Narratives of nationhood: Young Australians’ concepts of nation and their attitudes towards ‘boat people’

Abstract

In Australia, questions surrounding national identity often feature in public discussions on asylum seekers. Using qualitative interview data collected from 40 participants in an ongoing study of young people in Queensland, we explore the connections between young people’s understandings of Australian national identity and their attitudes towards ‘boat people’. We identify distinct points of interconnection and disjuncture between participants’ notions of being ‘Australian’ and their thoughts on how Australia should respond to asylum seekers. With respect to the asylum seeker debate, we find narratives of Australian nationhood are flexible in interpretation and can serve contrasting and competing functions.

Keywords

asylum seekers Australia ‘boat people’cosmopolitanism national identity

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