Description:
<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:p>Over the last decade the issue of identity has been prevalent in discussions about <jats:styled-content style="fixed-case">B</jats:styled-content>ritish <jats:styled-content style="fixed-case">M</jats:styled-content>uslims, with the events of 9/11 serving as a touchstone for media debates about religious, national and cultural affiliations. The 7/7 terrorist attacks in the <jats:styled-content style="fixed-case">UK</jats:styled-content> led to young <jats:styled-content style="fixed-case">B</jats:styled-content>ritish <jats:styled-content style="fixed-case">P</jats:styled-content>akistanis being subjected to intense public and institutional scrutiny and wider political concerns being expressed about the failure of multiculturalism. Young <jats:styled-content style="fixed-case">B</jats:styled-content>ritish <jats:styled-content style="fixed-case">P</jats:styled-content>akistanis have thus had to negotiate and maintain their identities in an environment in which they have been defined as a threat to national security whilst simultaneously being pressurized to align with ‘core <jats:styled-content style="fixed-case">B</jats:styled-content>ritish values’. Within this context, we convey the findings of a qualitative study involving <jats:styled-content style="fixed-case">B</jats:styled-content>ritish <jats:styled-content style="fixed-case">P</jats:styled-content>akistanis living in the <jats:styled-content style="fixed-case">N</jats:styled-content>orth‐west of <jats:styled-content style="fixed-case">E</jats:styled-content>ngland. In presenting the experiences and perspectives of participants, three interconnected processes salient to the maintenance of identity are delineated: solidity, elasticity and resilience. Having unpacked these processes, we draw upon <jats:styled-content style="fixed-case">B</jats:styled-content>habha's third space thesis to explore the political potentiality of and the limits to hybridic identities.</jats:p>