Work Subjectivities and Employability Prospects in the Imagined Futures of Undergraduate First-Generation Students

Abstract

This study examines how Undergraduate First-Generation Students (UFGS)
from disadvantaged backgrounds perceive, negotiate, and construct their
futures within Pakistan’s higher education system and the prevailing
uncertain job market. The article relies on in-depth qualitative interviews
with 43 Undergraduate First-Generation Students (UFGS) across six public
sector universities in Islamabad and Rawalpindi, Pakistan. The respondents
were recruited with the help of purposive sampling techniques. Drawing on
Bourdieu’s Theory of Practice and Social Reproduction, and Markus and
Nurius’s concept of possible selves, it focuses on the nuanced understanding
of the challenges faced by FGS navigating work during university education.
The empirical data from interviews, interpreted and understood with the help
of Bourdieu’s and Markus and Nurius’ theories, the study findings indicate
that UFGS carry a mixed bag of feelings- hopes and anxiety about their
higher education completion and careers in a hierarchical system. On the
one hand, they hope that higher education will ensure their social mobility;
on the other, they are afraid of marginalization and exclusion in the existing
competitive and unequal job market.