Creating bridges: music, play and well-being in the lives of refugee and immigrant children and young people

In contemporary society, global population movements, global conflict and ensuing migration have resulted in the presence of bicultural children in many nations, with multiple possibilities for musical engagement emerging within their home and host cultures. For these children, issues of social integration, identity construction, and cultural maintenance and change must be negotiated on a continual basis. This paper explores some of the ways in which music participation, and more specifically, participation in musical play, contributes to the well-being of bicultural children. In particular, the paper addresses the contribution of musical activities to the well-being of newly arrived refugee and voluntary migrant children and the ways in which these musical activities provide new musical and social beginnings for these children and young people. Drawing on research from the fields of music education, ethnomusicology, evolutionary musicology, anthropology, psychology and refugee studies, this paper focuses on my current research involving newly arrived forced and voluntary migrant children in Australia, but also on my previous cross-cultural study of musical play in a number of countries. Specific reference is made to Iraqi, South Sudanese and Sierra Leonean refugee children and young people in Australia, Punjabi children in the UK and newly arrived Central and South American immigrants in the USA.