Journeys into higher education: the case of refugees in the UK

Abstract

Higher education (HE) is one of the routes that refugees who come to the UK from professional and highly educated backgrounds can re-establish their lives and professional identities. This research follows up a group of such refugees who were on a programme designed to support refugees gain access to HE or appropriate employment. The findings highlight the challenges facing the group over the three-year period since the course finished, and the long and often complicated journey into HE. The paper uses Bourdieu's concepts of field, capital and habitus to theorise the experiences of the refugees. It is suggested that an understanding of HE and the UK employment market as cultural fields enables a shift of focus away from refugees as ‘deficient’ and instead encourages reflection upon what these fields fail to give value to or recognise.