Losoncz, IbolyaMarlowe, Jay2020-01-311488-3473http://hdl.handle.net/1885/200552This interdisciplinary paper explores the role of governments in the identity formation of people of resettled refugees. Using ethnographic data collected from 32 South Sudanese Australians and 9 professionals who work with this community, the paper outlines how participants face a range of systemic barriers and threats from government institutions relating to the cultivation of self-identity. We demonstrate how institutions poorly respond to the three typologies of self: moral, democratic, and status-seeking, and forward alternative institutional responses and possibilities. We conclude by arguing that rather than delivering a cohesive society, the regulation of cultural values and moral identities threatens the development of positive self-identities among resettled refugees and their children.application/pdfen-AU© Springer Nature B.V. 2019201910.1007/s12134-019-00700-02019-11-25