Youth, belonging and transitions: identifying opportunities and barriers for Indigenous young people in remote communities

This research report aims to identify the personal and structural resources, the barriers and the motivations that facilitate or hinder successful transitions by Indigenous young people in remote communities, particularly within East Arnhem Land, into further and higher education and employment. The research speaks to current policy initiatives that aim to improve transitions for young Indigenous people to further education, training and employment (COAG 2012). It also fills a research gap in the youth studies literature by mapping the evidence-based data on factors that impact on Indigenous youth transitions in remote communities. In this vein, [the authors] conclude by examining the usefulness of the concept youth-as-transition (a key theoretical tool in the analysis of young people's lives in the field of youth studies) for Indigenous youth in remote communities.

The concept of belonging enables a clearer understanding of the efforts made by young people to remain connected to people, places and issues that matter to them, as well as their relationship to the times in which they live. It also renders visible how social change impacts on which ways of being are possible to Indigenous youth. [The authors] draw, then, on the concept of belonging to examine which issues can positively affect Indigenous youth pathways and to highlight how, by bringing together the fields of youth and Indigenous studies, the concept fills an important gap in the sociology of youth.

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