Stories of Young Migrants' Cross-Cultural Educational Transitions

Abstract

New Zealand society can benefit socially, culturally and economically when migrants feel as if they belong and are included. Given that Aotearoa/New Zealand is becoming increasingly multicultural, it is important that the education system meets the needs of migrants and makes them feel that they are included. Previous research has shown that this is not always the case – that migrants do not always feel that they belong at school in New Zealand. Much of the literature that has investigated migrants’ educational transition experiences has conceptualised “belonging” and “identity” as fixed states. This research took a different approach and used a narrative inquiry method underpinned by social constructionism. The purpose of this research was to contribute to our understandings of migrants’ transitions into the New Zealand education system. The study had three aims. The first was to investigate the stories young migrants told about their transition to secondary school in New Zealand; the second was to look at how belonging and inclusion were narrated by the participants; the third was to examine how the education system could better develop a culture of inclusion. Seven young migrants who moved to New Zealand when they were secondary school age took part in this research. The participants were from countries in South East Asia, East Asia and the Pacific Islands. Their stories were gathered through narrative interviews. The interviews were initially analysed individually and were presented as summaries. Next, analysis across the interviews was conducted, with a particular focus on looking at how the stories were performed. Based on my interaction with the stories, I described three of the stories as “opening up” stories and four as “closing down” stories. Those who told “opening up” stories had many connections to people and opportunities to tell their stories. They positioned themselves as belonging at school. Those who told “closing down” stories appeared to have had fewer opportunities to share their stories with others compared to those who told “opening up” stories. These individuals positioned themselves as socially isolated. The way the participants’ stories were performed in the interviews was also related to the previous storytelling opportunities the participants had access to. Some of the stories participants told about their lives in their home countries became unavailable to tell in the New Zealand context and, as a result, these stories had to change when they migrated. This study suggests that, in order to tell new stories, migrants need opportunities to interact with other New Zealanders to create and practise new storylines. Furthermore, New Zealanders also need to be able to tell new stories about themselves and find ways to connect with migrants in order to promote a culture of belonging. A relational view of identity and belonging is presented, in which these are conceptualised as negotiated processes that can occur through stories. It is suggested that it would be beneficial if spaces within the education system were created in order to allow new possible storylines to emerge which support a culture of belonging.