ABSTRACT
This chapter seeks to highlight the utility of a greater analysis of identity in the study of migration, especially when attempting to address the security concerns caused by, and facing, migrants who spend protracted periods in exile. It introduces a new model of analysing identity, which it has labelled the Identity Process Framework (IPF). This framework draws inspiration from the use of Chaos Theory in the natural sciences, which was developed to deal with complex systems which were changing at every turn. It proposes a new framework for analysing migrant identity, focusing specifically on the identity of migrants who have experienced life as refugees for protracted periods. The chapter begins the framework, which attempts to explain the sensitizing concepts shaping refugee identity, by examining refugee's relationship with the territories they occupy, explaining the varying directions of their identity paths through cultural traumas, and then using collective memory and forgetting to elucidate the development of multiple identity paths.
