The Self in the Strange Identity formation among newly arrived Refugees in Great Britain

根据英国难民理事会的说法，当今世界面临着现代历史上最严重的被迫流离失所危机之一（见难民理事会，2016年）。在非洲、南亚和中东，不断升级的争端和冲突迫使全世界6500多万人逃离家园，到其他地方寻求庇护和保护，通常是在完全未知的环境中。大多数人在邻国寻求庇护，2015年，发展中地区收容了联合国难民署授权的世界难民的86%。虽然相对较少的难民来到欧洲，但联合国难民署报告说，2015年仅通过海上就有超过100万流离失所者抵达欧洲大陆，其中大部分来自叙利亚，阿富汗和伊拉克（见联合国难民署，2016）。与其他欧洲国家相比，英国以苛刻的庇护制度而闻名。红十字会表示，目前估计有117，234名难民生活在英国，约占英国人口的0.18%（见英国红十字会;见难民理事会，2016）。与其他移民不同，难民因暴力冲突和其他危及生命的情况而被迫离开祖国，通常不会出于自由意志采取行动。随着逃离家园和熟悉的环境，进入一个陌生国家的陌生环境，新到的难民进入一种高度不确定的状态。由于对自我的理解高度依赖于社会背景、时间和空间等因素，这种剧烈的转变可能会影响他们对自我的感知（Brubaker和库珀，2000年：18; Paasi，2001年：10）.在我的硕士项目，因此，我建议研究新到英国的难民的身份认同、身份认同的形成和转变，从而有助于在逃亡和移徙的背景下讨论自我理解和认同，这是目前具有紧迫全球重要性的一个议题。

According to the British Refugee Council, the world today faces one of the most severe forceddisplacement crises in modern history (see Refugee Council, 2016). Smoldering disputes and escalatingconflicts in Africa, South Asia and the Middle East have forced more than 65 million people worldwideto flee their homes and seek asylum and protection elsewhere, often in entirely unknownsurroundings. Most have sought refuge in neighboring countries, with developing regions hostingabout 86 percent of the world's refugees under UNHCR mandate in 2015. Though relatively fewrefugees have come to Europe, the United Nations Refugee Agency has reported that more than amillion displaced people arrived on the continent in 2015 by sea alone, mostly from Syria, Afghanistanand Iraq (see UNHCR, 2016). In comparison to other European countries, Great Britain is known for asomewhat harsh asylum system. The Red Cross states that there are an estimated 117,234 refugeescurrently living in the United Kingdom, which amounts to about 0.18 percent of the British population(see British Red Cross; see Refugee Council, 2016).Unlike other migrants, refugees have been forced to leave their home countries due to violentconflicts and other life-threatening conditions, and usually do not act out of their free will. With theflight from their homes and familiar environments, and the entry into the strange surroundings of anunknown country, newly arrived refugees enter a state of high uncertainty. Since the understandingof the self is highly dependent on factors such as social context, time and space, such a drastic shift islikely to have an impact on their very perception of selfhood (Brubaker & Cooper, 2000: 18; Paasi,2001: 10).During my Master's project, I would therefore propose to study the identities and the identityformation as well as transformation in newly arrived refugees in the United Kingdom and therebycontribute to the discussion of self-understanding and identification in the context of flight andmigration, which currently is a topic of pressing global importance.