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Abstract
Studies of immigrant experience have tended to privilege a first generation immigrant-centred framework, including in research on second generation immigrant identity. This has led to the construction of this group as 'insiders on the outside', struggling to navigate cultural divides between family, community and host society. In challenging this conceptualisation I employed a poststructuralist approach, informed by intersectionality and Discourse theories, to explore the discursive constructions of second generation immigrant identity and belonging amongst young adults of New Zealand descent in Sydney, Australia. First, I examined how the subject position of the 'New Zealand immigrant' has been discursively articulated in relation to the nation-state Australia utilising a genealogical analysis of texts and a discourse analysis of media articles related to trans-Tasman migration and settlement. Second, drawing on in-depth interviews, I explored the lived experiences of participants born in Australia of New Zealand descent as they negotiated their identity and belonging within the confines of this discursive terrain. Findings from this study demonstrate that the subject position of the 'New Zealand second generation immigrant' is consistently figured as the 'almost similar other' to the 'host' Australia. The operation of logics of equivalence and difference between Australia and New Zealand, articulated through myths related to historical and cultural similarities and to racial and class-based differences, serve to structure the New Zealand second generation immigrant subject position. This positioning in turn serves to reinforce the nation building agenda of Australia as a multicultural society, where the 'New Zealand immigrant' is a constitutive outside to the 'Australian' identity. Participants’ experiences of belonging highlighted the shifting role of national identifications through participation in transnational social fields. Interactions across local, national and transnational landscapes led to fluctuating identifications, characterised by differing levels of allegiance, ambiguity and displacement within both contexts. Negotiating dislocationary moments of othering, participants sought to engage in an alternative space not directly linked to national identifications. They asserted their political subjectivity by occupying highly localised subject positions, established through relational engagements with everyday spaces in Australia and New Zealand.