Making up for lost time : the experiences of Southern Sudanese young refugees in high schools

This article is about how recently arrived refugee young people from Southern Sudan are faring in Australian high schools. A project (The Young Africans in Schools Project (YASP)) undertaken with young refugees from three schools in the Western Sydney suburbs of Blacktown and Bankstown suggests that schools can act as sites where Southern Sudanese young people can come to terms with the trauma of forced migration, and make the transition to citizenship and belonging in multicultural Australia. The adverse educational and traumatic backgrounds of African refugees mean there is greater disjunction between their past experiences and their current location in a rapidly changing, urban Australian context. Because the transition from a limited educational background to tertiary study is so difficult, it is important to present refugee young people with alternative pathways to university education, such as ATFE or vocational training. [Author abstract, ed]