Cultural Identity in Transit: Lived Experiences of Female Migrants in Multicultural Urban Spaces

Abstract

Global migration has increasingly highlighted the significance of cultural identity negotiation, particularly among female economic migrants navigating urban multicultural environments. While prior research has explored structural and policy-level aspects of integration, little is known about how migrant women subjectively experience and interpret their cultural identity in daily life. This study addresses that gap by asking: how do female economic migrants make sense of their cultural identity in metropolitan spaces marked by both diversity and pressure to assimilate? Using an interpretative phenomenological approach, the study reveals how identity is fragmented, performed, and reclaimed through lived experiences. Data were collected through semi-structured in-depth interviews with ten migrant women from Southeast Asia (primarily Indonesia and the Philippines) who have resided in multicultural urban centers in Australia for at least two years, and analyzed using thematic coding supported by ATLAS.ti software. The analysis identified four central themes: identity fragmentation, emotional labor, cultural concealment, and resilience through community-based belonging. These findings demonstrate that cultural identity is not a fixed category but a dynamic process shaped by personal meaning and socio-cultural context. The study offers a richer understanding of migrant identity by foregrounding the emotional, symbolic, and relational dimensions of adaptation, and it calls for more inclusive policies that recognize the subjective realities of migrant populations..