CLSW members Sara Ganassin and Tony Young (Newcastle University) gave a talk on the linguistic and intercultural dimension of professional 'success' in the experiences of highly-skilled refugees in Europe at the annual IALIC conference (International Association for Languages and Intercultural Communication) (http://ialic.international/conference-2018/) in Helsinki, Finland (29-31 August 2018).
The paper, "How can interculturality support personal and professional success? 'Success stories' of highly-skilled refugees in Europe" gave an insight into participants' experiences of displacement and into their different understandings of concepts of professional and personal success, as they share beliefs about what other skilled refugees need to support their transitions into their professional roles.
As the findings discussed challenges and opportunities encountered by professionals from different fields (e.g., doctors, engineers), the paper argued how being and becoming 'good interculturalists' played a fundamental role in supporting all participants to re-build their lives and careers in Europe.
IALIC is a specialist forum for academics, practitioners, researchers and students. Working within an interdisciplinary and critical framework, members share a unique concern for the theoretical and practical interplay of living languages and intercultural understanding.
We thank the other IALIC participants for their feedback on our work and the interesting discussion on ethics and reflexivity in research with refugee and migrant groups.