Migrant Youth and Hip-Hop Music Practices: Juggling Cultural Belonging, Creating Multicultural Spaces in Australia's Regional Cities

This article focuses on migrant youth in regional areas of Australia who write and perform hip-hop. Hip-hop music serves as a means of ‘juggling’ the contradictions in the sense of belonging experienced by these young people, who identify as both ‘Australians’ and ‘migrants’, while also addressing regional inequalities that affect a young generation. The article examines the regional cultural context in which migrant youth create and engage in cultural practices of self-expression, reimagining and ‘localising’ global hip-hop culture. Regional practices of hip-hop can be seen as indicators of transformations in regional cultural identities brought about by gradual changes in demographics and the growing presence of non-Western migrants. The article draws on the potential wider cultural and social impacts of migrant youth's music-making, urging policymakers to utilise these grassroots practices in regional cultural, migration and settlement policies.