Art, Community & Belonging

Communication with others and developing a sense of belonging are challenges that immigrants, including children, must face in a new society. These challenges become a major obstacle when paired with lack of knowledge of the language. This could negatively impact self-esteem and well-being.

As an educator, artist, and immigrant, I have realized that collaborative artwork is an effective and important tool for immigrant children to bridge their lack of knowledge of the language and to communicate with others while learning the new language.

In this study, I have used autoethnography as the research methodology in order to explore my personal experiences as an immigrant in order to better understand the challenges of immigrant children and to help them to overcome those challenges. Through this process, I demonstrate how effective collaborative artwork can be for immigrant children to develop a sense of being welcomed and belonging to their new society.