Kaja’s story: The importance of narrative ‘threads’ as a qualitative analysis approach

Caroline Lenette

doi:10.25071/1929-8471.43

Authors

Caroline Lenette University of New South Wales Australia

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.25071/1929-8471.43

Keywords:

Refugee young people’s perspectives, identity, qualitative analysis, narrative ‘threads’, refugee woman’s narrative

Abstract

Young people’s narratives can often be reduced to mere ‘illustrative’ purposes when reporting research findings. As a result, contributions can lose their richness and yield decontextualized accounts in discussions on integration. This article highlights how using narrative ‘threads’ (Lumsden, 2013; Spence, 1983) to convey a refugee young woman’s story can value her contributions more fully, and offer contextual insights that might otherwise be missed. Her narrative emerged from a qualitative study where six refugee young people were interviewed about their experiences of international advocacy in Switzerland in 2016. Young people’s inter-woven narrative threads can better inform meaningful youth integration initiatives.

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