How do young diasporic Zimbabweans create spaces of belonging within 'the city'?

This research project seeks to investigate how young diasporic Zimbabweans create spaces of belonging within 'the city'. Young diasporic Zimbabweans have to navigate the city and perform belonging on three levels - as young people, as diasporic individuals and as Black British people. Building on Homi Bhabha's third space theory, this doctoral project seeks to understand and bring new insights into how young diasporic Zimbabweans navigate colonial spaces to create new meanings and simultaneously carve out a sense of belonging in the aftermath of Black Lives Matter in a large British metropolis. To achieve this, 30 qualitative in-depth semi-structured interviews will be conducted with 30 first-generation Zimbabwean young people aged 18-30 years old living in Birmingham. Finally, this doctoral project discusses public policy interventions for diasporic young Black British people and explores urban planning engagement with the metropolis' diverse communities.
The aims of the doctoral project will be achieved by answering the following objectives; what is the third space for young diasporic Zimbabweans, how do young diasporic Zimbabweans create a third space for belonging, what makes young diasporic Zimbabweans unique in their creation of the third space and what similarities do young diasporic Zimbabweans have with other Black British young people.