The Desire to Be Kachin. Identity Formation and Cultural Continuity Among Kachin Youth in Porirua, Wellington

Abstract

This thesis examines how Kachin youth in Porirua, Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand, understand and negotiate identity and belonging within a diasporic context. Situated within the broader history of Kachin forced migration from northern Myanmar, the study explores how language, faith, family, and community shape young people’s identity development across multiple social worlds. It also foregrounds the perspectives of mothers, who play a central role in intergenerational cultural transmission and moral guidance. Guided by an interpretivist qualitative approach, the research draws on semi-structured interviews and visual narrative methods with six Kachin youth aged 16 to 19, as well as interviews with three Kachin mothers. Data were collected in a multilingual context and analysed thematically, with attention to relational meaning-making and everyday practices of identity. The researcher’s insider positionality enabled culturally grounded engagement, while remaining reflexive to maintain ethical and analytical rigour. The study contributes to scholarship on youth identity development and diaspora by offering a context-specific account of a smaller refugee-background community that has received limited academic attention. Rather than treating identity as a fixed category or linear process, the thesis conceptualises Kachin identity as relational, evolving, and intergenerationally negotiated. It highlights the significance of faith-based spaces, heritage-language practices, and everyday forms of care in sustaining a sense of belonging. While the findings are not generalisable, the study offers interpretive insights into how ethnic minority, refugee-background Kachin youth and their families negotiate cultural continuity, authenticity, and responsibility across generations. In doing so, it lays a foundation for further research on Kachin diasporic communities and contributes to broader discussions of identity, belonging, and intergenerational transmission in multicultural societies.