To be who I want to be: Understanding refugee families’ perspective of education through the human capability lens

This paper explores how refugee families resettled in Canada conceptualize and value education, highlighting the central role it plays in their migration decisions, wellbeing, and future aspirations. Drawing on qualitative data from 18 refugee families collected through an innovative, family-centered Researcher-in-Family (RIF) model, which engaged youth as research interns within their own families, this study finds that education emerged as a dominant theme in participants’ narratives. Framed through the Human Capability Approach (HCA), the analysis reveals that refugee families perceive education as both intrinsically valuable, linked to dignity, emotional fulfillment, and familial pride, and instrumentally vital for achieving autonomy, economic security, and societal integration. The findings critique existing global and national education policies that overwhelmingly prioritize primary education within a short-term humanitarian logic, often failing to support refugees' equitable access to secondary and post-secondary opportunities. This paper calls for long-term, inclusive, family-centered education policies that reflect refugees’ intergenerational aspirations. It concludes with policy recommendations to reframe refugee education as a strategic investment in social cohesion, national development, and refugee wellbeing within the practical constraints of contemporary policy environments.