TY - JOUR
T1 - Forming the capacity to aspire
T2 - Young refugees’ narratives of family migration and wellbeing
AU - Vitus, Kathrine
PY - 2022
Y1 - 2022
N2 - Proposing that the capacity to aspire is a critical component of young people’s wellbeing, this article explores how three young people with refugee backgrounds envision their future, by narratively linking it with their family migration (hi)story and their present life. The analysis draws on student interviews conducted during a 2012–2013 study of Danish upper secondary students’ health and wellbeing in relation to their peers, school life and family life. The three young people’s narratives, entitled ‘aspiring to succeed’, ‘aspiring to heal’ and ‘stuck in (hi)story’, reflect how in different ways they relate past, present and future by drawing on various social, narrative and temporal resources, producing varying senses of agency and capacities to aspire. The young people’s desire to meet parental expectations and heal losses experienced in relation to flight and resettlement may be an aspirational resource or may create a costly pressure.
AB - Proposing that the capacity to aspire is a critical component of young people’s wellbeing, this article explores how three young people with refugee backgrounds envision their future, by narratively linking it with their family migration (hi)story and their present life. The analysis draws on student interviews conducted during a 2012–2013 study of Danish upper secondary students’ health and wellbeing in relation to their peers, school life and family life. The three young people’s narratives, entitled ‘aspiring to succeed’, ‘aspiring to heal’ and ‘stuck in (hi)story’, reflect how in different ways they relate past, present and future by drawing on various social, narrative and temporal resources, producing varying senses of agency and capacities to aspire. The young people’s desire to meet parental expectations and heal losses experienced in relation to flight and resettlement may be an aspirational resource or may create a costly pressure.
KW - Appadurai
KW - Refugee youth
KW - aspirations
KW - migration narratives
KW - wellbeing
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85100844282&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/13676261.2021.1886263
DO - 10.1080/13676261.2021.1886263
M3 - Journal article
SN - 1367-6261
VL - 25
SP - 400
EP - 415
JO - Journal of Youth Studies
JF - Journal of Youth Studies
IS - 3
ER -