Mother Power and Familial Capital: The Impact of Mothers and Mother Figures on Refugee Youths' Educational Pathways and Aspirations

• In Event: Families, Care, and Resilience in Education Amid Crisis

Proposal

Research in refugee education underscores the vital role of family and kin in shaping young people's aspirations and resilience. Studies (e.g., Soong et al, 2022) have found that displaced parents deeply value education, with intergenerational aspirations shaping youths' dreams and fostering agency in their realization.

This paper draws on data from an ongoing dissertation study that study explores 1) How do displaced youth imagine and navigate their educational aspirations amidst supporting and constraining conditions of displacement in a transitory setting in Greece? And 2) Which forms of capital youth leverage to imagine alternative futures and pursue educational aspirations? Grounded in the Community Cultural Wealth approach (Yosso, 2005), the study seeks to amplify marginalized voices and highlight the diverse forms of capital that youth possess. Data was collected through observations in nonformal education spaces and through interviews and arts-based workshops with displaced youth in four geographically-significant locations in Greece (Athens, Polykastro, Ioannina and Lesvos).

Preliminary findings indicate important ways that youth draw on familial, social and aspirational capital (Yosso, 2005) to navigate the harsh realities and complexities of displacement while remaining steadfast in their educational goals. Data consistently show the central role that maternal figures play in youths' lives, shaping their views around the transformative role of education for the self and community. Mothers and mother figures' own education and employment trajectories vary, yet across cultures and geographies, they demonstrate resilience, resistance to exclusion and gender norms and often immeasurable courage in the face of danger. Their encouragement and everyday acts of resilience and resistance provide both emotional and material support, serving as a profound source of inspiration for youth in this study.

This interplay between mothers' impact (familial capital) and youths' aspirations offers deeper insight into the factors that motivate youth to dream and persevere amidst complex and unjust migration and education systems. By centering mothers as vision-bearers and forces of resistance, this paper challenges deficit views that underestimate familial and kin contributions in contexts of displacement. It argues that maternal influence extends beyond private domains and goals of individual upward mobility -- mother figures’ legacy also shapes collective aspirations and asserts education as a tool for intergenerational transformation. Recognizing mothers’ contributions through the lens of familial capital contributes to refugee education policy and practice by elevating maternal resilience as a cornerstone of youth aspirations and resistance.

Author

• Erma Fetić Mujić, University of Minnesota Twin Cities