Existential Accounts of Iranian Displacement and the Cultural Meanings of Categories

This paper examines the linguistic categories of identity amongst refugees and explores why Iranians living in Melbourne, Australia, construct themselves outside the 'refugee' category and in the process unpack the meanings embedded in the identity 'refugee'. The Iranians in this study refuse to be categorised and fixed within a bureaucratically constructed refugee identity, which they believe, only seeks to 'sort' and 'order' displaced people. They do not see it as a meaningful category that gives expression to their experiences and stories of displacement, marginality and identity.