What do the Narratives of Second Generation Children Within Families Forcibly Displaced by War or Persecution Reveal About the Process of Social Identity Development and Acculturation in This Group?

The current study aims to address the gap in literature by exploring the effects of parental experience of forced dislocation due to war or persecution on the acculturation process and social development of their children. To date, second generation children within families forcibly displaced by war or persecution have remained overlooked in research, thus limiting our understanding of their experiences and what factors may be important for clinicians to consider. Six young people (3 male and 3 female), between the ages of 16-24 who were born in the UK and who were the offspring of parents that migrated due to forced displacement driven by war or persecution took part in semi-structured interviews. Transcripts of the interviews were analysed using a form of narrative analysis identifying the core narrative, narrative tone and narrative form/genre within each participant’s story. Although all six narratives were different, during the cross-analysis similarities across the narratives were identified and named as "sense of belonging”. The term "sense of belonging” characterised feelings the participants had towards their ethnic and western culture but also towards their parents’ experiences of escaping their home country. The “sense of belonging” was expressed through two narrative themes across all six stories that were named ‘heritage’ and ‘pride’. The results of this study are considered in relation to existing research, related to the theoretical perspectives of acculturation and social identity development. The findings of this study elicited a number of clinical implications, such as cultural formulation and delineated processes specific to second generation children of refugee background, providing support for the on-going need for this overlooked population to be further researched