Particularity in commonality: sense of ethnic and citizenship identities among minority youth in Vietnam

Abstract

ABSTRACT Drawing on interview data, this article examines the sense of ethnic and citizenship identities among a group of young ethnic minorities in Vietnam. Findings suggest that the youth highlighted their identity in three main forms (albeit flexibly): dual identities, citizenship identity, or ethnic identity, that reflects the ways they reproduced or resisted the Vietnamese government’s discourses about a common citizenship, and national identity and unity. The view of particularity-in-commonality held by the majority of them might be a consequence of their exposure to these discourses. Implications regarding ethnic and social cohesion are then suggested.