Suchergebnisse

This presentation addresses the complex issues of cultural sensitivity in career guidance and counselling practice in the context of contemporary patterns of migration. Career counsellors' cultural sensitivity for clients who either by choice or compulsion occupy the migrant position is of particular importance. Cultural sensitivity in this sense has a broader meaning than merely an attunement to individuals' cultural context, it is about awareness about how these global trends affect individuals' meaning making about the future. Studies show that the central meaning making resource for migrant students in career conversations is the emotion of not belonging in the new context. Migration influences individuals' career narratives and challenges career counselling practice. Scholars point out that while counselling provides an opportunity to contribute to social justice for migrants, this depends on whether counselling services are able to adapt their practices in relation to the challenges of migration and migrants. Following this, counsellors need to develop cultural sensitivity to the impact of migration on clients' career narratives. The claim for cultural sensitivity though seems to clash with the conditions of migration in career counselling practice. With the 'politics of belonging' (asylum legislations etc.) in western society today follows inhuman situations for many migrants and counsellors testify that, to cope with their daily work, they have to 'turn off' their emotional perception of the migrant situation. This emotional dilemma is discussed in the presentation with examples from empirical studies of career counselling conversations with young migrants and strategies for the CGC practice are suggested.

In this article we analyse what happens to career counselling when it is intertwined with the asylum process. A Swedish example is an amendment to the education legislation, regarding residence permits for upper secondary level students. Following the resulting changes in juridical, educational and interpersonal conditions, career counsellors must deliver 'high-stakes counselling' that can profoundly affect individuals' prospects of asylum or deportation. Our analysis is based on ethnographically inspired fieldwork, a survey and Bernsteinian theory. In current Swedish conditions, tight matching to demands of the labour market is essential in this 'high-stakes counselling'. We conclude that a consequence is institutional introduction of conditional citizenship of asylum-seeking students. This allows countries to select migrants through education, which severely conflicts not only with counselling ideals, but also democratic and equality values regarding possibilities to make choices for the future, thus creating ethical dilemmas for counsellors.