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

Evans, R. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4599-5270 (2020) Picturing translocal youth: self-portraits of young Syrian refugees and young people of diverse African heritages in South-East England. Population Space and Place, 26 (6). ISSN 1544-8444 doi: 10.1002/psp.2303

Abstract/Summary

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.

Item Type	Article
URI	https://reading-clone.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/87771
Identification Number/DOI	10.1002/psp.2303
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	Science > School of Archaeology, Geography and Environmental Science > Human Environments Science > School of Archaeology, Geography and Environmental Science > Department of Geography and Environmental Science
Uncontrolled Keywords	Translocal subjectivities; Embodied relationality; Mobile youth transitions; Creative visual methods; Linguistic repertoires; Young refugees.
Publisher	Wiley
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