The effects of citizenship and ethnicity on the education pathways of Pacific youth in Australia

Abstract

This article reports on a study that investigated the education pathways of 464 young people. We were interested in the effects of New Zealand citizenship and Pacific ethnicity on pathways so compared findings for three groups residing in Australia: Pacific youth with New Zealand citizenship, Pacific youth with Australian citizenship, and non-Pacific youth with Australian citizenship. Findings showed that the first group was significantly less likely than others to have gained a university qualification. Pacific youth, regardless of citizenship, were more likely than non-Pacific peers to have a vocational qualification rather than a university qualification. No evidence suggests this resulted from lack of motivation or lack of ability. However, two inter-related factors explained outcomes for the Pacific cohort: likelihood of low socio-economic status and first-in-family to attend university. We propose that Pacific communities’ collectivist orientation may also restrict opportunities for Pacific youth seeking higher education pathways. We therefore argue that until Pacific young people are better represented in higher education cohorts, they should be a targeted equity group, and that the Australian government’s decision to exclude many of these young people from higher education loans is an anomaly in the context of its ‘widening participation’ agenda for Australian higher education.