Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of key concepts covered in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book examines the role that families play in the narratives detailing the formation of creative aspirations provided by young people from Arab-Australian backgrounds. It adopts an intersectional and cultural framework for understanding class that moves away from rigid Marxist definitions and considers, in addition to income and employment type, a host of social relations and symbolic markers. The book investigates how creativity and individual pursuits of creative vocational trajectories, which are so often vaguely defined, multilinear and not necessarily well paid, complicate the process of migrant aspirations for social mobility. It examines what kinds of consequences occur when young people from ethnic minority backgrounds are encouraged to develop their creative working identities in ways that largely speak to their position in ethnic minority communities.