This chapter critically interrogates the psychosocial and political dimensions of African migration to Britain, centring the lived experiences of Black diasporic identity formation in the shadow of colonial legacies. Drawing on autoethnography as a decolonial praxis, it weaves personal narrative with postcolonial theory to examine how racialisation, dislocation, and conditional belonging shape the lives of African migrants and their descendants. Through frameworks including Social Identity Theory, Acculturation Theory, Critical Race Theory, and Third Culture Kid Theory, the chapter unpacks how identity is negotiated within oppressive systems, sustained through transnational ties, and re-imagined through acts of resistance. A key focus is the politics of re-migration to the African continent, explored not as a simple return but as a radical negotiation of selfhood, belonging, and cultural reclamation. Extended time in Ghana is presented as a site of identity reconstruction, highlighting the therapeutic yet complex dimensions of diasporic return. Finally, the chapter proposes a social model of intervention to support diasporic communities through psychosocial support, cultural reconnection, and educational advocacy. By unsettling colonial logics of belonging, this work reframes migration as an evolving act of refusal, repair, and reclamation, offering a liberatory vision of identity beyond national and racial binaries.

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Unsettling the Settler: Migration, Identity Negotiation, and Psychological Resilience in the Black British Diaspora

  • Chiedza Jane Ikpeh

摘要

This chapter critically interrogates the psychosocial and political dimensions of African migration to Britain, centring the lived experiences of Black diasporic identity formation in the shadow of colonial legacies. Drawing on autoethnography as a decolonial praxis, it weaves personal narrative with postcolonial theory to examine how racialisation, dislocation, and conditional belonging shape the lives of African migrants and their descendants. Through frameworks including Social Identity Theory, Acculturation Theory, Critical Race Theory, and Third Culture Kid Theory, the chapter unpacks how identity is negotiated within oppressive systems, sustained through transnational ties, and re-imagined through acts of resistance. A key focus is the politics of re-migration to the African continent, explored not as a simple return but as a radical negotiation of selfhood, belonging, and cultural reclamation. Extended time in Ghana is presented as a site of identity reconstruction, highlighting the therapeutic yet complex dimensions of diasporic return. Finally, the chapter proposes a social model of intervention to support diasporic communities through psychosocial support, cultural reconnection, and educational advocacy. By unsettling colonial logics of belonging, this work reframes migration as an evolving act of refusal, repair, and reclamation, offering a liberatory vision of identity beyond national and racial binaries.