The Ingrained Art of Survival

The Nexus between Competence and Migration as Reflected in Refugee Biographies

Author: Louis Henri Seukwa. Translated by: Catherine Schwerin.

Series: TIAS Topics in Interdisciplinary African Studies Volume 6

2007
270 pp.
2 illustrations, 2 graphs, 13 tables and charts
Text language(s): English
Format: 160 x 240 mm
580 g
Paperback
€ 49.80

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How do young African refugees in Germany, despite experiencing the most adverse of life situations, still manage to unfold their individual potential, develop subjective coping strategies, and achieve educational success against all odds? What can the resilient capacity of these young people teach us about education and integration policy in Germany, as well as the socio-political and educational situation in their home countries in Africa? How does this inform and deepen our understanding of what competence actually is?

The theoretical analyses and empirical surveys conducted by the educationalist Louis Henri Seukwa in this book embed the answer to these questions in a framework of structural and action theory and expand the prevailing psychologically orientated research on individual coping to the broader perspective of a social theory. One of his key finds, which is significant for the resource-based approach in educational science, is the existence of a type of competence that is acquired primarily in connection with social structures of exclusion.

The illuminating and critical insights outlined in this work have been awarded with two prestigious German prizes, the 2007 Karl Ditze Award for Outstanding Academic Work (University of Hamburg/Germany) and the 2007 Augsburg Academic Prize for Intercultural Studies.

Following the links below, you will find further studies on the topic asylum, migration and social integration:

Accompanying material:

• “Safe Havens” for Refugees (ISBN 978-3-89645-339-6)
• Asylverfahren und Gerechtigkeit (ISBN 978-3-89645-854-4)
• Flucht als Politik (ISBN 978-3-89645-347-1)
• Lifeworlds of Young Men beyond Migration and Immobility in Pikine, Senegal (ISBN 978-3-89645-914-5)
• Nation im Exil? (ISBN 978-3-89645-826-1)

Cross-reference:

• Migration and Conflict (ISBN 978-3-89645-903-9)
• Nomades des espaces interstitiels (ISBN 978-3-89645-252-8)
• Spaces in Movement (ISBN 978-3-89645-905-3)
• The Global Nuer (ISBN 978-3-89645-908-4)

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