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There is a gap in research on access to universities in South Africa. The research that exists focuses on quantitative methodologies, although some qualitative studies are now emerging. These resea...

This article provides a Global South perspective on marginalised migrant youth and higher educational aspirations, with a specific focus on South Africa. We use data from a case study in Johannesbu...

This chapter provides a detailed discussion on the contribution of the capability approach (CA) in researching education, youth and migration. In doing so, Mkwananzi displays the comprehensive nature of the framework in looking at complex and multidimensional phenomena such as migration, cutting across and beyond social, political, cultural and economic contexts. In addition to acknowledging the complex nature of migration, Mkwananzi illustrates that migration is an integral part of human development. Interconnections between CA and migration show how the two relate to each other and are clearly articulated. Discussed in detail is also the importance of education in human development, as it forms people’s existing capacities into developed capabilities and expands human freedoms.

Mkwananzi underlines the importance of a study on higher education for youth in a disadvantaged context of migration, particularly what this means for both human and sustainable development. The complexity of classifying migrants not only highlights the changing nature of the migration landscape, but also how migration has become all-encompassing of political economic, social and cultural spheres. In the same vein, Mkwananzi reinforces the importance of migration within the Global South and how this is equally important as migration from the Global South to the Global North. The adoption of the human development informed capabilities approach as an analytical framework provides a clear picture on why such a study cannot be separated from development discourses.

Mkwananzi provides an original contribution by conceptualising the formation of higher educational aspirations among migrant youths in disadvantaged contexts. The fourfold conceptualisations of resigned, powerful, persistent and frustrated illustrate what happens at the intersection of diverse contextual environments and different levels of agency. The chapter illustrates that, although material support is important for the youth, it is inadequate on its own and may fail to prepare them fully for their future. It is therefore essential to understand the diverse conversion factors that influence the formation of migrants’ educational aspirations and what this may mean for their plans in relation to human development. Through this comprehensive analysis of the sometimes overlooked lived realities of disadvantaged groups, Mkwananzi provides a starting point for engaging with various structures under which these aspirations are formed.

Youth, Gender and the Capabilities Approach to Development draws on a variety of case studies (from South Africa, Tanzania, Russia, India, Columbia, Spain, Morocco and Turkey) to bring contemporary...