Family influence on refugee youth education and employment aspirations and choices

ABSTRACT

During cultural transition, refugee-background youth in Australia must navigate adolescence and the demands of cultural transition and adaptation, including educational and employment decisions. Using a qualitative methodology we report on a study exploring the influence of family – including parents, siblings and extended family members – on youth aspirations and decision-making regarding education and employment pathways. Based on interviews with 79 participants (46 refugee-background youth aged 15–26 years and 33 parents or caregivers) residing in regional and metropolitan South Australia, we find that although there were some tensions between youth and family expectations, motivations, identities, and acculturation in resettlement, there were also mutual support strategies that strengthened family relationships and supported youth aspirations. We note four key themes: ‘motivating and supporting’ or how families supported youth to select their future education and employment pathways; ‘Independence versus influence’ or to what extent families influenced youth decision-making; ‘clash of expectations’ between parents and youth expectations; and ‘family responsibilities’ that interfered with youth aspirations. Implications of study findings for future research, policy, and practice are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Refugee youth
• aspiration
• education
• resettlement
• parent–child attitudes
• Australia

Acknowledgements

This research was funded by the Australian Research Council through a three-year ARC Linkage Project (LP0562492) entitled ‘Pathways to Active Citizenship: Refugee Youth and their transition from School, to further Education, Training and Employment’. This project is a collaboration between the University of South Australia, the University of Adelaide, industry partner Multicultural Youth South Australia (MYSA), and research partner Australian Migrant Resource Centre (AMRC).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Australian Research Council [grant number LP0562492].