Young adult refugees and asylum seekers: Making transitions into adulthood Gudbjorg Ottosdottir PhD and Maja Loncar MA Since the 1990 s there has been an upsurge in research interest in children and youth. More recently attention has been brought to young adulthood, individuals who are on the cusp of childhood and adulthood and in a critical stage in their development, making the transition from childhood to adulthood. Definitions of young adulthood and those who fit within tend to be based on age chronology of age but are also shaped by socio-cultural understandings and what events in young adult s lives are considered to be key markers between childhood and adulthood (Langevang, 2008)). Studies focus in particular on the pathways that young adults take in entering adulthood, seeking to understand the influence that socio-cultural values and traditions, socio-economic and political factors have on young adults transitions into adulthood. Research highlights the influence of expected events, such as becoming financially independent, entering the labour market, starting independent living, forming families and completing higher education (Arnett, 2014; Valentine, 2003). Unexpected events do also influence transitions into adulthood and may hurry or delay expected events and result in shifts in roles and responsibilities of young adults. Unexpected events include for instance such events as sudden death or illness in families, parental unemployment and poverty, parental divorce and even forced migration which cause unexpected difficulties in family lives which may affect young adults transitions into their adult lifes. How young adults perceive and negotiate adverse situations in their lives is however of importance. Christiansen, Utas, and Vigh (2006) refer to young people navigating their social becoming within challenging situations in their lives, be they family, socioeconomic, sociocultural and political situations. In so doing they draw on what is available to them in families, communities and what is made available to them in rights and entitlements by policy and services. The transition of young adults who are asylum seekers and refugees is a relatively under researched area. The limited available research suggests that migrant status does have great implications on young adults opportunities in making successful transitions into adulthood. Young adults often lack the necessary entitlements and are required to go through prolonged periods with limited rights to participation in education and employment which subsequently may delay them in transitioning into events they expect (The Children's Society, 2012). 1
For instance, migrant status and limited entitlements for prolonged periods requires young adults in the UK who are asylum seekers and refugees to postpone or delay events such as higher education because of high university fees required for citizens from outside the EU. Yet research also highlights their resilience as they continue to hold onto their educational and employment aspirations for sustained periods despite prolonged adversity in their lives as migrants with limited entitlements (Hopkins & Hill, 2010). In this paper we seek to add to the limited existing research on the transitions of young adults of asylum seeking and refugee background to adulthood, highlighting the influence that legal status and settlement have on their transitions into adulthood, with a particular focus on their experiences with higher education. We draw on our own research, two qualitative research projects, one in the UK and the other in Iceland on young adults aged 16 to 26. The study in the UK involved semi-structured interviews with four young adults aged 16 to 25 (one male and three females) who lived with single mothers living with disabilities, were asylum seekers or had been in the past been asylum seekers. This study was part of a larger PhD qualitative research project in 2010-2015 on the experiences of 28 adult disabled asylum seekers and refugees and their adult and children kin and non-kin carers with disability and care in the South-East of England. The study in Iceland is a MA study conducted in 2015-2016 on young adult s experiences of settling in Iceland in view of their expectations and hopes for the future. Six semi-structured interviews were held with six young adults aged 16 to 26 (two males and four women) who were or had been asylum seekers in the past, lived alone or in households with parents or non-kin others. In both research projects the interview data was analysed by using an inductive coding technique that analysed further themes and subthemes drawn on from concepts and ideas in the literature. Pseudonyms related to the young adults identities are used throughout the paper The analysis of data from both projects indicate that young adults aspired to finish higher education and entering high salary careers as part of their expected transitions and expectations of adulthood. For participants in the UK who held significant caring responsibilities for disabled parents in a particularly poor material context linked with parent s low income and limited support, these aspirations included their hopes to provide and continue to support their parents. They held significant financial, emotional and physical caring responsibilities of their parents. They described how significant caring responsibilities required them to balance these with their own needs and responsibilities, such as their role and needs to attend university education. One of the participants, Susan, aged 25, from a sub- 2
Saharan country in Africa on a residence permit with limited entitlements described how due to her holding limited legal entitlements she faced the prospect of dropping out of university education in order to be able to financially support herself and the family and to safe up funds for her university education in the future. Because of her limited LR status she did not qualify for lower university fees until she had gained a full residence permit (ILR) after having been ten years in the UK on consequent limited permits. Susan explained: I will probably be near 30 years old then you know. I mean I want to do my education now! Unfortunately it is not going to work for me so I am hoping to get a good job that pays me well so that I can put myself through school and support my family. This comment explains the legal barriers she faced but also demonstrates that she had made plans despite her situation to make it possible for her to achieve her goal of finishing higher education. Participants in Iceland similarly described their legal status affecting their aspirations to higher education. In their case their limited entitlements to student financial loans linked to their migrant status meant that they could ill afford to attend university which required those to whom this situation applied to, to work beside attending university. Some had dropped out of education due to financial hardships. Beta, aged 21 to 23 from a country in the Middle East who had arrived as a quota refugee to Iceland few years back, stated that she experienced that young adults who were migrants did not have same education opportunities as their Icelandic peers and felt that there was a great need for the Icelandic government to amend the laws in order to prevent this. She stated: Maybe for people like me who arrived here as quota refugees, we do have aspirations to continue to educate ourself at university. It would be better if we had rights to student loans despite being refugees and not yet citizens so that we can just keep our focus on our studies. Participants in the Icelandic project also described experiencing the Icelandic language as a significant barrier in completing higher education because of their lack of competence in the language but also due to their perceived limited available formal support in university. Isabella, aged 25 from a country in South America described how she experienced the language barrier as hindering her university education: 3
For me it has been so difficult because of the language. So I don t feel confident if I m going to university now to do a bachelor program because the university does not offer programs in English. I understand, we are in Iceland and we must learn the language but sometimes it s a little bit, yes if you don t learn Icelandic then! (referring to the perceived public attitude that migrants must learn Icelandic). It is a wall in front of you and Icelandic is hard language, it s difficult to learn. The experience of language as a significant wall in a pathway to reach their milestone of finishing higher education was particularly noticeable amongst the participants in the Icelandic project. In the UK project all but one participant was from English speaking countries and the fourth participant had learned English over the course of her ten years in the UK. Our analysis indicates that all of the participants in the Icelandic study had experienced great difficulties getting their prior university education evaluated, partly because of being unable to access papers from their home country but also because of their education not meeting Icelandic requirements and standards. The additive nature of barriers experienced in regards to higher education contributed to feelings of frustration amongst all of the participants. Our analysis reveals that most of the participants in the UK and Iceland held family responsibilities which conflicted with their own needs and responsibilities. For instance, the role of holding significant caring responsibilities towards parents amongst the UK participants appeared to affect their time to study and socialising with friends but legal status was also found to intersect with this process. For example, Charlotte, aged 21, from a sub-saharan country in Africa felt that her legal status had negatively affected her transition into higher education back when she and her family were on limited residence permits. When she didn t have a full residence permit she couldn t afford the higher fees required for students from countries outside of EU: I couldn t go to school for two years because I did not have a residence permit and so I couldn t afford to go and also I was just working and working at home. 4
Charlotte considered that her caring responsibilities had also continued in her life now that her mother was receiving formal support and her family s legal situation had resolved, providing distant caring to her mother in the form of emotional care, but also driving home on weekends to attend to responsibilities at home. Although she felt happy to provide her mother and siblings with support she also struggled with balancing those responsibilities with her education needs and needs to spend time with friends. Despite that caring responsibilities continued for prolonged periods in the lives of the all of the UK participants they continued however to hold onto their aspirations of adulthood. They negotiated the challenges they faced by drawing on available resources, such as making plans as evident in Susan s account above. Making plans and drawing on personal resilience was evident in Filad s account. Filad, aged 20 from a country Northern Africa stated that she planned to attend university in another city and planned to find accommodation where she could live with her baby and her mother while attending university: If I get a place, I need to sort out accommodation first before I start so that I can just live there and yes and then I want to study nursing, to become a health visitor. I want to become a health visitor, because I want a better life for me and my child and for my mum, I want to look after my mum. Maybe later on I could actually pay a carer to look after her because I won t be able to do everything myself. Filad s account highlights her plan to attend university which also included a plan to care for her mother and young baby. John aged 16 also from a sub-saharan country in Africa had similar plans that included caring, aspiring to find a high earning job after finishing a university degree so that he could provide for his mother and finance care services for her. He explained: In the future I would like to hire someone that I could pay to look after my mum so that it gives you a bit of freedom even though I am also still there. So I can have my own engineering company to make money to [for] my mum and my sister and give my mum medical support. They can be looked after and I could sleep comfortably at night knowing she is in good hands. The analysis of the Icelandic participants interviews it was also evident that they too had aspirations which included continuing family responsibilities. Significant responsibilities 5
required participants to try balance those with their own needs. For instance, Amina, aged 18 to 20 from a country in Eastern Africa and a refugee was in the process of applying to sponsor her mother to Iceland which required her to show the authorities that she had sufficient income to sponsor her mother. Amina who now had a residence permit and was in university described how she expected to have to postpone her education in order to work and earn enough money to bring her mother to Iceland. She experienced the prospect of having to postpone her education however as quite emotionally difficult because of how important education was to her: I m working to get my mom now here. It is very hard because I am working on getting her here for more than one year through the Redcross and the immigration authorities. The things that I am required to do is very hard for me to do. Now I have to quit my school because they need me to get housing so I can show that I have housing for me and my mum. They also need me to show that I am working full time and have a salary that can provide for me and my mum and so now I am have to quit my school to do that. [ ]I am trying and working on it and doing my best though. To have to quit the school is the most sad thing for me. I am saying that it is hard for me because when I quit my education I feel like I lost my future way. But I have too. Young adults in both studies referred to their resilience gained with coping with adversity in their lives and hopes for a good future in coping with hindrances in their current lives. They continued to hold onto their aspirations for education and well paid careers despite the difficult situations they found themselves in. Amina in Iceland for instance stated she aspired to attend higher education despite of foreseeing that it would be difficult because it was important to her to secure a bright future for her and her future children: I just want to have a good future, to complete my education, learn about the country and learn other things. First things in my future I want to focus on finish my secondary school and then attend university. For example if I want to have children I know that it would be much better for them the quality of life here then in my homecountry.because here is quiet and peaceful and many oppurtunities for education I hope I can continue and finish my education and look after myself and my future children. 6
In summary, the findings indicate that young adults with an asylum seeking and refugee background face diverse challenges in fulfilling their aspirations to higher education and careers due to their migrant status and limited entitlements. The findings indicate however that participants were quite resilient despite the challenges they faced and held onto their dreams and aspirations, making plans to fulfil them which often included their roles and responsibilities in their families. Few studies to date have explored the specific transitional experiences of young adults who are asylum seekers and refugees. A key finding in both research projects discussed in this paper is the significant impact that migrant status and associated legal entitlements and settlement needs have on lives of young adults who are asylum seekers and refugees. The findings suggest that young adults from an asylum seeking and refugee background do in fact not experience equal opportunities to making successful transitions into adulthood compared to their peers in countries of settlement and suggest a need for asylum and welfare policy to engage with the specific needs for support that this group has. References Arnett, J. J. (2014). Presidential address: The emergence of emerging adulthood: A personal history. Emerging Adulthood, 2(3), 155-163. Christiansen, C., Utas, M., & Vigh, H. (2006). Youth e(scapes): Introduction. In C. Christiansen, M. Utas. & H. Vigh (Eds.), Navigating Youth Generating Adulthood: Social Becoming in an African Context (pp. 9-28). Uppsala: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet. Hopkins, P., & Hill, M. (2010). The Needs and Strengths of Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Young People in Scotland. Child and Family Social Work, 15(4), 1-10. Langevang, T. (2008). We are managing! Uncertain paths to respectable adulthoods in Accra, Ghana. Geoforum, 39(1), 2039-2047. The Children's Society. (2012). I don't feel human: The experiences of destitution among young refugees and migrants. Retrieved 28 February, 2014, from http://www.childrenssociety.org.uk/sites/default/files/tcs/research_docs/thechildrensso ciety_idontfeelhuman_final.pdf Valentine, G. (2003). Boundary Crossings: transitions from childhood to adulthood. Children s Geographies, 1(1), 37-52. 7