Refugee Mentoring

This post forms part of our series in showcasing abstracts of presentations featured at our annual postgraduate interdisciplinary conference on refugee and forced migration research, hosted in November 2018 at The University of Melbourne.

PHILLIPA BELLEMORE

Refugee mentoring provides a pathway for relationships between refugees, people seeking asylum and their local community. Relational bonds develop with the assistance of a third party, such as a non-government or faith organisation. This type of program acknowledges that settlement is more than the traditional three E’s of English, employment and education and recognises that settlement is also an emotional journey. Refugee mentoring offers connection, symbolic belonging along with practical assistance. The nature of the bonds varies and can range from fragile to immersive. In this presentation, three models of refugee mentoring are examined, and I explore how each model shapes different relationships between mentors and mentees. Participants in mentoring programs do not always conform to rules and expectations, and I discuss ways in which mentors and mentees resist organisational imperatives and challenge refugee imaginaries.

I provide a snapshot of an academic mentoring program called Making Connections for refugee background students currently being piloted at Macquarie University. So far, the program is revealing promising results for both mentees and mentors. Embedded in the program is an evaluation and the findings will provide directions to improve and strengthen the program. This low-cost program has the potential to be adopted elsewhere by other universities and higher education facilities.

Phillipa Bellemore is a doctoral candidate in Sociology at Macquarie University. She is investigating the relationship between refugees and the receiving community in Australia. Phillipa is a member of Academics for Refugees–Macquarie University node and is a Project Officer on Making Connections, a pilot academic mentoring program for refugee background university students at Macquarie University.