Use this URL to cite or link to this record in EThOS: https://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.424176
Title: Seeking a place on the island : refugee children's experiences of diaspora in England
Author: Lewis, Liana
ISNI:       0000 0001 3609 0253
Awarding Body: Nottingham Trent University
Current Institution: Nottingham Trent University
Date of Award: 2005
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Abstract:
This thesis seeks to understand how asylum seeker and refugee children experience the diasporic condition in England. Departing from the post-modern perspective of identity, I examine how their multiple positionalities, such as ethnicity, gender, country of origin, language and religion are appropriated by the host country situating the children as different. I suggest that underlying this process is the issue of racism, which associated with institutional practices and discourses such as discipline, multiculturalism, assimilationism and a belief in child innocence constitute and position these children as the other. I argue that they do not simply accept the deterministic practices that locate them as the other but rather that they act as agents in responding to the discourses and practices. The main etlmogiaphic work was undertaken in a primary school. This is because of the role and significance the school plays as an institution in producing and reproducing concepts of childhood as well as determining the social spaces to be occupied by different children. To understand the experience of diaspora in England, othpr settings and institutions, such as, the house, the family and a charity organisation which works with refugees were also taken into consideration in the interviews and my interactions with the children. Questions related to other conditions were also taken into account like reasons for migration and life history in the country of origin. Instead of producing a rigid set of generalisations, I privileged the complexity of what was seen and heard. Thus, deep and contextualised case studies were undertaken with seven children with the purpose of drawing a rounder and more insightful picture of their lives.
Supervisor: Not available Sponsor: Not available
Qualification Name: Thesis (Ph.D.) Qualification Level: Doctoral
EThOS ID: uk.bl.ethos.424176  DOI: Not available
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