Abstract :
[en] This manuscript charts the emerging identity processes of refugee entrepreneurs in Luxembourg. It critically examines existing conceptualisations of identity and the self through a Western lens and highlights how non-Western frameworks, grounded in communal, spiritual, and relational understandings, can offer a more fluid and integral view. These frameworks meaningfully align with appreciating the complexities of identity development, challenging the individualistic, fragmented models of the self, prevalent in Western thought. Drawing on a phenomenological approach, the study calls attention to the central role values occupy in identity formation, finding their expression in metaphors. The identity journeys of six individuals were captured through the creation of identity collages, privileging participants in their expressions of an evolving sense of self that transcends traditional categories such as nationality, ethnicity, legal status, and socio-demographic features-commonly ascribed by external institutions and social contexts. The collages reflect an identity rooted in lived experience and self-determined meaning-making, achieved through reclaiming agency. By incorporating non-Western perspectives, the study provides rich, often unacknowledged, yet essential insights into the dynamics of identity in contexts of displacement and migration, reflective of participants' contexts of origin. The collage method offers a unique arts-based approach for exploring identity, enabling participants to articulate ineffable aspects in a multicultural and multilingual setting. Findings emphasise the potential of collage-making as a research tool and transformative medium with therapeutic and educational applications. We conclude by suggesting that further exploration of identity collages in longitudinal studies could provide richer insights into ongoing processes of identity formation and transformation.
