From the Margins to the Center: A Critical Examination of the Identity Constructions of Bosnian Adolescent Refugees in New York City

Abstract

This article explores the role of culture and social networks as relations of difference in refugee experiences by challenging the assumptions in mainstream psychology that objectify the experiences of refugees and act as gatekeepers to their subjectivity. The deterministic bent of existing psychological theories legitimates an essentialist paradigm by failing to critically examine the various ways refugees themselves experience and negotiate cultural processes. A critical lens illuminates the discursive functioning of mainstream psychology by questioning power relations and placing a premium on individual agency. Through an exploration of the identities of adolescent refugees schooled in the United States, this article discusses refugees' conditions of consciousness in terms of how they participate in an increasingly heterogeneous world and balance their own ethnoscapes.