Mindful identity negotiations: The acculturation of young Assyrian women in New Zealand

In recent decades many Assyrians have fled their homeland in Iraq to escape religious and ethnic persecution. This study explored how young Assyrian women in New Zealand manage and negotiate identity dilemmas in everyday situations. It was informed by 400 h of participatory action research-inspired ethnographic work with 60 young women (between 16 and 25 years) and 72 Assyrian adults (53 women and 19 men); six interviews and a series of five focus groups with young Assyrian women; four interviews with Assyrian parents and two interviews with teachers of Assyrian students. A thematic analysis was employed to analyse transcripts and field notes. Participants conveyed complex feelings about their attachment to Iraq, New Zealand and the Assyrian community and attempted to attain optimal inclusion in these in-groups by carefully positioning themselves in a manner that intercultural communication theorists describe as ‘mindful identity negotiation’ (Ting-Toomey, 2005). This highlights the contested and negotiated nature of the acculturation process, which is rarely illustrated in quantitative studies focusing on acculturation orientations.