The role of identity transformations in comparative victim beliefs? Evidence from South Sudanese diaspora

Michelle Sinayobye Twali

doi:10.5964/jspp.v7i2.865

Abstract

There has been a growing interest in the study on collective victimhood and this research has increased our knowledge on how victim groups construe their victimization relative to other groups. However, most of this research has assumed that the groups involved in these construals were pre-existing prior to the conflict and remained fixed during and after the conflict. This study aimed to examine how conflict facilitates the transformation of social identities (i.e., how ingroups and outgroups are construed) and how these transformed social identities are used by group members in their construals of comparative victim beliefs. Eighteen South Sudanese immigrants were interviewed about their experiences during the Sudan civil wars. Thematic analysis revealed two broader themes: “1) “who is ‘us’ versus ‘them’?” (i.e., identity transformation in light of collective victimization and privilege; 2) “what happened to us?” (i.e., construal of ingroup victimization relative to other groups). These findings demonstrate the complexity in how immigrant groups construe social identities constructed in the context of intergroup conflicts, and how these transformed identities are then used in their construals of collective victimhood.

Highlights

There has been a growing interest in the study on collective victimhood and this research has increased our knowledge on how victim groups construe their victimization relative to other groups
The findings focus on two major topics: (1) identity transformation in light of collective victimization and privilege; and (2) construals of ingroup victimization relative to other groups
The analysis revealed overall complexity in how South Sudanese diasporans in the U.S constructed the social identities involved in the Sudan civil wars, and how these identities were used in their comparative victim beliefs

Summary

Introduction

There has been a growing interest in the study on collective victimhood and this research has increased our knowledge on how victim groups construe their victimization relative to other groups. Thematic analysis revealed two broader themes: “1) “who is ‘us’ versus ‘them’?” (i.e., identity transformation in light of collective victimization and privilege; 2) “what happened to us?” (i.e., construal of ingroup victimization relative to other groups) These findings demonstrate the complexity in how immigrant groups construe social identities constructed in the context of intergroup conflicts, and how these transformed identities are used in their construals of collective victimhood. Given that most of the research on collective victimhood has been conducted among groups involved in intractable conflicts (e.g., Jews and Palestinians in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict; Protestants and Catholics in the Northern Ireland conflict), researchers have often chosen the groups involved when developing interview questions or survey items (e.g., “To what extent do you agree with the following statement(s): In one way or another, we, Palestinians and Israelis, are all victims of the regional conflict”, Noor, Shnabel, Halabi, & Doosje, 2015) This assumes that the “ingroup” and “outgroup” were clear-cut and unambiguous, relevant groups. The identities of migrant groups continue to evolve as their social contexts change (Bhatia, 2002), presenting a complex blueprint for their construals of comparative victim beliefs

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