A Multimodal Ethnographic Approach: Exploring the Social and Educational Experience of Young Refugees and Asylum-Seekers

• Published in: Education for Refugees and Forced (Im)Migrants Across Time and Context Vol. 45; pp. 213 - 231
• Main Authors: Gabrielli, Mara, Rovira, Jordi Pàmies
• Format: Book Chapter
• Language: English
• Published: Emerald Publishing Limited 09.08.2023
• Subjects: Education; Education & society; Global & comparative education; matrix of domination; multimodal ethnographic methods; socio-educational pathways; resilience; Young refugees and asylum-seekers; politics of belonging
• ISBN: 1837534217; 9781837534210
• ISSN: 1479-3679
• DOI: 10.1108/S1479-367920230000045012

Abstract This study provides an in-depth understanding of the structural and contextual factors that foster or hinder the educational pathways and employment opportunities of young refugees and asylum-seekers in Catalonia (Spain), and how their expectations and aspirations vary and change before and after forced migration. The authors implemented a multimodal ethnographic methodology that explore, the potential of photography, to analyze how these young people, belonging to differentiated social locations – class, ethnicity, status, gender, and/or sexual orientation – have been exposed to similar systems of oppression. These systems function at their mutual intersection within a general matrix of domination. The vulnerability of asylum-seeker status is the main obstacle to social integration. However, these young people stand out for their great capacity for resilience and a strong desire to advance in education as a proactive response that helps them resist new “structural and contextual oppression” in the host society.