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Abstract

This paper explores the experiences of new migrants in Australian higher education, based on interviews conducted across two regional university campuses in 2017. New migrants, particularly from refugee backgrounds, often have limited university access and face specific challenges throughout and beyond their university experiences. Under-representation has led to a focus on what new migrants lack, in particular their putative paucity of cultural capital required to navigate and succeed in higher education. It is institutions, however, which frequently lack the willingness or capacity to recognise various strengths and forms of capital possessed by ethnically diverse students. Adopting a critical race theory lens enables identification of those forms of student capital, along with the barriers that may prevent capital from being widely recognised within the academy and/or being fully realised for students in their navigation of work, study, and life. Specifically, this article examines the value of resistant, familial and linguistic capital. New migrant students face specific challenges when their cultural strengths meet institutional and broader structural barriers. It is critical for institutions that the diverse and complex perspectives of under-represented students be harnessed to increase the quality of learning for all students. Compositional diversity on campus is necessary but insufficient to promote deep learning and a positive student experience.

Keywords

New migrants higher education cultural capital student diversity critical race theory student equity

Introduction

In Australia, new migrant students from non-English speaking backgrounds (NESB) generally record proportionate access to, and achievement in, higher education (Department of Education and Training, 2017; Naylor et al., 2013; Norton, 2014). However, strong overall performance of the NESB group conceals significant variability. In particular, students from refugee backgrounds, including from African and Middle Eastern countries of origin, and Muslim migrants, often experience lower levels of university access (Australian Survey Research Group, 2011: 18), and subsequently lower employment outcomes (Colic-Peisker and Tilbury, 2007) as well as unconscious bias and racism on campus (Mangan and Winter, 2017). Employer bias is also often cited as a reason for the relatively poor graduate outcomes of some new migrant groups, along with perceived weaknesses in English language proficiency and a paucity of networks, connections and ‘social capital’ held by longer-term citizens.

Relatively low levels of access, success and outcomes have contributed to the development of deficit language, whereby new migrants are often perceived by those around them to be ‘lacking’ in strengths and possession of the cultural and social capital required for university success (Parliament of Victoria, 2018: 130). Such language may arise partly from an overemphasis on forms of capital outlined by the influential sociologist, Pierre Bourdieu. Bourdieu highlighted the importance of cultural and social capital to success within traditional university settings, and the way that capital serves to reinforce social inequity within the education system (Bourdieu, 1986). Students such as new migrants may lack the types of cultural capital symbolically legitimised by educational institutions and this absence can contribute to under-representation and marginalisation. However, new migrant groups also bring alternative strengths and cultural wealth to the university, which are arguably under-researched and understated. Although primarily articulated within a North American context, critical race theory provides useful language and tools to articulate and understand these diverse student strengths. Such understanding enables a shift from a deficit model to a more accurate appreciation of new migrant experiences on campus. More broadly, critical race theory can be used to help identify and address the institutional and cultural practices that inhibit the success of new migrants and other diverse groups on campus.

The paper begins by outlining how cultural capital is used to explain the under-representation and/or lower university success rates of some demographic groups. While useful in explaining systemic inequities, these notions of capital have often been interpreted as explaining individual deficits rather than the more systemic failures of institutions to acknowledge diverse student strengths. While some have argued that new migrants lack cultural or social capital, critical race theorists maintain that institutions are at fault for not recognising broader forms of student capital. Yosso (2005), among other scholars, has described alternative forms of capital possessed by minoritised students. Using Yosso’s (2005) framework of ‘community cultural wealth’, we examine ways that new migrant students from refugee backgrounds negotiate higher education in a context of institutional and systemic lack of recognition of their alternative capitals. The paper is based on an in-depth interview study of new migrant students, which asked questions about their motivations, experiences, challenges and perceived strengths within a regional university context. Interviewees possessed diverse strengths that assisted their study and experience. However, our findings also revealed that, due to structural and attitudinal reasons in the academy, many potential strengths of new migrant students remained unrealised. We examine the complexity of ways that alternative capitals (namely, resistant, familial and linguistic capital) may operate as a source of strength but also simultaneously as a disadvantage due to lack of recognition of that strength. Further, we argue that alternative capitals of students from refugee backgrounds, in distinct national contexts such as Australia, can further complicate the recognition and harnessing of alternatives to cultural capital.

Context: Forms of capital

Bourdieu’s conception of cultural capital has been widely used to explain inequities of access to, and success in, higher education (Levinson et al., 2014; Lin, 2001), using his explanations of how education reproduces inequality by limiting intergenerational mobility through the reinforcement of dominant power structures (Bourdieu, 1984; Bourdieu and Passeron, 1977). ‘Cultural capital’ refers to legitimised sets of knowledge and social dispositions that are transmitted through processes of socialisation, parental education, social and family networks, and other connections to privilege. Cultural capital may be embodied, for example in the way students dress, walk or speak; objectified; or institutionalised, for example through education qualifications (Bourdieu, 1986: 243). Pathways into and through the education system typically rely on the inheritance and possession of cultural capital and sensibilities, and the education system confers further cultural capital through the provision of formally recognised qualifications. In this way the education system both embodies and reifies privilege, providing access to opportunity that is denied to those who lack the requisite cultural capital to enter and succeed in higher education. The theory of capital thus partly seeks to explain how education contributes to continuing inequalities of power, particularly amongst different social and economic classes (cf. Mallman, 2017b).

Bourdieu’s primary concern was to explain structural class inequality and the way it is reproduced, but some interpretations of his theory have taken the notion of cultural capital uncritically and contributed to the normalisation of certain traits and qualities as inherently superior to others. As Yosso explains,

While Bourdieu’s work sought to provide a structural critique of social and cultural reproduction, his theory of cultural capital has been used to assert that some communities are culturally wealthy while others are culturally poor. This interpretation of Bourdieu exposes White, middle[-]class culture as the standard, and therefore all other forms and expressions of “culture” are judged in comparison to this “norm.” In other words, cultural capital is not just inherited or possessed by the middle class, but rather it refers to an accumulation of specific forms of knowledge, skills and abilities that are valued by privileged groups in society. (Yosso, 2005: 76)

When scholars and educators focus only on what ‘disadvantaged’ students lack, and how they might be provided access to these qualities and traits of privilege, they can inadvertently perpetuate the problem of legitimising the cultural capital of the dominant culture and omitting recognition of other forms of cultural wealth. Cultural capital works to symbolically legitimise particular sets of knowledge and know-how, while de-legitimising others. A sole focus on cultural capital can play into this very process of symbolic legitimation of dominant power structures. Critical race theorists argue that theory needs to be recentred in order to increase intergenerational mobility through new understandings of student strengths. As Yosso and García (2007) outline,

Centring our analytical lens on the experiences of Communities of Colour in a critical historical context allows us to “see” the accumulated assets and resources in the histories and the lives of marginalised communities. (Yosso and García, 2007: 154)

Critical race theory (CRT) seeks to challenge the limiting focus of cultural capital by using the language of capital in order to focus on the transferability and value of non-dominant cultures. The problem is the omission of other knowledge and social dispositions of people of colour. CRT, then, is an active scholarly approach used ‘as a theoretical and analytical framework that challenges the ways race and racism impact educational structures, practices, and discourses’ (Yosso, 2005: 74). Educational systems are rife with deficit thinking, which ‘blames the victim’ for lack of educational success (Valencia, 2010 ), a form of racism that is the more pernicious because of its disguise within a seemingly objective educational system. CRT works to highlight these otherwise taken for granted assumptions, challenging racial subordination perpetuated through education.

As a part of this theoretical approach, Yosso outlines six forms of under-researched types of capital that students of colour often possess: resistant, aspirational, social, navigational, linguistic, and familial (Yosso, 2005: 78–80), which together constitute ‘community cultural wealth’. Each alternative form of capital captures the strengths of communities of colour in aspiring to, navigating through, and succeeding in higher education despite structural barriers such as racism and poverty. CRT focusses on cultural assets and wealth that have been previously understated or ignored within traditional theories of education (Solórzano and Solórzano, 1995; Valencia and Solórzano, 1997; Villalpando and Solórzano, 2005).

Scholars who use CRT in research of higher education emphasise the voices and experiences of university students of colour, attempting to counter the silencing of non-dominant voices in the midst of dominant cultural institutions. Yosso and colleagues have studied campus racial climates and the role of racially based ‘microaggressions’ experienced by African–American students (Solórzano et al., 2000) and Latina/o students (Yosso et al., 2009). Microagressions are subtle insults (verbal, nonverbal and/or visual) directed towards People of Colour, often automatically or unconsciously (Solórzano et al., 2000: 60). Similarly, Teranishi et al. (2009) consider the -emic perspective of Asian–American and Pacific Islander university students, finding that, unlike African–American students, they are often framed as a ‘model minorities’. They write (Teranishi et al., 2009: 65) that ‘Normative frameworks unfairly, and often incorrectly, position Asian[–]American and Pacific Islander students as the least in need of academic, financial, social, or psychological support’, which undermines, hides and delegitimises many of these students’ actual experiences. These examples of research on particular groups of students highlight the value of a CRT approach to recognising the strengths and challenges encountered by differing groups, a point we highlight in our research on refugee background student experiences. In an Australian context, there appear clear parallels between new migrants from NESBs, and the communities of colour highlighted within predominantly North American critical race theory. We argue that CRT allows a better understanding of refugee background student experiences of university by focussing on the community cultural wealth they bring with them to their studies, and by examining how educational institutions undermine this cultural wealth through failure to recognise and support it. We view the deficit as belonging to the institutional structures and doxa, or uncritical ideas and practices, rather than the refugee background students enrolled in these institutions.

New migrant students from refugee backgrounds

Education plays an important role in settlement for new migrants. Participation in meso-level institutions, such as universities in regional areas, can foster increased social and cultural participation (Wilkinson, 2002) and the development of social capital with local residents (Kilpatrick et al., 2015). This type of social participation can lead to the increases in respect and bonding of amongst diverse populations (Ho, 2011), and even where there is conflict, participation in ‘locally embedded activities’ can build ‘conviviality and inclusivity’ (Harris, 2014: 579). Higher education participation has a positive impact on social participation as well as emotional and mental health for humanitarian migrants in particular (Ferede, 2012). University can provide new migrants with increased confidence in their skills and abilities (Joyce et al., 2010), and capacity for confidently negotiating a differing culture and society (Harris et al., 2013). Despite these benefits for new migrants in higher education participation, students from refugee backgrounds in Australia are under-represented (Terry et al., 2016) and have lower achievement and outcome issues in higher education. Graduates tend to earn lower salaries than those from English-speaking backgrounds (Graduate Careers Australia (GCA), 2016) and are more likely to work in professions for which their degree is not required or relevant (Ho and Alcorso, 2004). The labour market for migrants and refugees is largely segmented, with new arrivals disproportionately ending up in low skill, low pay jobs (Colic-Peisker, 2009). ‘Visibly’ different refugees, particularly people from African and Middle Eastern countries, and especially of apparent Muslim faith, are more likely to experience underemployment through discrimination (Colic-Peisker, 2009).

Our research focussed on new migrants in regional Australia, specifically those studying in two small cities located more than 100 km from a major city. These students were typically members of at least three student equity groups: low socio-economic status or region, and NESB. These factors often combine to create compound disadvantage, and create a unique set of challenges very different from those faced by the majority of NESB students attending metropolitan university campuses. Our research project sought to interrogate notions of student capital among new migrants studying at two university campuses in regional Australia. All of the students interviewed were from NESBs, and most were also from refugee backgrounds, with relatively high proportions of Afghan, Somali, Iraqi and other students located in the areas surveyed. Despite international differences in context, research around new migrants shows common issues of institutional fit, low expectations placed on students, language proficiency and accents, cultural and religious discrimination, and surface segregation, which are all relevant to the concerns of critical race theory (Colic-Peisker and Tilbury, 2007; Correa-Valez et al., 2013; Hage, 1998).

The study and methodology

The research project sought to explore the university aspirations and experiences of new migrants in low socio-economic and regional communities, and the extent to which regional campuses support ethnic, socio-economic and religious diversity. Stage Three of the project, on which this paper is focussed, involved collection of qualitative data, including 18 interviews with students based at La Trobe University’s Shepparton and Mildura campuses. Shepparton and Mildura are regional cities within the state of Victoria, with populations of slightly more than 50,000 (Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), 2017a, 2017b), with significant histories of migration and reputations for being multicultural regional cities, though they retain majority Anglo-Australian populations (Moran and Mallman, 2015). Both cities are served by a relatively small university campus.

The interviews were semi-structured and covered: university aspirations and motivations; university awareness, choice and access; campus experiences, including academic and social; and graduate outcomes, particularly focussed on employment. Research participants were recruited based particularly on their status as new migrants, using purposive sampling (Tranter, 2010). Using an emergent sampling technique (Liamputtong, 2012: 18–19), and subsequently snowball sampling (Liamputtong, 2012: 17), the research team was assisted informally by University staff, as well as local ethnic councils (the Ethnic Council of Shepparton and District and the Sunraysia Mallee Ethnic Communities Council in Mildura) to identify potential interviewees from members of local new migrant communities. Interviewees were recruited primarily from some of the most recent new migrant groups to settle in Shepparton and Mildura (as determined with the assistance of the local ethnic councils). These include residents from Afghanistan, Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, South Sudan, Sudan, and Zimbabwe.

Interviews were conducted at the local university campuses and other locations in town chosen by interviewees, across the academic year of 2017. They lasted between 45 min and 2 h. Interviews were digitally recorded, transcribed and analysed inductively and deductively for content and themes using NVivo 10 software (QSR International, 2012). An interpretative phenomenological approach to the analysis was applied (Denzin, 1989; Smith et al., 2009). This allowed us to draw on the interviewees’ personal perspectives, reflections and narratives to examine the meanings the participants made of their own experiences, as well as the interpersonal interactions and relational dynamics within the campus and the local community. All interview data was de-identified. Students have been given pseudonyms, but we have included their country of origin and gender.

For the purposes of this paper we focus on findings relevant to three identified forms of alternative student capital that arose from the interviews, namely resistant, familial and linguistic capital. The study was limited to two regional campuses and it is possible that the experiences of the students interviewed are not shared by students on metropolitan campuses or from more populous communities. Given our desire to capture a breadth of ethnic backgrounds, the number of interviews with students from each specific community was relatively small and a greater number of interviews may have provided more nuanced evidence across campuses and communities. Equally, the interviews were designed to capture a broad range of educational beliefs, and more targeted interrogation of potential strengths may have revealed richer data. Nonetheless, the interviewee responses were broadly consistent with responses from other stakeholders who were interviewed for the project, including ethnic community leaders and university staff at both campuses.

Resistant capital

Drawing on authors such as Freire (1970) and Solórzano and Delgado Bernal (2001), Yosso defines resistant capital as ‘those knowledges and skills fostered through oppositional behavior that challenges inequality’ (Yosso, 2005: 80). Within our study, there were some clear examples of resistant capital, with students seeking to overcome past experiences and challenge their fellow students’ (mis)conceptions. Yosso and García (2007) write that,

As we decentre whiteness and recentre the research lens on People of Colour, we can validate often-overlooked forms of cultural knowledge forged in a legacy of resilience and resistance to racism and other forms of subordination. (Yosso and García, 2007: 154)

This resistance is capital insofar as it serves as a resource. The very act of resistance can bolster students’ confidence by bringing a form of recognition that is denied them by institutions. Huber (2009), for example, found that Chicana university students consciously employ narratives of their family and ethnic community that challenge racist, nativist discourses of migrants that pervade even the relatively progressive halls of universities. Through this resistance, these students also find it helps them negotiate the challenges of being marginalised.

Numerous new migrant students in our research spoke about their frustrations with a pattern of other students and university faculty having low expectations of them. They were aware of widespread underestimations about their interest in classroom participation, cultural stereotypes and assumptions that they were not very intelligent or capable of challenging tasks. The interviewees described these reactions from others as making them feel ‘invisible’ (a description used by three separate interviewees) and disregarded. Other research similarly finds that new migrants feel they are treated as inferior through staff and other students demonstrating low expectations of them, making assumptions about their abilities and intelligence, often expressions of implicit prejudicial treatment (Earnest et al., 2010; Harris and Marlowe, 2011). Some new migrant students act in defiance of these encounters, such as Damsa, who described her attitude towards this phenomenon as follows.

It sounds really funny, but some of my classmates, some of them, I want to prove them wrong. Some of them, like I said, make me feel like I'm invisible. They think I actually can't do much, or something like that. So then that's when I want to prove them wrong. (Damsa, Afghanistan, female)

The refusal to accept the implied judgment of her capacities resulted, for Damsa, in resistant capital: the personal reassurance and heightened motivation arising from opposition to imposed racialised assumptions.

Newer migrants can face additional academic difficulties when first encountering and needing to adjust to differing pedagogical styles, discourses and learning materials. New migrant students are often not asked to draw on their knowledges to complement the curriculum, resulting in an implied undervaluing of these other ways of knowing and experience. However, this challenge was met by many of the interviewees with a form of defiance in the classroom.

The good part is that I come from a very broad view. My background, my experience, that helped me a lot. And not only me, but…also sometimes in the class discussion [I] gave different views from a different angle, because there are a lot of people who are talking [about] the same thing… As a mature age student as well, I think [I] had a vast experience because of the country I come from, my work experience, the way I was looking for something. (Zilal, Afghanistan, Male)

Such an approach serves as a resource to new migrant students by subtly defying the implication that they are not invited to speak using their own cultural ‘voice’, articulating alternative knowledges and differing life experiences. This resistance is a symbolic resource, giving voice to marginalised perspectives, while approaching the practical challenges of learning in a new country and language. This resource cannot be underestimated in importance to individuals and communities for whom ‘the histories, experiences, cultures, and languages of students of colour have been devalued, misinterpreted, or omitted within formal educational settings’ (Delgado Bernal, 2002: 105). Indeed, a broader form of experiential capital was evident, whereby students utilised a background of hardship as a source of both knowledge and strength. One of our interviewees, Kaameh, described the strengths that motivated her to study.

Because of past experiences, I've had some really bad experiences. I think… I mean, I was very young and in that young age I've seen a lot. And that's also why I've become more mature during my age. So, I think my past experiences, they are pushing me to do all this. (Kaameh, Afghanistan, female)

Importantly, this resistance was primarily grounded in notions of community and identification with others of similarly marginalised backgrounds. The student expressed a clear desire to support others from a refugee background and to tackle prevalent narratives of discrimination.

I actually do care so that's why I'm working with the refugees and the asylum seekers, I actually care about them. When I was at [secondary school] there were teenagers who were very mean so I don't want that refugees, asylum seekers, to feel that way. And if they do go through something like that I just want to say, “It's your life, don't let them take control of your life.” So help them, support them. (Hamdiya, Afghanistan, female)

This student describes actively influencing other refugees to resist disparaging and deficit discourses about migrants. Community cultural wealth is something new migrant students can draw on to support their own academic efforts, as well as something they cultivate and share through their resistance to normative ideas about and racist and discriminatory practices towards new migrants, particularly from refugee backgrounds. These acts of resistance challenge the dominant institutional culture of the university and the society they live in. It also serves as capital in supporting their navigation of their studies, as marginalised students.

Familial capital

Drawing on Delgado Bernal (1998), Yosso describes familial capital as ‘those cultural knowledges nurtured among familia (kin) that carry a sense of community history, memory and cultural intuition’ (Yosso, 2005: 79). CRT draws on inclusive notions of family as kinship networks, including blood relations as well as those close enough relationally to be considered family. These kinship ties form an important relational support network, as well as influencing ‘emotional, moral, educational and occupational consciousness’ (Yosso, 2005: 79). Family can be a resource for communities of colour at university, an environment that often does not actively foster the types of knowledge and important points of identity of new migrant students. Family becomes capital when it contributes to new migrants’ capacity to navigate higher education as marginalised students. Delgado Bernal (2010: 623) refers specifically to pedagogies of the home: ‘the communication, practices, and learning that occur in the home and community – pedagogies of the home – often serve as a cultural knowledge base that helps students survive and succeed within an educational system that often excludes and silences them’. All the new migrant students in our research spoke about their kinship networks in ways that made it clear they were familial capital.

Many new migrant families, particularly from refugee backgrounds, experience disrupted educational trajectories, which lead to compound difficulties in getting into university and challenges when university participation is attained (Hannah, 1999; Morrice, 2009). Parents’ educational attainment has an impact on their children’s eventual likelihood of attending university, with implications that new migrants like the participants in our research (from refugee backgrounds and in low socio-economic circumstances) will be unlikely to have the type of family resources that encourage university participation. However, many of the new migrant students in our study described their kinship networks as a positive influence towards going to university. Most of them reported being motivated by their family trajectory, that is, the sense that their family had been through difficulties and they were now in a place where they can take advantage of opportunities. There were numerous mentions of family inheritance, of unfulfilled family potential, and a sense of responsibility to make family proud, such as one student whose father encouraged her because ‘he never had the opportunity to study’ (Ramineh, Afghanistan, female). They linked their ambitions with their family’s story. There is a sense of responsibility to family as well as a desire to expand their own life horizons, build employment opportunities and pursue their own love of learning. Research shows that people from marginalised communities, such as those with low socio-economic circumstances, can receive strong kinship influences towards educational achievement, viewing their family as a source of their intellectual potential, and viewing themselves as fulfilling opportunity for education their parents did not have (Mallman, 2017a, 2018). Far from a lack of aspiration, migrant communities often have high university aspirations for their children (Joyce et al. 2010), and the ‘immigration attainment gap’ can largely be attributed to socio-economic inequality more than aspirational deficit (Baum and Flores, 2011).

Within our study, most of the students reported being motivated by their family trajectory and were keenly aware of sacrifices they felt their parents had made for them to access an opportunity for higher education and upward mobility. Students described their participation at university affecting relationships within their communities. Many of the students talked about their increased prestige. This included regard amongst their families, ethno-lingual communities, as well as in the local community.

One thing is that it's given me a different status. I mean, it's good. This is gonna sound funny, but again, like I said, in our culture it's good that a girl goes to uni. I want people to respect me. I want people to respect my parents. And, coming to uni, they will respect me, you know? (Kaameh, Afghanistan, female)

The desire to help people, to give back to others in their ethno-linguistic communities and/or to society at large, was another key source of motivation for the students’ aspirations for higher education. This desire to help was rooted in their families’ difficult pasts as migrants and refugees.

I didn't care about study till 10. In 10 I was reading a book which was about the history of Hazara and genocide, those things. It was the first time that I begin studying [a] book beside[s] my school book and I was more interested in those things. I decided that, okay, you have to study. I decided to study very well, go to uni and study law to be a lawyer and defend [people]. (Shahmeer, Afghanistan, male)

I feel the need to be … part of something bigger, like home where I come from, Congo. I read about the news, it's bad. Things are bad. And I don't want to be one of those people that just said, “Okay it's bad.” (Bisimwa, Democratic Republic of Congo, male)

New migrants from refugee backgrounds can struggle with the difficulties of past traumas, sometimes distracting from and making studies harder (Harvey et al., 2018; Earnest et al., 2010; Joyce et al., 2010), but they can also, as these students demonstrate, re-frame their experience as a motivational community resource.

Asal (Afghanistan, female) also emphasised the importance of being a role model for both community and family: ‘I'm gonna finish and be a role model for the community…I have a daughter [so I will show that] I have a family and I can still do it’. Similarly, Kaameh (Afghanistan, female) highlighted the motivation of parents and the distinct challenges of being female in a conservative culture.

It's my parents too. They're my biggest strengths. They're the ones that's pushing me to do all this… Yeah. I'm like, that's the only option. In our culture it's always like the boys go to uni, boys do everything. I mean, it's a big thing when a girl goes to university. I'm also doing this for my parents. I want to make them proud. (Kaameh, Afghanistan, female)

The desire to achieve in higher education is for them inextricably tied to the desire to understand and assist those of their transnational community. This type of community cultural wealth is cyclically productive: Students gain strength from the desire to give strength back to those in their communities.

Linguistic capital

Linguistic capital refers to ‘intellectual and social skills attained through communication experiences in more than one language and/or style’ (Yosso, 2005: 78). There is a wealth of research about the benefits of bilingualism in raising vocabulary, cross-cultural awareness and communication skills, memorisation, attention to detail, and facial cues (Yosso, 2005: 79). However, while the new migrants we interviewed were bilingual, and more often multilingual, we found little evidence of this trait being perceived as a strength either by themselves or at institutional level. Among the three types of community cultural wealth described in this article, linguistic capital is the most difficult for new migrants to realise the potential of, due to insufficient pedagogical and relational approaches within the institution. More commonly, we found stated difficulties in English proficiency and understanding Australian accents and contexts, and clear issues of discrimination against students because of their accents. Arguably, some of these issues were exacerbated because of the regional context, in which few of the Anglo–Australian students would have been exposed to diverse accents, such as those of students from African backgrounds. While being able to speak more than one language is a form of community cultural wealth for students in some contexts (Orellana, 2003), new migrant students face difficulties in realising this form of capital due to lack of institutional and social recognition of the value of their language abilities, or the ability to incorporate these capacities into their university studies. One student, Amani, stated,

When I speak, they don't even understand. Sometime I try to evaluate myself. Am I speaking correctly? Is my English okay or what is wrong? I think it's the accent. Most of the students here have never interacted with people from outside before, particularly the Africans. So they couldn't quite get that accent… I'm always forced to repeat myself and that is a bit discouraging sometimes. (Amani, South Sudan, male)

This particular difficulty of being misunderstood is, as one student said, ‘one of the things that keeps us silent sometimes’ (Kazim, South Sudan, male). Classroom participation was hampered through anxiety over verbal expression, the fear that ‘I’ll make a mistake’ (Kazim). Some students also reported experiences when others appeared to ‘make fun’ of them,

I was trying to participate but, because my English was not very good, and some of the things which I wanted to explain and I couldn't do that. Sometime in the class, I was trying to not participate much. Everywhere you can find some people making fun of you. (Shahmeer, Afghanistan, male).

Language issues typically have a flow-on effect to student confidence, with one student saying,

When I came to Australia, I went from being the smartest kid from a family to feeling like I was a damaged kid at school. Yes. That's how I can describe my experience. To go from being quite good in school, studies, and then, because of the language (Malik, Burundi, male).

In addition to their own issues, students often also struggled due to demands of translating for their parents and families. Many parents had low English proficiency, requiring the students to stay close to home and to spend often considerable time assisting their parents with translation in education, health and social contexts. Although the students were probably benefitting from their multilingual capacities in overcoming difficult backgrounds to succeed in Australian higher education, few perceived their multilingualism to be of educational benefit. There was little evidence of other students or lecturers harnessing these strengths of multilingualism and multiculturalism to improve overall pedagogical practices, teaching quality, and globalisation of the campus.

Conclusion

This paper focusses on three particular forms of student capital highlighted within critical race theory: resistant, familial, and linguistic capital. Based on analysis of interviews with new migrant students on two regional university campuses, it is clear that many participants found strength in their possession of resistant capital, often tied to experiences of hardship and cultural incongruity. Participants also demonstrated reserves of familial capital, drawing on their families and communities for motivation and support. Resistant capital can be viewed as an individual strength, but often itself reflects a weakness of institutional culture. Our interviews confirmed that, while acknowledging the strengths and capacities of new migrants to resist dominant narratives, it remains imperative to change those narratives both within and beyond universities.

Perhaps most troubling, our research found little recognition of linguistic capital within the university. Broader research suggests that many of the students would have benefitted from their capacity to think in multiple languages, translate, and code-switch using their diverse experiences preceding university. However, few interviewees perceived or emphasised this capacity as a clear strength. While many of our interviewees spoke multiple languages, their experiences were often negatively affected by the need to translate and assist their own families, particularly parents whose level of English was often limited. Moreover, many students faced discrimination because of their accents, while some also struggled with the pace and/or accents of lecturers. Workforce data further confirm that NESB graduates are less likely to find employment within their preferred field in the months following graduation, partly due to unconscious or conscious bias around their accent or perceived level of English proficiency (Mestan and Harvey, 2014). Despite an institutional narrative of global citizenship, there also appeared limited effort to harness the multilingual and multicultural strengths of new migrant students for the overall improvement of teaching quality and campus climate for all students. Further work is required to identify, articulate and harness the strengths of multilingualism, both within and beyond higher education institutions.

Refugee background students in Australia report feeling that few staff appear to understand, or care to try and learn about, their distinct backgrounds and the mobility and difficulty therein (Earnest et al., 2010; Harris and Marlowe, 2011; Kong et al., 2016). Harris and Marlowe (2011) argue that staff do not need to be experts in their students’ backgrounds, but that instructors’ cultural competence goes hand in hand with quality educational experiences for refugee background students. In all of these matters of student–staff disconnection, Turner and Fozdar (2010: 363–382) recommend that if staff consciously pursue ‘a listening/learning bonding-focussed role, as well as a teaching role, and thereby meeting the students halfway in their focus on relationships’, this will help ‘students navigate their learning in an inter-cultural context’. Some researchers argue that Australian university curriculum itself needs to be made more culturally inclusive (Ben-Moshe et al., 2008), as it is too Australia-focussed (Earnest et al., 2010). Culturally, knowledge also needs to be reciprocated, argue Kong et al. (2016), with improved institutional and staff knowledge and recognition of cultural and religious practices represented by diverse students.

New migrants face challenges to access and succeed in higher education. The relatively low participation rates of some groups, and sub-optimal student success and employment outcomes, suggest that there exist informational and achievement barriers, issues around English language proficiency and accent perceptions, difficulties in establishing employer connections and social networks, and deleterious effects of the conscious and unconscious bias of other students on campus (Colic-Peisker, 2009; Kong et al., 2016; Mangan and Winter, 2017). Collectively, these issues can result in a language of deficit and a temptation to focus on what new migrants lack (Morrice, 2009). Such a focus risks reinforcement of unhelpful stereotypes, and the normalisation of discriminatory practices that occur on and beyond campus.

By contrast, critical race theory can provide a valuable perspective to understand and explore the strengths of new migrant students on Australian university campuses. Rather than lacking cultural capital, many migrant students share a rich community cultural wealth and find strength and motivation through their family, community, background and experience, and attitudes and values. Further investigation and elucidation of these strengths would be helpful to recentring the existing narrative of students from refugee backgrounds as lacking in social and educational preparedness. Such research could include interrogation and potential adaptation of the primarily North American concepts of critical race theory to the Australian context, including examination of colonial legacies, rurality and the experiences of international students, who now comprise a quarter of the Australian university cohort (Harvey et al., 2016). Particularly important is the need to consider how the diverse experiences, cultures and languages of new migrants can be harnessed by institutions to improve teaching quality and richness of the student experience, especially on regional campuses where student cohorts can be otherwise relatively homogeneous. New migrant students, including those from refugee backgrounds, are central to the task of creating a culture of inclusive excellence (Milem et al., 2005) on university campuses. However, greater education of university academics, students and professional staff is clearly required to identify and harness the strengths of diverse students.

Footnotes

Acknowledgements

This paper was informed by a broader research project, Raising university participation of new migrants in regional communities (forthcoming), by A Harvey, M Mallman, G Szalkowicz, and A Moran, a report for the Australian Government Department of Education and Training, Centre for Higher Education Equity and Diversity Research, La Trobe University.

Declaration of conflicting interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship and/or publication of this article.

Andrew Harvey is Director of the Centre for Higher Education Equity and Diversity Research and Associate Professor of Higher Education at La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia. He has a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) and PhD in Politics, both from the University of Melbourne. Andrew has published widely in areas of higher education policy, including student equity, admissions, retention, and globalisation. He is Lead Editor of Student Equity in Australian Higher Education: Twenty-Five Years of a Fair Chance for All (Springer, 2016). In 2017, Andrew led the national research project, Raising university participation of new migrants in regional communities, funded by the Australian Government Department of Education.

Mark Mallman is a Researcher at La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia. His current research considers higher education, employment, and socio-economic mobility amongst newer migrants in Australia. Recent publications focus on class, working-class university students, upward social mobility, multiculturalism and interethnic relations, and migration. Mark has conducted research for the Victorian Multicultural Commission on social cohesion in multicultural contexts, and was a Chief Investigator on the national research project, Raising university participation of new migrants in regional communities, funded by the Australian Government Department of Education.

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Beyond cultural capital: Understanding the strengths of new migrants within higher education

Abstract

Keywords

Introduction

Context: Forms of capital

New migrant students from refugee backgrounds

The study and methodology

Resistant capital

Familial capital

Linguistic capital

Conclusion

Footnotes

Acknowledgements

Declaration of conflicting interests

Funding

References