Picturing translocal youth: Self‐portraits of young Syrian refugees and young people of diverse African heritages in South‐East England

Abstract

Young refugees and diasporic youth often have multiply-located senses of self. Using a creative visual methodology, recently arrived young Syrian refugees and young people of diverse African heritages born in the UK (aged 16-20) produced digital self-portraits to express their translocal subjectivities. Young Syrians represented themselves as 'bilingual becomings'; learning English occupied their minds and was key to their imagined futures, while their hearts were often associated with the homeland they had lost. In contrast, speaking English was sometimes taken for granted in the art work produced by young people of African heritages, which portrayed hybrid, multilingual selves and translocal relationality.Both groups embraced signifiers of national, religious and cultural identity, but through their silences and omissions, dis-identified with exclusionary notions of 'Britishness', nationhood and citizenship. Their self-representations provide hopeful counter-narratives to hegemonic socio-political discourses that position 'Black African' youth and Muslim young men as a 'threat' and 'illegitimate' citizens.

What are the Affordances of Arts-Based Workshops with Refugee Women and Girls?

“…Refugees deal with complex adjustments when they leave their home country, adapt to refugee camps and, in some cases, move on into host countries. Along this continuum, they may need to learn more than one new language and adapt to local customs and values, leading to a hybrid sense of negotiation between different languages and cultures (Evans, 2020). Art-based work with people who have been displaced can help them to connect with their emotions due to the stress, change, and uncertainties of living in camps or while they await news of claims for asylum (Lemzoudi, 2015).…”

An Ecological Approach to Refugee Youth Identity Development in Small-Sized Cities

“…Transnational relationships tend to inform the process of identity formation in newcomer youth (Evans, 2020;Goitom, 2016). Transnationalism involves the movement of people, products, practices, and ideas between physical spaces and borders (Haller & Landolt, 2005), and can also occur through the use of technology.…”

An Ecological Approach to Refugee Youth Identity Development in Small-Sized Cities

“…Identity development is not always a straightforward process for refugee youth (Evans, 2020;Rabiau, 2019). Resettlement for newcomer youth is a stressful transitional period, which has impacts for different social contexts in the destination country, such as at school or with classmates (Kumar et al, 2015).…”

“…In addition, identity development can be more challenging for refugee youth (Evans, 2020;Ghahari et al, 2020). As refugee youth adjust to living in a new community with different social norms, values, and cultures, they may experience confusion over aspects of their identities that were developed prior to forced displacement (Ghahari et al, 2020).…”