Our lives are impacted by multiple and shifting identities. For young people on the cusp of adulthood, understanding who they are and where they fit in is essential to their health and influences their future.

Here in Aotearoa (New Zealand) we stand on many faultlines: ethnic, cultural and gender. Despite this richness of experience, ethnic minorities, defined here as ‘non-Māori, non-Pākehā and non-Pasifika’, are under-studied and often left uncounted. Within ethnic minorities those identifying as gender diverse, as disabled and as queer are also largely invisible to researchers and statisticians.

This needs to change.

How do we understand the needs of those young people whose identities cross more than one faultline?

How do we see them more clearly, and engage them with services developed to fit their unique needs?

The Border Dwellers’ Study seeks to find answers to these questions.