From Marginalization to (Dis)Empowerment

Organizing Training and Employment Services for Refugees

Bibliographic Data

ID9891065
AuthorsFrances Tomlinson (Centre for Equality Research in Business at the Business School, University of North London, corresponding author), Sue Egan (Centre for Equality Research in Business at the Business School, University of North London, corresponding author)
Year2002
Volume55
Issue8
Pages1019-1043
Publication date2002-08-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueHuman Relations (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0018-7267 • E-ISSN: 1741-282X
PublisherSAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/0018726702055008182
OpenAlexW2120315201
LanguageEN
Citations received44
References cited22

Although many UK-based refugees have professional qualifications and experience, they experience high unemployment. This article draws on a study of organizations providing employment-related services to refugees. It explores the discourses and narratives of the providers and refugee users of these services in relation to contrasting constructions of refugee identity. Both the official discourse of refugee resettlement and providers’ accounts emphasize the idea of ‘empowerment’, reflected also in refugee participants’ presentation of themselves as active subjects. But, in an environment characterized as largely unfriendly to refugees, enacting such an identity is difficult. Empowerment has become increasingly associated with refugee participation, self-help and the involvement of refugee community organizations. However, the association of ‘community’ with a position on the margins may serve to reinforce refugees’ outsider status. The question is raised, for both individual refugees and refugee organizations, of the possibility and desirability of choosing not to perpetuate a separate refugee identity

Business · Empowerment · Identity (music · Political science · Position (finance · Public relations · Refugee · Sociology · Education and experiences of immigrants and refugees · Gender Studies · Law · Migration, Health and Trauma · Migration, Refugees, and Integration

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