The use of migration-related competencies in continuing education: individual strategies, social and institutional conditions

Abstract

Focusing especially on biographical competencies that are gained through the experience of migration and socialisation in a certain country or cultural context, this article analyses how professionals define and deploy these ‘migration-related competencies’ when it comes to employment in the field of adult education in Austria. By means of selected example cases individual strategies are discussed vis-à-vis institutional frameworks of adult education and processes of exclusion towards migrants in general. Considering questions of representation and othering, the circumstances under which the utilisation of migration-related competencies is experienced as beneficial or problematic are examined. Furthermore, educational institutions of the majority society display different modes of recognising and acknowledging migration-related competencies. In a context, in which the official acknowledgement of these practices by institutions and transparent policies towards diversity orientation are lacking, the possession and demonstration of migration-related competencies has shown to be a highly ambivalent and individualised process.

Keywords:

• adult education
• migrant
• cultural capital
• skills
• competencies

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Funding

The research was funded by the European Social Fund and the Austrian Federal Ministry for Education and Women.

Notes

1. ‘Angehörige der zweiten Generation von MigrantInnen als Fachkräfte in der Erwachsenenbildung’, funded by the Austrian Federal Ministry of Education and Women's Affairs and the European Social Fund.

2. Professionals, that are skilled workers, are in this context people who work in the field of adult education in one of the following areas: (vocational) training, counselling/guidance and management/development of programs in adult/continuing education (see the definition of the Austrian Academy of Continuing Education, http://wba.or.at). The terms ‘migrant biography’ and ‘migration experience’ are used here for migrants and also for individuals who were born and raised in Austria but have experienced aspects of migration in their biographies through their parents and through growing up in migrant communities.

3. The empirical data of the overall project was generated from the main study (34 qualitative interviews), the research workshops, an online survey and case studies in institutions of adult education.

4. The complete results from the main study based on the Grounded Theory approach can be found in Kukovetz et al. (2014). In regard to theory building, the most important ones entail the integration of the factor migration to the concept of ‘cultural capital’ as well as a stronger focus on migration related resources rather than on ethnic capital exclusively. The results furthermore contributed to the conceptualisation of othering and the intersection between the experience of migration and one's social background. These aspects proved very significant for how individual's deployed their skills and competencies as professionals in adult education. In this article however, we are specifically focusing on three case studies in order to illustrate important vignettes.

5. The research workshops took place on a remunerated base, the participants were free to choose methods independently from the main study. In an interpretative debate the whole group of researchers analysed the consistencies between the results of the research workshops and the other parts of the study. Finally the results were connected, different methods allowed us to enrich and reflect our results from the main dataset. Moreover, the research workshops provided a venue for the meta-reflection of our research especially in regard to the problem of categorising migrants as a homogenous group as well as the question of migration-related competencies.

6. The participants were not instructed to make daily entries, but to reflect on their career choices, chances or failures against the backdrop of their migration history over a period of approximately three months. The time frame should help to avoid that the participants feel time pressure and give them space for an ongoing reflective process.

7. All interview passages cited were translated to English by the authors.

8. Country of origin is anonymised.

9. Note that the situation and access to further education for migrants from upper social strata such as expatriates is much different (Erler and Fischer 2012).