The experiences of British Yemeni young people in the context of the conduct of everyday life

Abstract

British Yemenis are one of the oldest communities that have migrated and settled in the UK, yet they have been under-represented in academic literature. The voices of young people from within this community have previously been overlooked. This research provides an opportunity to redress this imbalance through an exploration of the everyday experiences of British Yemeni young people. The data presented was generated via a longitudinal study of six British Yemeni young people, using photo-novella and semi-structured interviews to articulate their experiences. The framework adopts Dreier’s theory of the conduct of everyday life (2011) to explore personality as governed by actions, and Roth’s understanding of personhood in practice (2020) to examine the notion of learning and development, both examining the evolving and developing cultural dynamics of young people. The findings are presented in two ways: (1) A content directed approach to understanding experiences of each participant, (2) A thematic analysis to show relational experiences shared between the young people. The findings provide portraits of the various social constructions of British Yemeni young people’s hybrid and evolving cultures and structures. While such experiences are not unique to British Yemenis, the way in which the young people connect their lived experiences of Yemeni culture and structure with the dominant mainstream British cultures around them, provides a contribution to research that focuses on issues of ethnicity, cultural hybridity, and diaspora.

Date of Award	13 Jan 2023
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	The University of Manchester
Supervisor	Carlo Raffo (Main Supervisor) & Susie Miles (Co Supervisor)