Reflections on Migration, Resilience, and Graduate Education: Supporting Female Students with Refugee Backgrounds

In response to the refugee crisis, it is important to invest in and support refugee education especially at the tertiary level. As displaced individuals rebuild their life upon resettlement, education opportunities are vital to equip them with the knowledge and skills needed to gain meaningful employment, especially since displacement often puts refugee’s education and careers on hold. Displaced girls and women, who might be unaccompanied, pregnant, or disabled, are especially vulnerable in the process of forced migration, education, and resettlement. In this chapter, we explore our personal and pedagogical narratives of migration and resilience as they relate to learning, teaching and mentoring in graduate education. Consistent with the principles of reflexive ethnography and cultural humility, we examine our experiences, beliefs, and cultural identities using semi-structured reflective processes to share and deconstruct our individual and familial experiences as displaced persons, graduate students, instructors, and mentors in the era of heightened economic and political uncertainty, global environmental crises, and the worldwide forced displacement of people. We highlight the importance of honouring the strengths and capacities of female graduate students with refugee backgrounds while creating safe spaces for listening to the women’s learning needs and desires. Finally, we discuss our engagements in labour intensive and time consuming mentorship that afforded academic coaching, skill training, and professional capacity building while supporting women’s sense of agency and socialization into academia and Canada.