Intersectional Action Research: Uncovering Life-Course Narratives with Young Migrants with Disability in Australia

Australia is a migrant country, with more than 7 million migrants and an impending post-pandemic “2023 migration boom” (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2021; Karp, 2023). The notion of the “Australian Dream” continues to attract a diversity of migrants, with the biggest proportion being young adults (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2018). While experiencing a potentially life-changing event of migration (Vitus, 2022), young migrants simultaneously transition from the dependence of childhood to the independence of adulthood with varying structural positions and access to resources (Thomson et al., 2002). Our understandings of these critical life transitions have largely neglected disability, with little to no research exploring the intersections of youth, disability and migration in Australia. Responding to Shakespeare’s (2019) call for diverse voices to be heard in disability research and recognising the dearth of voices from migrants with disability (Goggin & Newell, 2005), this study adopts a Pragmatic Action Research strategy comprising of search conferences and life mapping interviews (Garratt et al., 2021; Greenwood & Levin, 2007) to uncover the marginalised voices of young migrants with disability. In so doing, this study utilises an intersectional approach to demonstrate the usefulness of biographical methods in uncovering the diversity of youthhoods.