The Evolving Identities of Unaccompanied Young Male Asylum Seekers in Malta

Abstract

This article focuses on the experience of unaccompanied minor asylum seekers who recently traveled to Malta and who aspired to journey on from there to mainland Europe. It is a phenomenological study of people who are on the move and in transition, and adopts a qualitative ethnographic-style research design. The analysis combines grounded theory and discourse analysis to explore how language served to frame these young people's ideas of themselves, their travels, and their lives. It suggests a core theory of how their definition and understanding of their African origins offers them stability despite the uncertainties that they encounter.

KEYWORDS:

• Minor asylum seekers
• resilience
• hybrid identity
• discourse analysis
• gender
• religion