A contentious issue for Pacific Islanders, as well as researchers of the Pacific Islands, is ni‐Vanuatu notions of ‘belonging’ to urban centres. Previous research in Vanuatu has shown that despite generations of people born and raised in Port Vila, the nation's capital, the urban centre is not generally perceived as a ‘place’ to which urban migrants can say they are from. For many, exclaiming that one is ‘from’ town is tantamount to admitting one has ‘no place’. This paper, based on fieldwork among a group of urban young men in Freswota, a residential community of Port Vila, argues that in contrast to this, Freswota young men are generating a new locative identity. Their urban community rather than their parents' home island places is emerging as their primary location of belonging and the source of their sense of self, personhood and social identification. As such, these young men are the urban autochthones of the country.

中文翻译：

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植根，扎根：维拉瓦努阿图港的城市自律

对于太平洋岛民以及太平洋岛国研究人员来说，一个有争议的问题是“属于”城市中心的ni-Vanuatu概念。瓦努阿图的先前研究表明，尽管有几代人在该国首都维拉港出生和长大，但通常不会将城市中心视为城市移民可以说自己来自的“地方”。对于许多人来说，宣称一个人“来自”城镇无异于承认一个人“无处可去”。本文基于维拉港（Vila Port）居住社区弗雷斯沃塔（Freswota）一群城市年轻人的田野调查，认为与之相反，弗雷斯沃塔（Freswota）年轻人正在产生一种新的地域身份。他们的城市社区，而不是父母的家乡岛屿，正逐渐成为他们的归属地和自我意识的来源，人格和社会认同。因此，这些年轻人是该国的城市自治都市。