Navigating Barriers to Higher Education: Housing, Family Responsibilities, and Social Networks among Young Women from Refugee Backgrounds in Canada

Sonja van der Putten

doi:10.53103/cjess.v6i5.548

Authors

Sonja van der Putten Simon Fraser University, Canada

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.53103/cjess.v6i5.548

Keywords:

Education, Refugees, Women, Barriers, Aspirations

Abstract

This study aimed to explore the educational and career goals of young adult women from refugee backgrounds in Canada. This paper aims to examine how responsibilities related to gender may create barriers for these young women in pursuing their higher educational goals in Canada. This study was conducted using qualitative methods rooted in constructivist principles. Through an inductive process, data were collected through 18 interviews and four focus groups with 17 participants, which were then thematically analyzed. The study determined three main barriers to why young adult women from refugee backgrounds might not pursue higher education. First, access to safe and affordable housing is significantly influenced by gender and that the denial of this right place’s women from refugee backgrounds in a position of heightened precarity and instability, negatively impacting their ability to pursue other life goals. The study also found that specific gender-based familial responsibilities can also impact the time and resources women have to pursue their personal goals. Thirdly, the study found that having minimal social networks in their new communities, limited the support they could access and negatively impacted the pursuit of their life goals.

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