Book Chapter

‘Becoming adult by remaining a minor’ : reconfigurations of adulthood and wellbeing by young Vietnamese migrants in the UK

Abstract

This chapter investigates how Vietnamese cultural media engages with the concepts of ‘Migration’, ‘Becoming Adult’, ‘Wellbeing’ and ‘Futures, to establish the potential impact such media have on young people’s migratory decisions. Through a particular focus on social media, this chapter argues that the internet plays a significant role in shaping and forming views about migration, how to succeed as a young migrant once in the UK and when to ‘return’ home to Vietnam. Although young Vietnamese migrants are frequently represented in the media as ‘child slaves’ and victims forced to work in cannabis farms, their migratory realities are in fact far more complex. We suggest that some young people may seek out ‘employment’ as a route to becoming adult, developing agency and fulfilling broader family and community expectations of their migratory journeys.

Authors

Barber, Tamsin
Nguyen, Hai

Oxford Brookes departments

School of Law and Social Sciences

Dates

Year of publication: 2023
Date of RADAR deposit: 2024-05-23

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All rights reserved.

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Related resources

This RADAR resource is the Accepted Manuscript of ‘Becoming adult by remaining a minor’: Reconfigurations of Adulthood and Wellbeing by Young Vietnamese Migrants in the UK
This RADAR resource is Part of Becoming adult on the move : migration journeys, encounters and life transitions [ISBN: 9783031265334] / edited by Elaine Chase, Nando Sigona, Dawn Chatty (Palgrave Macmillan Cham, 2023).