Towards a ‘low ambition equilibrium’: managing refugee aspirations during the integration process in Switzerland

ABSTRACT

This article explores the role of policy in influencing refugee educational and occupational aspirations and how this translates into promoting or hindering certain integration paths. 29 refugees in the canton of Vaud in Switzerland were interviewed and asked about their educational and occupational aspirations. Three policies were identified as having an important influence on their aspirations formation namely, asylum policy, integration policy in addition to university access and degree recognition policy. Findings show that the three policies combined contribute to creating what I refer to as ‘Low Ambition Equilibrium’. This means that on one hand these policies promote the quickest and most accessible integration paths to reduce refugees’ dependence on the welfare state. On the other hand, the experience of forced migration combined with a ‘policy-dense’ environment create a lot of uncertainty in the life of refugees and the urgency to find a lost ‘normality’ at the expense of their aspirations.

KEYWORDS:

• Refugee integration
• aspirations
• integration policy
• access to education
• labour market integration

Introduction

In this article, I examine the role of public policies in shaping refugees’ integration paths through the lens of aspirations. By identifying which policies refugees perceived to have had most influence on the formation of their aspirations and analysing how they do so, I was able to capture in more depth the integration paths that are promoted and the ones that were hindered. In this paper, I use integration paths to mean educational and occupational trajectories in host society.

The focus on the link between aspirations and policy to understand the integration trajectories of refugees is motivated by three reasons. First, aspirations are an important determinant of achievement. Early research on aspiration formation highlighted the important role this process plays as a determinant of status attainment and in the reproduction of social inequalities (see e.g. Blau and Duncan 1967; Sewell and Shah 1968a). More recently, aspiration formation research has highlighted the obstacles and difficulties that disadvantaged groups, such as ethnic minorities, face in planning their future and in developing ambitious and realistic aspirations (e.g. Kao and Tienda 1998). Even though this literature didn’t study refugees and doesn’t directly relate aspirations to policy, it clearly highlights the role social milieu plays in shaping aspirations. In the case of refugees this is particularly interesting to explore because of the circumstances of their mobility which leads me to the second motivation to conduct this study. In fact, forced migration is very likely to constitute a major disruption in the life course of refugees, which may require a profound redefinition of objectives in potentially all realms of life. Additionally, unlike other social groups, refugees live in a ‘policy-dense’ environment. By this, I mean that they are confronted with a range of policies that are likely to shape their aspirations. This includes asylum policy, which determines the right to remain, and the conditions attached to it, integration policy with its various programmes, as well as standard policies such as education, social policy, and so forth. Building on this last point, the third reason for developing this study is motivated by addressing the limitations or balancing the current debate on refugee integration, which is characterised by its high focus on refugee characteristics to explain integration outcomes. Mulvey (2015) stresses that the focus on human capital alone doesn't give us a general picture of what impacts the life of refugees. The author argues that policy should be given more attention to understand how refugee integration is shaped. Recently, Phillimore (2021) highlights the importance for migration scholars to shift the focus from refugee characteristics to studying how host societies opportunity structures shape their integration trajectories. Drawing from this perspective, I contend that studying how policy takers, in this case refugees, perceive the influence public policies had on the formation of their current educational and occupational aspirations would help gain in-depth understanding of their integration trajectories and hence contribute to fill in this gap.

To enhance insights into this topic, I interviewed 29 refugees who arrived in Switzerland between 2014 and 2018. I asked them about their educational and occupational aspirations and their overall life satisfaction in Switzerland. Using an inductive approach, I paid special attention to which policies influenced their aspirations and how. By investigating these aspirations, it was possible to determine how they perceived these policies influenced their aspirations and in which way it ended up shaping their integration paths.

The main conclusion is that on one hand three policies combined namely (1) asylum policy, here I refer to types of permit and the influence of asylum procedure length; (2) integration policy with a focus on its programmes and those in charge of their implementations, mainly caseworkers and teachers; (3) the policy that determines access requirements to university and degree recognition, contribute into creating a situation where high aspirations are discouraged as the overall system requirement is geared towards promoting integration paths that translate quicker into employment. On the other hand, this colluded with the desire of many refugees to quickly attain financial independence, which translates into generating a ‘Low Ambition Equilibrium’. This may result in a significant loss of potential human capital, especially for those with high potential.

The article begins with a literature review on aspirations’ formation, with a focus on its interplay with refugee integration. Then, I briefly discuss the implementation of the three policies in Switzerland, before presenting the methodology and results to finally discuss and conclude.

Refugee integration through the lens of aspirations

The process of aspiration formation plays an important role in the reproduction of social inequalities (see e.g. Blau and Duncan 1967; Haller 1968; Sewell and Shah 1968b). Various factors are found to influence this process, including socioeconomic status and family background (e.g. Haller and Portes 1973; Sewell 1971; Sewell and Hauser 1972), significant others (e.g. Davies and Kandel 1981; Haller and Portes 1973; Kao and Tienda 1998) and finally structural barriers. The latter results in an environment characterised by blocked opportunities. This environment leads to two theoretically distinct and contradictory reactions. Either minority groups overcompensate for their group status by developing ambitious aspirations and overachieving scholastically (Sue and Okazaki 1990) or they will underperform, denoting a lack of trust and scepticism towards the system run by the majority group (Fordham and Ogbu 1986; Ogbu 1991).

Even though this theory doesn’t study refugees or systematically relate aspirations to policy, this perspective on aspiration formation is helpful in generating insights with regard to how this process is likely to play out in relation to refugees and how it may influence their integration trajectories in host societies. While factors related to family context and social origin are likely to continue playing a role, we may expect that settling in a whole new context with a new set of constraints and opportunities will play an important role in shaping refugee aspirations and integration trajectories.

While the term, ‘integration’ is often defined as a ‘two-way process’ involving both the receiving society and refugees themselves (e.g. Ager and Strang 2008), the concept remains highly contested due to its normative nature and tendency to put the responsibility to integrate on migrants or refugees themselves (e.g. Dahinden 2016; Favell 2019; Mozetič 2022; Mulvey 2015; Phillimore 2021; Scandone 2018; Schinkel 2018) or what Schinkel (2018) refers to as the ‘Individualization of integration’. There is no doubt that individual characteristics related to refugee agency and various capitals such as previous qualifications, language skills and social networks play an important role in defining their integration trajectories (e.g. Auer 2018; Borselli and van Meijl 2021; Udayar et al. 2021; Williams 2006). Nonetheless, I further stress that structural aspects or what Phillimore (2021) refers to as ‘opportunity structures’ require more attention, not to minimise the role played by refugee agency in their integration trajectories but to balance this discussion. Consequently, in this paper and based on refugees’ perceptions, I highlight how this ‘policy-dense’ environment had informed their educational and occupational aspirations and as a result their integration paths.

Starting with asylum policy, various studies have pointed out to the negative impact of asylum procedures on refugees labour market integration, also documented in Switzerland (e.g. Hainmueller et al. 2016). Unlike other groups of migrants (students, workers, family reunification), who for the most part have planned their mobility (Hynie 2018), refugees face more challenges due to the special circumstances leading to their migration and the uncertainties related to their legal status (Hynie 2018). Therefore, refugees find it more challenging during the asylum procedure to project themselves into the future and form clear or ambitious educational and occupational aspirations (Van Heelsum 2017 ). It is possible that this situation changes after securing a permit that allows them to work and study, and therefore become capable of forming high educational and occupational aspirations to achieve what they couldn’t do during the asylum period.

Research on refugee aspirations consistently shows that refugees have high employment and tertiary educational aspirations. For example, many aspire to become entrepreneurs (Hebbani and Khawaja 2019) or wish to regain as much as possible the professional status they enjoyed previously in their country of origin (Piętka-Nykaza 2015). In relation to education specifically, studies suggests that refugees have high aspirations to access tertiary education (see e.g. Dryden-Peterson 2017; Morrice et al. 2020). This is often explained by the higher value associated with education in host society compared to their country of origin (Shakya et al. 2012) or the wish to leave the status of refugee behind and identify with a profession instead of a legal status (Schneider 2018).

It is worth noting that these studies don’t explore how these high aspirations were formed (Mozetič 2021) and most of them were conducted with refugees, selected through resettlement programmes and who haven't experienced asylum procedures (e.g. Shakya et al. 2012; Hebbani and Khawaja 2019). Therefore, I expect that in the case of Switzerland, the legal limbo (Luebben 2003) associated with asylum policy will have an everlasting effect on most refugee aspirations, which may translate into them adapting their educational and occupational plans to what is supported by various integration programmes and measures.

In relation to the last point, this ‘policy-dense’ environment is also characterised by the implementation of various integration programmes and measures. Most of these are designed comparably across countries and offer similar integration packages such as state sponsored language training and introduction programmes to life in host country (Konle-Seidl 2018). In Switzerland, usually used as a social policy field of action(Prodolliet 2006), it is possible that these programmes offer the support and guidance refugees need to understand the new rules and customs of the host society. Thus, contributing to creating a stable foundation for them to form new educational and occupational aspirations (e.g. Bevelander and Pendakur 2014; Valenta and Bunar 2010). However, these programmes have been criticised for their restrictive and mandatory nature, in addition to their tendency to follow the same logic of ‘promoting and demanding’ quick labour market integration (e.g. Arendt 2020; Hinger and Schweitzer 2020; Konle-Seidl 2018). This may translate into putting extra pressure on refugees to adapt their aspirations to those trajectories, promoted as ‘best ways to integrate’ by these programmes.

Finally, finding themselves in a policy dense environment also implies that host country institutions, including universities and other educational institutes, manage access to diverse resources and distribute individual opportunities of privileges (Piñeiro and Wagner 2022). In the context of migration, especially when mobility was not planned as is often the case with forced migration, previous degrees and qualifications are even harder to recognise (e.g. Sontag 2018). This may translate into refugees giving up on those aspirations that require high investment in time and money and choosing the ones that are easier to implement. For those who arrived as unaccompanied minors, school environment and teachers are found to play an important role in shaping their experiences and future educational possibilities, often referred to in the Swiss school system as ‘aspirations cooling’ (e.g. Bitzi and Landolt 2017; Lems 2020). On the contrary, this new environment may provide refugees with resources and a stable ground to develop and form ambitious aspirations that were hard to consider in a previous context characterised by war and instability.

Against this context, it is not clear how refugees perceived the role this ‘policy-dense’ environment, had on the formation of their aspirations and thus, in shaping their educational and occupational pathways. This study attempts to fill in this gap using an inductive approach. I interviewed 29 refugees living in the canton of Vaud, Switzerland and I asked them about their aspirations, I expand more on this point in the methodology section.

The encounter of policy and refugees

In this section, I present the general orientation and main actors involved in the three policies, refugees perceived as having most influence on the formation of their aspirations, namely asylum policy, integration policy with its various programmes in addition to those in charge of its implementation and finally education policy with a focus on university access and degree recognition policy.

Asylum policy

In Switzerland, most refugees receive one of three types of residence permits. First, if they are recognised as refugees under the 1951 Geneva convention, they receive a proper residence permit, called B permit. Second, if a refugee is denied asylum but is instead admitted provisionally while enjoying refugee status defined by the 1951 Geneva Convention on refugees, the refugee receives a residence permit, called F refugee (Guidesocial 2021), also referred to as subsidiary or humanitarian protection. Third, if the application of an asylum seeker has been rejected and s/he simultaneously doesn’t enjoy refugee status as defined by the 1951 Geneva Convention on refugees but cannot be deported from Switzerland, the refugee receives a temporary permit, a document called F permit (Guidesocial 2021).

The three types of permits provide rather different levels of rights. Refugees with an F permit are not allowed to travel abroad. For both F and F refugee permits they are not automatically entitled to family reunification and cannot move to a different canton from the one they have been assigned to. In contrast, refugees with a B permit have all these rights.¹

As we will see in the results section, this provision in the law puts pressure on F permit holders to become financially independent, to be able to benefit from family reunification. F permits can also be converted into B permits after some time, but again financial independence from the state is required (Asile 2021).

Integration policy in Switzerland

Switzerland is a federal country, the responsibility for refugee integration policy is shared between the federal government and the cantons. The promotion of integration is primarily carried out by existing public structures, such as schools, vocational training institutions, health services, but also civil society actors (SEMa 2021).

For several years, the Confederation and the Cantons have noted that a significant proportion of refugees are ‘unable to integrate’ socially, find employment and provide for themselves independently (Etat de Genève (GE) 2021). Hence, specific programmes were developed since then to remedy these shortcomings (GE 2021).

In spring 2019, Swiss Integration Agenda (AIS), a national programme set up by the Confederation and the Cantons, was introduced. AIS aims at encouraging quick, efficient, intensive, and systematic integration. Under this light, integration is understood as a process that begins as soon as the person enters Switzerland or files an asylum application and which continues until the entry in a professional training or the exercise of a lucrative activity (KIP-PIC 2018). The aim is to direct refugees to the labour market or a professional training that will enable them to attain financial independence. This is directly translated into reducing the costs of social assistance and strengthening social cohesion (KIP-PIC 2018).

To conclude, Swiss integration policy for refugees is highly focused on implementing measures that would enable refugees to regain financial independence. It relies largely on the country’s developed vocational education and training (VET) system. Even though the Swiss Integration Agenda does not directly rule out university education, the emphasis is clearly on promoting access to VET.

Access to university and recognition of degrees in Switzerland

In Switzerland, there is no central office responsible for degree recognitions. There are, however, various organisations in charge of this process. A degree is only recognised for the purpose of exercising a profession and continuing education. In the first case, the procedure differs according to the country in which a degree was obtained and the duration of the planned professional activity in Switzerland. It also differs according to the type of profession. Some professions are regulated, and others are not.

For regulated professions, State Secretariat for Education, Research, and Innovation (SEFRI) is the competent authority for the recognition of professions in the field of vocational education and training and for the recognition of university-level diplomas allowing the exercise of a regulated profession.

For non-regulated professions, there is no recognition of diplomas that gives direct access to those professions. In this case, another organisation, the peak association of Swiss higher education institutions (Swissuniversities/Swiss ENIC), establishes recognition recommendations for all university-level diplomas.

Regarding university access, universities and federal institutes of technology are themselves responsible for the recognition of foreign degrees and have autonomy in admissions decisions.

During the process of degree recognition either for regulated/non-regulated professions or university access, candidates need to submit their original documents and certified copies with translations. In addition, fees need to be paid for this process to be carried out.

Refugees wishing to attend tertiary education need to follow the same process for degree recognition described above, just like anyone else. Except for one programme, ‘Horizon Académique’, a one-year programme in the canton of Geneva, aimed solely at preparing refugees to access university without exempting them from following the same procedure as regular candidates.

Methodology

In this study, I focus on the ways refugees perceived public policies influenced the formation of aspirations and how these shapes their integration trajectories. I conceptualise aspirations as dynamic in the sense that they constantly change and evolve (e.g. Frank 1941; Hart 2016). They represent both the reflection of individuals’ goals, for which they are willing to invest resources (e.g. Haller 1968; Lewin et al. 1944; Sherwood 1989), and the expectations of their communities and institutions’ (e.g. Hart 2016). I adopted a qualitative approach based on semi-structed interviews with 29 refugees living in the French-speaking canton of Vaud, Switzerland.

Switzerland has one of the highest migration rates of the continent, most of whom are Europeans (Swissinfo 2017). The canton of Vaud is a good representation of Swiss diversity. It is one of the largest and most diverse cantons in Switzerland. It is also a canton that provides a large variety of career choices. In fact, it is neither predominantly rural nor urban. The canton, with its varied sectors of economy ranging from agriculture to advanced technology is expected to offer less career restrictions. Also, Vaud is one of the two cantons with a large variety of educational institutes which include the university of Lausanne, schools of applied sciences, professional schools, and the federal institute of technology (EPFL). This is also expected to offer a wide range of educational and career choices.

Migration streams to Switzerland and Vaud have changed over the decades. While Switzerland has for long been a destination for employment-seeking French, Germans, and Italians. It has also received different streamNuns of refugees during the second half of the twentieth century and from beginning of the twenty-first century. Refugees came from Eastern Europe (e.g. Yugoslavia), Africa (e.g. Eritrea) and Asia (e.g. Syria, Turkey, Afghanistan, and Sri Lanka). In the last decade Eritrea, Afghanistan, Syria, and Turkey represent the main origin countries of refugees in Switzerland (SEMb 2022). While recruiting the 29 participants, I made sure that their origin countries reflected the composition of refugee arrivals in the last decade. Participants arrived in Switzerland between 2014 and 2018. Table A1 in the Appendix provides detailed information about interviewees.

Eleven have been living in the country for more than five years and nine for more than 4 years. To assess the perceived role of policy on aspirations’ formation, participants had to be living in the canton for at least 3 years² and possess a permit that allows them to work and study. This was an important criterion in the selection, as refugees could experience and perceive the role of different policies on their aspirations’ formation only if they had been living in the country for a while, have had regular contact with their social workers and have participated in language courses and integration measures.

Participants were recruited through migrants’ NGOs and public institutions in charge with refugee policy after obtaining ethical approval. Preliminary meetings were organised with gatekeepers to explain the purpose of the study and the conditions in which interviews will be held. Gatekeepers presented the study to refugees. Those who agreed to participate were later contacted by the author. During the whole process, participants were provided with the possibility to enquire about the study and to ask questions whenever needed. Throughout the interviews, great value was placed on non-hierarchical interactions and transparency. Before starting the interviews and to establish familiarity, I shared information about my migration background and journey in Switzerland. After giving their oral consent, interviews were audio recorded except for two. Interviews were conducted in English, French and Arabic. They were transcribed in the language of the interview except for Arabic ones which were instantly translated and transcribed into French by the author. The interviews were conducted between October 2020 and March 2021. Due to COVID situation and participants’ preferences, 12 interviews out of the 29 were conducted via Zoom. I have adopted the same interview strategy mentioned above with online interviews and haven’t noticed that the interview mode has had major implications on interview conditions. Interviews lasted between half an hour and an hour and a half with an average duration of 45 min.

The interviews had traits of life-course interviews. Participants were asked to talk about their educational and occupational aspirations and experiences in four phases: Life in Switzerland recently and in the future, life during the first year in Switzerland, life in the home country and life in a transit country.³ For each phase, questions focused on relating different trainings, education and employment positions occupied in Switzerland with their aspirations. In my inductive approach, I followed Braun and Clarke (2006) six steps in Nvivo 2020 to thematically analyse the data. After getting familiarised with the data, I identified and grouped chunks of material into categories like ‘permits and legal status’, ‘Career counselling’, ‘social workers’, ‘types of jobs’, ‘studies’, ‘future plans’, ‘university’, ‘satisfaction/wellbeing’. Additional rounds of coding were performed, zooming into the different factors influencing refugee aspirations, with a focus on the policies influencing them. After this process, I could identify three policies that had an important influence on refugee aspirations mainly, asylum policy, integration focus and education policy with a focus on university access and degree recognition. After identifying the policies that influenced their aspirations, I then analysed in which ways they influenced their integration paths. Findings were finally compared to those from previous research and theories. Results and their discussion are presented next.

Results

In this section, the stage is given to the 29 participants to talk about their educational and occupational aspirations and how policy informed them. We first start with asylum policy and permits to then move to integration policy with a focus on career guidance and finally conclude with university access and degree recognition.

Asylum policy and permits

Asylum policy informs refugee aspirations formation in two ways. First, while refugees are waiting for a decision concerning their asylum application, it is very difficult for them to make future plans. Many participants have reported living in bunkers or remote areas for months, and sometimes more than a year. During this time, they lived in complete isolation and were only in contact with other refugees or people working in these facilities. Under such circumstances, the process of aspiration formation is inevitably stalled. Second, the limited rights associated with temporary admission permits (F) put substantial pressure on holders of such permits to quickly find a job and end their dependency on social assistance. These two effects of legal status are discussed next.

First, the uncertainty experienced while awaiting a decision on an asylum application can have a long-lasting impact and possibly dampen the formation of their aspirations. For example, Petros, worked as an accountant in his home country for four years. Once in Switzerland, he had to wait for three years to receive his permit. During this time, he could only take part in French language courses. With the help of a coach, he's been looking for a job for more than a year. He did a couple of internships in logistics (i.e. warehouse work) and is currently looking for an apprenticeship position in either logistics or other fields. In describing the three years waiting time, he said:

During this time, it was difficult in Switzerland because they could “throw” us at any time … this is the problem. We always think about the future, or we have been thinking about the future for three years. Are they going to “throw” us? We used to think about this all the time

Second, refugees with temporary admission (F), tend to be under pressure to reach financial independence from the state as quickly as possible in order to obtain a residence permit that enables them to travel and benefit from family reunification. As a result, many of them opt for redirecting their educational aspirations away from the more ambitious (and inevitably longer) educational and training paths, towards those that promise rapid entry to the labour market, which usually translates into low skill jobs.

Samir, holder of a F permit, explains in his words:

I would like to study for a trade job and complete an apprenticeship, it is my dream. But in Switzerland, I must have a B permit [i.e. a residence permit] I must be financially independent, if I find a job now, after two years I can have the permit ..However, if I finish CFC [the standard vocational training degree] and then work I will get the B permit after five years which means, now I have been here for five years so it will be ten years in total [before he gets the B permit], it is hard for me, it feels like prison really, now I can’t travel

When Ali was asked if he ever thought or plans to go to university, he responded:

No, never. Because I have many problems in my life. I have someone in my life. She has been waiting for me for five years in Afghanistan. Now with F permit, I cannot leave Switzerland. It is very difficult for me, now I stay like that, I work a little to get B permit, then I will bring my girlfriend here, it's a bit … for me it's a bit difficult, because of that I didn't think about that

Legal status and the rights associated with a given permit have a substantial impact on aspiration formation. The issue is not only limited to the uncertainty and isolation experienced during asylum procedure but extends to the limitations attached to temporary admission permits (F). Its effect is intensified when combined with other demographic characteristics, mainly age, as many of them perceive themselves to be old for pursuing more demanding or longer educational paths. Additionally, for those who haven't seen their family for a long time, family reunification and the ability to travel abroad are often pressing needs that inhibit the process of aspiration formation, which often results in a substantial dampening of aspirations for those with F permits.

Integration policy with a focus on career guidance

Integration policy is highly focused on promoting access to apprenticeships. Career counselling starts as early as the arrival in the country. During the first year in Switzerland, refugees receive information about professional opportunities from caseworkers and French teachers in refugee centres. Both introduce them to vocational education training (VET) system and provide them with information about apprenticeships’ requirements and future career options. Most participants aspire to either start or complete an apprenticeship. The majority have a positive view of the VET system. They perceive it as a good opportunity to get a diploma in shorter period of time when compared to academic education, and a quicker way to achieve financial independence. The ones who showed no or less interest in apprenticeships belong to two categories. They were either above 30 and prefer to find a job right away instead of spending more time in training, or they started or completed a degree in their countries of origin, and therefore prefer to pursue the academic path or directly finding a job after recognising their degrees.

The conventional route to apprenticeship begins with short internships. This allows refugees to familiarise themselves with different professions. Interview data shows that most refugees were advised by their caseworkers to take up professions with relatively low skill content. Women are often directed towards elderly care jobs, while men towards logistics or other relatively low skill occupations.

Most participants were encouraged to consider short term trainings (less than a year) or apprenticeships in low skill occupations. I was able to observe two types of reactions to this implementation of integration policy. In a first scenario, participants accepted the guidance they received and felt it was appropriate for various reasons. First, they aspired to work in a similar field and the options available to them worked just well. For example, Sara always wanted to work in the health sector, therefore she is content about pursuing an apprenticeship as a health assistant. Second, available options mirrored similar tasks or functions they occupied in their home country. In the case of Faven, who is currently looking for an apprenticeship position in a retirement home, taking care of elderly people reminds her of her taking care of her grandparents. Third, available options are perceived to be a reasonable choice because participants believe they don’t possess the language skills to pursue higher aspirations or because they were made to understand by their teachers, caseworkers, and friends that other options were more difficult to pursue. As a result, the profession they were invited to consider was not their first choice, but ‘realism’ convinced them otherwise. Petros, is currently looking for an apprenticeship in logistics because he believes it is easier than other options such as accounting, for example. In his home country, he completed a training as accountant and worked for four years in his field. However, his perception of his own French skills and the specificities of accounting in Switzerland made him reconsider his first choice. Similarly, Marjani worked for three years in a day-care in her country of origin but upon the suggestion of her caseworker, she is now considering the option of working in a retirement home as a health assistant:

I am looking for an apprenticeship in a day-care, it is a bit difficult. My caseworker suggested I consider the job of health assistant in a retirement home. Well, I tried but it was difficult, I prefer to find something in a day-care. But if this doesn’t work then it is not a problem for me to go for health assistant even though it is difficult

In a second scenario, some participants had a different reaction as they felt the profession, they were invited to consider did not match their aspirations at all. Farid wanted to become an electrician. At the beginning his teacher was not convinced with his choice because she thought he doesn’t have the skills needed to succeed, she suggested he tries another job such as carpenter. Nevertheless, Farid persisted in his choice and despite the difficulties he faced, he is now completing an apprenticeship as an electrician and happy about his choice. A similar story was shared a few times. For example, Nadia said:

I never in my life thought about working in sales. One day my teacher asked me would you like to try the job of a salesperson in retail? I answered no never. Then almost everyone in my class went to work in a retail store except me. My teacher asked me again, I persisted. I said no because I always thought that the job of a salesperson is nothing. In my country it is like this. if you are a salesperson, it means you have nothing, you don't have a job. What I want is to do is work in the health sector, I tried several times to find an internship as a pharmacy assistant or something similar, but it never worked

Interview data confirms that the overall orientation of integration policy is to favour educational options that assure quick labour market access. Within the sample, refugees are often advised to go for low skill occupations (i.e. Health assistant in retirement homes, warehouse). This approach suits many participants, who are eager to quickly attain financial independence, and start some kind of ‘normal’ life for various factors such as age, family situation, or the perception they often have of lacking skills and qualifications to pursue more demanding educational paths. However, not all of them are content with this approach. A few participants resisted the guidance they received and managed to develop an alternative plan more in line with their own aspirations.

Access to higher education and degree recognition

Out of 29 participants, only five showed direct interest in academic studies. The rest expressed no intention in going to university for several reasons. First, participants perceive admission into university to be difficult and highly demanding. It requires high investment in time and money, which doesn’t go well with many participants’ desire to be financially independent as quick as possible. Second, age is perceived as an obstacle, and many believe they were too old to go to university. Finally, academic studies require some stability and clarity of mind, which many are still struggling to find.

In contrast to apprenticeships, most participants report having received no information about academic studies from their caseworkers. Aspiring to go to university is not an easy task for refugees as they must negotiate with their caseworkers and explain the relevance of such choices to their future career. Ahmet who worked for several years as a judge in his home country shares his experience convincing his caseworker to back up his academic ambitions:

It was a bit difficult, I think this is a new path for them [Caseworkers] because there is a need for a budget to send refugees to university, or there is a system for example you reach level B1 [in French] and then you find a job, something like this … But I told them, if you want I can continue my education because I have a very big background from Turkey, if you want I can do it like that and I can be more beneficial for Switzerland and they accepted

Many participants may not have the negotiation skills or the experience of Ahmet to back up their academic ambitions. They report being discouraged to pursue such aspirations despite their high motivation. The reason given to them was that they don’t fulfil the requirements to go to university. As an alternative, they were advised to go for an apprenticeship. Nadia explains her situation:

When I first came to Switzerland, I was thinking that it is like Iran, once you finish high school you go to university. I tried to speak to my teachers about going to university, but they told me that it is difficult and that I don’t have the skills to go there. I tried several times, but it didn’t work

Others were discouraged because they couldn’t afford the fees required by universities for degree recognition and bridge years. Taim, started a degree in Telecommunications in another country. In Switzerland, he first aspired to go to university and complete his degree, but everything was so complicated for him. Now he is doing an apprenticeship in logistics:

In fact, I studied one year in telecommunications so when I asked if there was an office in Lausanne to continue university, they told me my certificate is not recognized in Switzerland and if I have to study the same thing, I have to start everything from zero in addition to a bridge year. When I looked into that with my caseworker, it was not covered, and I had to pay myself almost 1400 Francs

For participants who managed to go to university, one is pursuing a master’s degree in information technology and four are participating in a one-year preparatory course⁴ offered in another canton. The five participants had either completed or started university in their countries of origin. Pursuing the academic path was initiated by the participants themselves and the process was not always a smooth one. For Omer who holds a master’s degree in economics from Turkey and who worked as a researcher for several years in a Turkish university before coming to Switzerland, going to university was not his first choice. He first aspired to find a suitable job. After trying a couple of options suggested by his social worker, he decided it was best for him to continue his studies. He first tried to enrol in a PhD programme but the requirement of providing recommendation letters presented a huge obstacle. He explains:

I applied to a graduate program in economics in another canton, but they usually ask for recommendation letters from past professors. For refugees they are already politically discriminated in their countries, nobody wants to recommend you, that is for most a very stupid and very dangerous situation for you. I ended up asking a friend to recommend me, but I got rejected anyways

He then applied for a master’s programme in another university and managed to get admission with the condition of completing a bridge year. He shares his experience with the admission process:

I was lucky because my degree was in English, I also had a second diploma from a US institution which is probably why it was easier for me in Switzerland, but I know for many refugees, it can be extremely difficult. My current university didn’t ask for recommendation letters. In that regard, the application process was easier. However, it was a regular application process, in the sense that there was no quota or facility for refugees as I heard it is the case in other countries

Admission requirements present huge obstacles to refugees. Another participant was less lucky than Omer as she didn’t have her documents with her. For Aya who studied economics for two years in a Syrian university but quit because of war, going to university was her aspiration. Nevertheless, when she tried to apply, she was hit with a wall.

I applied for three universities; I got rejected in all of them. Two were ok, but there is this one university that incapacitated me really. In that university I tried for two years straight, but they closed all the doors. It was shocking

Aya enrolled in an institute for French language and culture and is now attending a one-year preparatory course in another university. She aspires to complete a degree in translation and work for an international organisation. If her plan doesn’t work, she is open to go for apprenticeship as a florist.

It seems that aspiring to study in university is not an easy ride for refugees. They are left by themselves to navigate university requirements and deal with conditions that can feel incapacitating. For people already burdened by the experience of war and persecution, aspiring to study in university is a process that requires a lot of patience and strength that many may lack.

Discussion and conclusion

This study explored how refugees perceived the role the policy dense environment they live in had on their aspirations’ formation, and to what extent this promoted certain educational and occupational paths while hindering others. Findings show that three policies, namely asylum policy, integration policy and education policy with a focus on university access and degrees recognition, have substantial impact on the process of aspirations formation among refugees. These three policies combined contribute into creating what I refer to in this paper as ‘low ambition equilibrium’. This means that the overall system requirement to limit public expenses colluded with the desire of most refugees to quickly attain financial independence, results in creating an environment that promotes less ambitious educational and occupational aspirations and perpetuates similar integration paths.

As shown in this paper, asylum policy affects refugee aspirations in two ways. First, the longer it takes the more uncertainty asylum procedure creates which makes it difficult for refugees to form clear educational and occupational aspirations. This often contributes into limiting their language skills and shrinking their social network to other refugees, resulting in reproducing similar aspirations and integration trajectories such as finding a job as soon as possible or working in particular professions perceived as more accessible (e.g. health assistant, logistics). Second, for temporary permit holders, the uncertainty attached to legal status extends beyond the asylum procedure. This reflects on their aspirations, as their focus is on those trajectories that assure quicker financial independence and therefore, allowing them to upgrade their legal status to a more stable one. For many, this motivation is often rooted in the desire for many to reunite with their families, they haven’t seen for years. In this situation, they tend to sacrifice high educational aspirations especially academic ones to opt for the easiest and most available option, usually a low skill job to break free from the restrictions of their permit.

When it comes to integration policy, data shows that there is a high emphasis on apprenticeships and quick labour market integration. Within the sample, low skill occupations and apprenticeships are favoured. During their first years in Switzerland, participants lacked information and language skills to navigate the educational and occupational system in the country. In addition to their social networks, their educational and occupational choices have also been shaped by their interactions with caseworkers and teachers who highly focus on promoting apprenticeships and short-term trainings. Therefore, creating an environment geared towards ‘aspirations cooling’ (e.g. Lems 2020; Schnell and Fibbi 2016). I further show in this article, that certain education paths are not even presented or discussed as possible alternatives.

Indeed, when it comes to university access, the majority report having received no information about this possibility. For those who managed to enrol in an academic programme, the path was filled with frustration due to long and complicated procedures they had to navigate alone with little or no support. Interestingly and in contrast to previous research, I didn’t find that many refugees have high aspirations to go to university (Grüttner et al. 2018; Morrice et al. 2020; Schneider 2018; Shakya et al. 2012). In addition to the difficulties above, this can be explained by several factors, mainly legal status, as many of these studies were conducted with resettled refugees (e.g. Morrice et al. 2020; Shakya et al. 2012) who hadn’t been through asylum procedure. The focus on one group of refugees such as Syrians (e.g. Borselli and van Meijl 2021; Schneider 2018), youth (e.g. Morrice et al. 2020) or High skilled (e.g. Mozetič 2021). The number of years spent in host society as some of these studies were conducted with refugees who spent less than one year in the receiving country (e.g. Borselli and van Meijl 2021) which for many, is a short time to develop a clear understanding of the educational system and the opportunities available to them. Finally, the differences in the education system may have played an important role in explaining these results. Most studies on refugee aspirations were conducted in Canada, Australia, and the UK. In these countries, the path to labour market integration is usually paved by university, which explains relatively well the high aspirations to go to university. The Swiss education system is characterised by its permeability and dual vocational educational training (VET) system. The latter offers a variety of tracks, and training takes place both in both a training company and school. Therefore, assuring quicker access to the labour market. Additionally, and as shown in this article, Swiss integration policy is highly emphasised on promoting educational and occupational paths, that would allow refugees to ‘quickly integrate’ into the labour market, and higher may not be perceived quick enough.

While the 'policy-dense' environment has played an important role in influencing their aspirations and informing their educational and occupational choices, their personal characteristics have also contributed in the extent to which they challenged the general orientations of these policies especially integration policy. Here, I refer mainly to family situation and previous qualifications. The more stable their personal situation was and more educated they were, they more negotiation power they had to influence their social workers, suggest alternative plans, and navigate the complexities of a ‘policy-dense’ environment as shown in the cases of Ahmet and Omer.

However, and overall, few participants have shown resistance to the options offered to them, the majority displays a tendency to adapt to the impediments of their situation by aligning their aspirations to the limitations of both their environment and personal situation. Seeking quick financial independence and starting a ‘normal life’ seems to be the main aspiration for many, at least for now.

To sum, the interplay of the three policies discussed in this paper with the personal situation of refugees, creates a situation where refugees and policy meet at what I call ‘low ambition equilibrium’. On one hand, these policies create an environment where the quickest and most accessible integration trajectories are promoted to reduce refugees’ dependence on the welfare. On the other hand, the experience of forced migration combined with a policy dense environment create a lot of uncertainty in the life of refugees and an urgency to find a lost ‘normality’. A ‘normality’ where they are financially independent, reunited with their families, and capable of expressing themselves fluently in the local language. Finding this lost stability may occur at the expense of their educational and professional aspirations. While apparently a convenient option for the two parts, I expect that ‘low ambition equilibrium’ results in a loss of human capital and the reinforcement of existing inequality.

Finally, as interviewees have been living in Switzerland for less than 10 years, it is unclear whether the effects of this ‘low ambition equilibrium’ would subside once they reach financial independence. Additionally, as I conceptualise aspirations to be dynamic and reflecting both individuals’ goals and those of their environment. Acquiring more resources and ‘stability’ may allow them to be less ‘monitored’ and therefore escape the effects of this ‘low ambition equilibrium’. Unfortunately, my current data doesn’t allow me to verify this.

Acknowledgements

I immensely thank Giuliano Bonoli for his precious comments and guidance which were of tremendous help in the processes of data collection, data analysis and writing of this paper. I am also grateful to the comments and constant support I received from the members of the GOVPET project namely, Justin J.W. Powell, Patrick Emmenegger, Marius R. Busemeyer, Cathie Jo Martin, Lina Seitzl and Annatina Aerne. I am also grateful to the members of the NCCR on the move namely, Flavia Fossati and Katrin Sontag for their feedbacks and comments on the paper.

Disclosure statement

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

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Swiss state secretariat for Research and Innovation as part of the leading House GOVPET.

Notes

1 Except for changing cantons.

2 Except Turkish refugees (5 participants) who have been in the country for two years at the time of the interview. They were included in the sample because their asylum procedure was very short compared to other participants. For Turkish participants it took them between 2 and 6 months to receive a permit (in all cases refugee status). Therefore, they could quickly participate in integration programmes. At the time of the interview, they have had access to such programmes for more than a year.

3 Questions on transit countries were asked to participants who lived for more than six months in these –countries.

4 In this one-year programme, participants take courses exams and receive virtual ECTS credits. This will allow them to ‘save time’ and get ahead in their future studies.