy's unique childhood experiences with critical observations of such hotly contested social issues as race, ethnicity, class, religion, child development, peer group relations, immigration, assimilation, and national identity. This book appeals to anybody who is interested in learning more about the experience of being an immigrant and especially its impact on young children.