Newcomer Refugee Children and Youth Need to Overcome Hate in Order to Academically Survive


Sofia Noori, University of British Columbia

This paper presentation shares autobiographical accounts of Canadians with refugee experiences. These include six written memoirs and nine video blogs (vlogs) The presenter will highlight push-pull factors for pursuing and achieving postsecondary education in this community. Narrative analysis is used to explore these publicly available memoires and vlogs, using postcolonial theoretical frameworks. The findings demonstrate that these young people experience racism, bullying, and xenophobia in Canadian school. The main argument of this paper presentation is that newcomers need to overcome hate in order to succeed academically. The study also finds that the university setting helps newcomers from warzones find connections to subject areas they are passionate about, as well as peers from similar backgrounds and with comparable experiences. These pull factors often allow for making sense of their previous refugee situations (including being on the receiving end of hate). CSA audience will not only learn about how hate manifests in the lives of school aged newcomers from warzones, but also how they overcome such backlash in order to survive and even thrive in the post-secondary learning environment.  

This paper will be presented at the following session: