TY - JOUR
T1 - Regulating Immigrant Identities
T2 - the Role of Government and Institutions in the Identity Construction of Refugees and Other Migrants
AU - Losoncz, Ibolya
AU - Marlowe, Jay
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2019, Springer Nature B.V.
PY - 2020/3/1
Y1 - 2020/3/1
N2 - This interdisciplinary paper explores the role of governments in the identity formation of people of resettled refugees. Using ethnographic data collected from 32 South Sudanese Australians and 9 professionals who work with this community, the paper outlines how participants face a range of systemic barriers and threats from government institutions relating to the cultivation of self-identity. We demonstrate how institutions poorly respond to the three typologies of self: moral, democratic, and status-seeking, and forward alternative institutional responses and possibilities. We conclude by arguing that rather than delivering a cohesive society, the regulation of cultural values and moral identities threatens the development of positive self-identities among resettled refugees and their children.
AB - This interdisciplinary paper explores the role of governments in the identity formation of people of resettled refugees. Using ethnographic data collected from 32 South Sudanese Australians and 9 professionals who work with this community, the paper outlines how participants face a range of systemic barriers and threats from government institutions relating to the cultivation of self-identity. We demonstrate how institutions poorly respond to the three typologies of self: moral, democratic, and status-seeking, and forward alternative institutional responses and possibilities. We conclude by arguing that rather than delivering a cohesive society, the regulation of cultural values and moral identities threatens the development of positive self-identities among resettled refugees and their children.
KW - Identity construction
KW - Identity threat
KW - Refugees
KW - Self-identity
KW - South Sudanese Australians
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85078574815&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/s12134-019-00700-0
DO - 10.1007/s12134-019-00700-0
M3 - Article
SN - 1488-3473
VL - 21
SP - 117
EP - 132
JO - Journal of International Migration and Integration
JF - Journal of International Migration and Integration
IS - 1
ER -