Youth aspirations in Kakuma Refugee Camp

Education as a means for social, spatial, and economic (im)mobility

Bibliographic Data

ID12726018
AuthorsMichelle Bellino (0000-0001-5843-0001, University of Michigan, corresponding author)
Year2018
Volume16
Issue4
Pages541-556
Publication date2018-08-08
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueGlobalisation Societies and Education (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1476-7724 • E-ISSN: 1476-7732
PublisherTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/14767724.2018.1512049
OpenAlexW2888065223
LanguageEN
Citations received23
References cited35

This study documents the aspirations and apprehensions of youth as they complete secondary schooling in Kakuma Refugee Camp. Navigating contradictory discourses about the value of education, school-leavers approach postsecondary opportunities with attention to social status hierarchies, economic viability, and collective expectations for nation-building goals. This work contributes to understandings of formal education interacting with culturally bounded expectations for normative adulthood, examining how youth respond when they are unable to adhere to a linear trajectory of success. I argue that foregrounding democratic purposes of schooling in exile can expand conceptions of nation-building and successful adulthood, opening and de-stigmatizing multiple future pathways

Democracy · Foregrounding · Normative · Political science · Politics · Refugee · Social mobility · Social science · Sociology · Value (mathematics · Education and experiences of immigrants and refugees · Gender Studies · Migration, Health and Trauma · Migration, Refugees, and Integration