'What every other Leb wears' : intra-ethnic tensions among Lebanese-Australian youth

This chapter draws on research that investigates the vocational aspirations, as well as the working experiences, of young Arab-Australian men from disadvantaged urban regions of Sydney. That project dealt specifically with young men who have (or once had) particular interests in developing a creative-based vocation. Using qualitative methods, interviews were held with 22 young men aged between 18 and 30 years from Arabic-speaking backgrounds living in Sydney's western suburbs who wanted to be musicians, writers, designers, gallery artists, journalists and actors. One of the themes that emerged quite strongly from the excerpts explored in this chapter was that these young men actively rejected styling themselves as what they saw as 'typical' Lebanese-Australian youth. Their rejection was based largely on their self-identification as aspiring artists. Not being typical seems to have been a deliberate and self-reflexive choice involving particular aims and hopes for the future.