ABSTRACT
What the stories have in common is the testimony of the women’s narratives to their resilience and determination to stay true to themselves and retain their identities in the face of the ‘closed group’ of the university. Their narratives differ in contextual detail but share a sense of ‘out-sidedness’, even while working in their own context where their own languages are spoken due to intersectional gendered, racial, linguistic and social class inequities and discrimination. What the women have in common is their stories of leaving behind their professions and status in their home countries in order to find better life opportunities in the Global North, only to find their linguistic repertoires undervalued, their personal identities lost and doubted, their confidence undermined and their ambitions stymied as they become isolated in their migration trajectories.
