The Hub for Education for Refugees in Europe (HERE) provides a central reference point for information relating to refugee education throughout Europe in the form of a curated, searchable Knowledge Base of academic and non-academic resources on refugee education from across the continent, published since 2015. This is supported by the HERE Network which brings together interested parties and key stakeholders in the field of refugee education through online and offline activities aimed at exchanging knowledge and developing research and practice on refugee education across Europe.
Background
"What do we know about the educational provision for and experiences of people from refugee backgrounds who have arrived in Europe since 2015?"
This was the question posed that inspired the development of the Hub for Education for Refugees in Europe (HERE). With more than 12,500,000 displaced children across the globe (UNHCR 2018), there are now more child refugees in Europe than at any point since the Second World War (Save the Children 2016). Whilst media depictions of the situation in Europe focused on the ‘refugee crisis’ from the point of view of the countries who have become destinations, the individual human experiences of this crisis from the perspective of the young refugees are less well documented and shared.
HERE was established as a base for knowledge transfer about children’s post migration experiences in Europe, focusing on their right to an ‘inclusive and equitable quality education’ in their resettlement context (UNESCO, 2015). The Hub collates research, advisory and advocacy activity across Europe. It brings together academic and stakeholder expertise of policies and practices for integrating children and young people with refugee backgrounds through education in order to help them to be able to live lives of dignity and value in their new societies. HERE forms a bridge between academics, policy makers, practitioners, refugee communities and other stakeholders in order to support societies across Europe to provide a socially just inclusion of refugee and asylum-seeking children in and through education. The aim is for HERE to be a go-to-place for expertise providing a facilitated flow of information about what is known about refugee education through early childhood, formal schooling, non-formal education, and steps towards lifelong learning through formal and non-formal education and training. Ultimately HERE aims to plug the gaps in knowledge about the educational rights of refugee children who arrived in Europe since 2015.
HERE comprises ofthree key elements:
HEREKnowledge Base
The HERE Knowledge Base is a searchable collection of academic and non-academic resources on refugee education from across Europe, published since 2015. Resources have been curated in accordance with set criteria designed to maximise relevance to the question of what we know about the educational provision for and educational experiences of people from refugee backgrounds arriving in Europe.
HERENetwork
The HERE Network connects interested parties in the field of refugee education through online and offline activities with the aim of exchanging knowledge and developing research and practice on refugee education throughout Europe.
HEREInsights
HERE Insights are provided by experts within the network based on academic research, policy documentation and case studies of the educational experiences of refugees, and those supporting them with their education. Posts are designed to encourage open dialogue across the network about critical issues and links to relevant resources within the database are provided.
FundingThank you to all our funders
HERE is the result of a combination of funding sources. We would like to acknowledge the vision and support provided in helping to create, develop and sustain the HERE project by a variety of funders.
Open Society Foundations
The Open Society Foundations, founded by George Soros, are the world’s largest private funder of independent groups working for justice, democratic governance, and human rights. They provide thousands of grants every year through a network of national and regional foundations and offices, funding a vast array of projects—many of them now shaped by the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. OSF provided significant funding and support to help the HERE Project get off the ground, from which we continue to benefit.
The University of Nottingham
The HERE Project is hosted by the School of Education at the University of Nottingham in the UK.
Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)
This project is supported by The University of Nottingham’s ESRC Impact Acceleration Account ES/T501992/1.