Widening University Access for Students of Asylum-Seeking Backgrounds: (Mis)recognition in an Australian Context

Dunwoodie, Karen; Kaukko, Mervi; Wilkinson, Jane; Reimer, Kristin; Webb, Susan E.

doi:10.1057/s41307-019-00176-8

Cited by 17 publications

(30 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…Our article contributes to this emerging body of research by exploring the opportunities, risks, obstacles and dilemmas encountered by asylum-seeking students in their quest to access and participate in Australian higher education. We build on findings from previous research which examined the experiences of such students in their first year of university (Dunwoodie et al 2020 ). We complement those findings with the same students’ experiences of their second year of higher education, which we investigated in a second wave of interviews for the same longitudinal study.…”

Section: The Research Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Recent research has shown that recognition of these difficult circumstances is not sufficiently taken into account by the Australian higher education sector (Dunwoodie et al 2020 ; Hartley et al 2018 ; Stevenson and Baker 2018 ). The distinct needs of people from refugee and asylum-seeking backgrounds are not always fully understood by everyone involved, despite an increasing number of Australian universities offering scholarships to students from these backgrounds (see, for example, Deakin CREATE 2020 ), drawing usually on alumni or other financial sources, rather than federal government funding.…”

Section: Literature Review: Refugees and Higher Educationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In our first-wave analysis of the experiences of 22 refugee and asylum-seeking students in their first year of Australian university (Dunwoodie et al 2020 ) when we embarked on our longitudinal enquiry, we drew on Axel Honneth and Nancy Fraser’s concepts of recognition .…”

Section: Theoretical Background: Thinking About the Student Experience Through Concepts Of Recognitionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Recognition and precarious mobilities: The experiences of university students from a refugee background in Australia

et al. 2021

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This article employs the concepts of recognition and precarious mobilities to understand university education for people from a refugee background. The authors draw on their ongoing qualitative longitudinal narrative enquiry exploring the experiences of 22 students in Australia from asylum-seeking backgrounds during their three-year study for a Bachelor’s degree. Theories of recognition informed by the work of Axel Honneth and Nancy Fraser provide a conceptual framework for analysing the students’ experiences in navigating government and institutional policies and practices which often fail to recognise the unique needs of this distinct group. Few higher education institutions fully acknowledge the educational capital and transnational understandings that students from refugee backgrounds develop through navigating precarious mobilities. Instead of receiving recognition for these assets, such students often feel they do not belong in higher education in the host society. Thus, belonging, an essential component in supporting their success in higher education and settlement, is undermined. To appreciate how university practices are informing student experiences, the authors explore two competing discourses: “the education of international students is Australia’s third-largest export” on the one hand, and “higher education should be made available to all who can benefit from it” on the other.

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Section: The Research Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Literature Review: Refugees and Higher Educationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Theoretical Background: Thinking About the Student Experience Through Concepts Of Recognitionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Recognition and precarious mobilities: The experiences of university students from a refugee background in Australia

et al. 2021

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“…Fraser argued that recognition and misrecognition are not limited to personal relationships but are very much rooted in the institutions and structures of societies (Fraser, 2000; Thompson, 2006). Fraser (2000), Thompson (2006) and Dunwoodie, Kaukko, Wilkinson, Reimer and Webb (2020), among many others, placed recognition in a combined structural and personal dimension. The theory of recognition as applied in this study agrees with this view.…”

Section: Recognition Theorymentioning

confidence: 99%

Recognition in the lives of unaccompanied children and youth: A review of the key European literature

Kauhanen

Kaukko

2020

Child & Family Social Work

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This integrative literature review studies well-being of unaccompanied asylumseeking children through the three modes of recognition-love, rights and solidarityas conceptualized by Axel Honneth. The analysis shows that the children's basic needs, such as safety, shelter and nutrition, are mostly recognized; however, the systems responsible for the care of unaccompanied children seem to misidentify other essential needs, such as the need for stability, need for caring, family-like relationships and the need to be heard and seen as unique persons. We suggest that more research is needed to explore how recognition is displayed in the range of institutional, social and cultural structures in which unaccompanied children live. Furthermore, we call for research on how recognition is experienced by the children and youth themselves. It is also argued that practitioners and policy-makers in social work should be educated about the elements of recognition and that their practices and policies should prioritize the rights and needs of the child over questions of age or immigration status.

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“…Being an asylum seeker requires managing multiple overlapping and contradicting expectations, simultaneously. Not only are the circumstances of departing one's country of origin challenging, possibly inhumane and traumatising, the host country presents its own challenges: the access to asylum is increasingly difficult and possibly unfair (Hambly & Gill 2020), access to the national health systems is complicated (Tuomisto et al 2019) and the right to education and employment may be denied (Dunwoodie et al 2020;Lambrechts 2020). Moreover, media, public discussion and political discourses tend to present asylum seekers negatively as threats or a burden to the receiving societies, or alternatively, as victims (Smets et al 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

How to be a ‘Good Asylum Seeker’? The Subjectification of Young Men Seeking Asylum

Petäjäniemi

Lanas

Kaukko

2021

Nordic Journal of Migration Research

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This research focuses on the subjectification of young asylum-seeking men. By subjectification, we mean the effort an individual invests in detecting, negotiating, meeting and contesting the surrounding discursive expectations. The underlying question is: if someone wants to fulfil the position ascribed to them, that is be a 'good asylum seeker' and respond to the surrounding demands as much as possible, what would then, in fact, be a 'good asylum seeker'? The data consists of interviews and ethnographic hanging out with nine young asylum-seeking men throughout their asylum process. Based on their reflections on the discourses of the surrounding society, a 'good asylum seeker' is patient, active, positive and grateful; he normalises racism he faces and accepts prejudice towards himself. A 'good asylum seeker' also accepts the position of a less worthy human being, acknowledging that in an ideal situation he would be entirely away, out of sight or in another subject position. Our findings showcase the sheer impossibility of successfully filling the asylum seeker subject position, as the requirements are contradictory and unrealistic. Paradoxically, it could be said that a 'good asylum seeker' is no longer an asylum seeker.

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Widening University Access for Students of Asylum-Seeking Backgrounds: (Mis)recognition in an Australian Context

Cited by 17 publications

References 21 publications

Recognition and precarious mobilities: The experiences of university students from a refugee background in Australia

Recognition and precarious mobilities: The experiences of university students from a refugee background in Australia

Recognition in the lives of unaccompanied children and youth: A review of the key European literature

How to be a ‘Good Asylum Seeker’? The Subjectification of Young Men Seeking Asylum

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