Between two worlds : identity, belonging, and the lived experiences of intercountry adoptees in Aotearoa New Zealand : a thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Sociology at Massey University, New Zealand

Abstract

I entered this research with a question: Was I alone in feeling this way? As an intercountry adoptee raised in Aotearoa, New Zealand, I sought to understand whether others shared the same quiet ache—the dislocation, the longing, the feeling of in-betweenness. The life stories collected in this study highlight that such experiences were not singular or exceptional, but part of broader shared trajectories. Stories were shared across countries and generations, revealing personal pain and broader legal, systemic, and historical patterns. What started as a personal search gradually turned to a need to question, understand, and bring visibility to the structures that had long pushed adoptees' experiences to the margins. Intercountry adoption profoundly shapes an adoptee’s identity, belonging, and mental well-being throughout a lifetime. I explore the lived experience of six intercountry adoptees in New Zealand from childhood through adolescence into adulthood, focusing on how they construct and negotiate their identities while facing cultural displacement, systemic barriers, and societal expectations. I draw on qualitative semi-structured life story narrative methodologies and intersecting social constructivist and interpretative epistemologies to amplify the voices of adoptees, uncovering their significant emotional, psychological, and social challenges across the life course. The findings chapters speak to attachment, cultural dislocation, language loss, racialisation, belonging or lack thereof, and identity formation. These stories reveal the enduring impact of disrupted attachments, systemic neglect, cultural erasure and the resilience and meaning-making that emerge through narrative reclamation. Rather than aligning with functionalist or critical perspectives, I offer a third stance that offers space for contradiction. It acknowledges the intimacy of adoptive family relationships and the racialised, political, and economic systems that shape adoption globally and locally. This stance resists binary thinking, inviting more honest, inclusive, and ethically grounded conversations about adoption, identity, and belonging.