The objective of my research is to open up discourse about unaccompanied minor asylum seekers (UAMs) living in Australia and to provide a compelling argument that whilst situated at a point of vulnerability during their early settlement in Australia, UAMs are actively partaking in the complex activity of forming their identity. The project suggests that UAMs are able to develop and sustain their sense of agency despite their apparent ‘vulnerabilities’. The following questions provide the basis for this exploration: what do the narratives of individual UAMs say about their sense of self, and what choices do individual UAMs make that act upon these narratives and are thus active in identity making.

The project combines various theoretical perspectives to explore questions relating to selfhood, agency and identity formation of former UAMs during their early years of settlement in Australia. Drawing on Bourdieu’s concepts of habitus and doxa and inspired by Jackson’s work on Existential Anthropology, the project is interested in UAMs during points of ‘crisis’, displacement and change. Narrative Inquiry has been utilised to frame the theoretical content, construct a methodology and develop research instruments.

The project will involve conducting one on one interviews with 20-25 UAMs living in Australia.