Career Choices for Young People with Immigrant Background - Transitions, Strategies and Orientations in Education and Work

Abstract

This project focuses on career-choices of youth with immigrant background. It explores questions of exclusion and inclusion, the importance of of social and cultural capital for school performance. It records reflections on career-paths in a Swedish and transnational perspective. The main result of the project is a PhD thesis on Ethnic Studies focusing on young persons’ career-choices, their strategies and orientations and their reflections on these choices. The central research question of the thesis is how young persons with foreign background make their choices relating to education or work. Which are the ambitions, conceptions and visions of these young people? On the background of which influences, conditions, limitations and opportunities do they make their choices? The study reflects on youth’s own understandings of their choices, agency and motives. Methods employed are individual and focus group interviews with youth in secondary school combined with participant observation in secondary schools in Stockholm. Teachers and other staff are also interviewed.

Keywords

Education, Social exclusion/inclusion, Work, Social capital, Transnational

Publications

Lundqvist, Catarina (2010). Möjligheternas horisont: etnicitet, utbildning och arbete i ungas berättelser om karriärer. Diss. Linköping: Linköpings universitet, 2010

Lundqvist, Catarina & Aleksandra Ålund (2007) ‘Social exkludering och motstånd: utbildning och arbete i multietniska ungdomssammanhang’ i Olofsson, Jonas & Thoursie, Anna (red.), Ungas framtidsvägar. Möjligheter och utmaningar. Agoras årsbok 2006. Stockholm: Agora.

Lundqvist, C. (2007) ‘Arbetsplatsförlagd utbildning: Karriärvägledning och/eller sortering?’, i: Dahlstedt, M. m.fl. (red.) Utbildning, arbete, medborgarskap, Umeå: Boréa

Lundqvist, Catarina (2007.) ‘Transnationella horisonter i val av utbildning och karriär’, i Olsson, Erik, Lundqvist, Catarina, Rabo, Annika, Åkesson, Lisa, Sawyer, Lena & Wahlbeck, Östen (red.), Transnationella rum, Umeå: Boréa

Lundqvist, Catarina, (2006) Karriärvägar för ungdomar med utländsk bakgrund: framtidsplaner, orienteringar och strategier mellan utbildning och arbete, Bilaga till Rapport Integration 2005, Norrköping: Integrationsverket.