Being deaf and being other things: young Asian people negotiating identities

Abstract

This paper explores how Asian deaf young people negotiate identity claims against the backdrop of deaf politics, ethnicity, religion, gender and age. The paper is based on a qualitative study of Asian (mainly Pakistani Muslim) deaf young people and their parents in the UK. The findings provide little support for notions of singular or primary identities (as, for example, ‘Deaf’ people or ‘Muslims’) which may make other identity claims irrelevant. Instead, young people’s identifications were multiple, complex and contingent. However, resources and structures remained important for identifications to be cultivated and gaining legitimisation.