Gains and losses: African Australian women and higher education

Abstract

This article argues that African women migrants in Australia are increasingly enrolling in and successfully completing tertiary study, usually at high emotional and financial cost. While this qualitative study has shown that both refugee-background and non-refugee African Australian women’s enrolment in higher education is enabling new forms of participation and belonging in resettlement, it continues to challenge the women’s more traditional cultural roles and identities. This article argues that these gendered negotiations are noted only cursorily (if at all) within education and health contexts, and, importantly, form a primary obstacle facing African Australian women in migration and refugee resettlement transition.