Ethnic Minorities: negotiating identity in Australia

Identity, particularly ethnic identity, has become much more salient in recent decades. Identity is multilayered and dual pronged: how you identify yourself and how others identify you. Identities are negotiated in complex ways as the struggle for recognition is about contested domains of how others identify you or your group. In societies such as Australia there are over 200 ethnic communities resulting from permanent migration policies since the 1940s. Australia also has had over 30 years of policies of multiculturalism which is an official of acceptance of cultural diversity. Despite this there is debate about how accepting Australia is of diverse ethnic identities and the dominant Anglo-Saxon identity as the norm. This book explores how ethnic minorities negotiate recognition of their identity in the context of a multicultural Australia. The Kurdish community is used as a case study to excavate the complexities of identity negotiation processes, particularly as Kurdish identity is not recognised in some of the countries of origin of the Kurds. The identity negotiations are considered in light of immigration, settlement, nostalgia and hope