Growing up Australian : exploring the ethnic identity negotiation of second generation Vietnamese youth in Perth

This thesis is an exploration of the ethnic identity negotiation of a group of second generation Vietnamese young persons in Perth, and aims to uncover the content of ethnic identity; in other words, “what it means” and “what it looks like” to be Vietnamese or Australian. Adopting an interpretive na...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: Curtin University 2012
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/317
_version_ 1848743344336797696
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description This thesis is an exploration of the ethnic identity negotiation of a group of second generation Vietnamese young persons in Perth, and aims to uncover the content of ethnic identity; in other words, “what it means” and “what it looks like” to be Vietnamese or Australian. Adopting an interpretive narrative approach as research methodology, this research focuses on the familial and social experiences of this group of participants in uncovering dimensions of their ethnic identification and ethnic identity formation. Twenty second generation Vietnamese youth were invited to share their stories of growing up in Australia; this included ten male and ten female young persons. Using unstructured narrative interviews, this research explores the socio-cultural dimensions of their life experience as they navigate their transition into adulthood.Findings from this research suggest that the participants identify concomitantly as Vietnamese and Australian, giving strength to the notion that ethnic identity is but one of a multitude of social identities. The participants’ narratives also reveal that country of birth; cultural values and practices; ethnic socialization; and language spoken are dimensions salient to their ethnic identity formation process. In exploring their familial experiences, it was revealed that a disparity in values existed between the participants and their parents. This disparity often resulted in parent-child conflict during the participants’ adolescent years, in turn affecting their ethnic identity negotiation.Whilst it is acknowledged that the participants’ stories are not representative of all second generation Vietnamese youth in Perth, I argue that the Vietnamese in Perth are on an upward trajectory and have successfully integrated into the Australian mainstream culture. More importantly, their stories demonstrate that these young persons are skilful navigators as they negotiate between the two cultures. That is, rather than being caught “between” two cultures, these young persons are active members of both.
first_indexed 2025-11-14T05:44:05Z
format Thesis
id curtin-20.500.11937-317
institution Curtin University Malaysia
institution_category Local University
language English
last_indexed 2025-11-14T05:44:05Z
publishDate 2012
publisher Curtin University
recordtype eprints
repository_type Digital Repository
spelling curtin-20.500.11937-3172017-02-20T06:42:04Z Growing up Australian : exploring the ethnic identity negotiation of second generation Vietnamese youth in Perth This thesis is an exploration of the ethnic identity negotiation of a group of second generation Vietnamese young persons in Perth, and aims to uncover the content of ethnic identity; in other words, “what it means” and “what it looks like” to be Vietnamese or Australian. Adopting an interpretive narrative approach as research methodology, this research focuses on the familial and social experiences of this group of participants in uncovering dimensions of their ethnic identification and ethnic identity formation. Twenty second generation Vietnamese youth were invited to share their stories of growing up in Australia; this included ten male and ten female young persons. Using unstructured narrative interviews, this research explores the socio-cultural dimensions of their life experience as they navigate their transition into adulthood.Findings from this research suggest that the participants identify concomitantly as Vietnamese and Australian, giving strength to the notion that ethnic identity is but one of a multitude of social identities. The participants’ narratives also reveal that country of birth; cultural values and practices; ethnic socialization; and language spoken are dimensions salient to their ethnic identity formation process. In exploring their familial experiences, it was revealed that a disparity in values existed between the participants and their parents. This disparity often resulted in parent-child conflict during the participants’ adolescent years, in turn affecting their ethnic identity negotiation.Whilst it is acknowledged that the participants’ stories are not representative of all second generation Vietnamese youth in Perth, I argue that the Vietnamese in Perth are on an upward trajectory and have successfully integrated into the Australian mainstream culture. More importantly, their stories demonstrate that these young persons are skilful navigators as they negotiate between the two cultures. That is, rather than being caught “between” two cultures, these young persons are active members of both. 2012 Thesis http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/317 en Curtin University fulltext
spellingShingle Growing up Australian : exploring the ethnic identity negotiation of second generation Vietnamese youth in Perth
title Growing up Australian : exploring the ethnic identity negotiation of second generation Vietnamese youth in Perth
title_full Growing up Australian : exploring the ethnic identity negotiation of second generation Vietnamese youth in Perth
title_fullStr Growing up Australian : exploring the ethnic identity negotiation of second generation Vietnamese youth in Perth
title_full_unstemmed Growing up Australian : exploring the ethnic identity negotiation of second generation Vietnamese youth in Perth
title_short Growing up Australian : exploring the ethnic identity negotiation of second generation Vietnamese youth in Perth
title_sort growing up australian : exploring the ethnic identity negotiation of second generation vietnamese youth in perth
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/317