Regulating Immigrant Identities: the Role of Government and Institutions in the Identity Construction of Refugees and Other Migrants

Ibolya Losoncz () and Jay Marlowe ()
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Ibolya Losoncz: Australian National University
Jay Marlowe: The University of Auckland

Journal of International Migration and Integration, 2020, vol. 21, issue 1, No 7, 117-132

Abstract: Abstract 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.

Keywords: South Sudanese Australians; Self-identity; Identity threat; Identity construction; Refugees (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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DOI: 10.1007/s12134-019-00700-0

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