Doing and belonging: Toward a more-than-representational account of young migrant identities in Lesotho and Malawi

The notion that identities are contextually constructed, and that the dynamism of identity in part refl ects movement between places, is now commonplace in geography. Southern African societies have long been characterized by high levels of mobility, but in the context of the HIV/AIDS pandemic migration patterns are changing and young people in particular increasingly engage in forms of voluntary and involuntary migration. This chapter draws on stories told by young migrants in Lesotho and Malawi about their migration experiences. From the young people’s accounts we uncover how their migration impacted on their relationships to rural contexts. In doing so, we fi nd the conventional notion of ‘narrative identity’ to be an inadequate expression of how young people come to ‘belong’ in rural settings. Instead, we focus on three components of belonging: (in)activity, relationality, and familiarity.