Youth aspirations in Kakuma Refugee Camp: education as a means for social, spatial, and economic (im)mobility

Abstract

This study documents the aspirations and apprehensions of youth as they complete secondary schooling in Kakuma Refugee Camp. Navigating contradictory discourses about the value of education, school-leavers approach postsecondary opportunities with attention to social status hierarchies, economic viability, and collective expectations for nation-building goals. This work contributes to understandings of formal education interacting with culturally bounded expectations for normative adulthood, examining how youth respond when they are unable to adhere to a linear trajectory of success. I argue that foregrounding democratic purposes of schooling in exile can expand conceptions of nation-building and successful adulthood, opening and de-stigmatizing multiple future pathways.