Post-conflict Identities: Practices and Affiliations of Somali Refugee Children

Drawing on case study research with Somalis in Sheffield and Aarhus the research explored the the complex influences on young Somali refugee and asylum seeker's identity formations according to different arrival scenarios.
Interviews explored: (1) identification with public narratives not of their own making in terms of: childhood and ‘age’; gender; race and asylum seeking; and associated (under)achievement at school;(2) identities on the move: histories of mobility; attachments to and imaginings of place; (3) social relationships within, and personal experiences of, home, school and community; this also involved life mapping exercises; (4) Perceptions/ experiences of integration and/or social exclusion and aspirations for the future.
For parent(s)/guardian(s), the same interview agendas were used in relation to their children/wards but also addressed inter-generational identity practices and tensions.
<p>This project investigates issues often associated with flows of asylum seekers such as hostility and racism by focusing on Somali young people in Sheffield. The group encompasses labor migrants, refugees, asylum seekers and transnational European migrants, each subject to different policy conditions of reception and integration, and having different forms of identification. The research has therefore investigated the complex ways that children's identities are spatially constituted through their diverse histories of mobility and are accomplished in specific geographical sites. The findings will highlight the identity practices that make a difference to young asylum seekers' integration in order to develop policies to support their social inclusion.
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