Switzerland
The migratory experience: Challenging inclusionary measures
This chapter explores how refugees wishing to attend tertiary education experience a language learning initiative in Norway. It shows how this ostensibly inclusionary measure, instead of supporting the refugees' ambitions, hampers their efforts and works to exclude. Through a collaboration involving five prior participants enrolled in language learning, all with refugee status, and three researchers positioned differently towards the topic,…
2023
Inclusion, exclusion and Syrian refugees in Turkey
Forced migration movements are changing the social, demographic and cultural structures of countries following political unrest, civil war, and international interventions in Syria. The immigration of Syrians to Turkey has required intensive work, particularly relating to the education of refugee children. A systems theory framework supports the evaluation of inclusive education practices directed towards Syrian refugee children and highlights exclusionary…
2023
Normative, rational, and relational motives in crosscoalition coordination for a VET refugee programme
Shared beliefs are seen as a basis for policy coordination in the literature. Actors sharing beliefs coordinate their activities in order to translate their beliefs into policies. However, the literature shows that actors also coordinate for policy change across such belief coalitions for diverse reasons. Drawing on the literature on incentives in collective action organisations, we systematise these motives. We…
2023
L2 French learning by Eritrean refugee speakers of Tigrinya
This study reports data on 47 Tigrinya speaking Eritrean refugees learning French. L2 French proficiency is assessed through the placement test Ev@lang, a standardized grammar test, and fine corpus analyses. Analysis of individual factors shows that, whereas school education, number of years in Switzerland, and French classes attended play no role in proficiency, age penalizes learning and, critically, multilingualism facilitates…
2022
Education of unaccompanied refugee minors in high-income countries: Risk and resilience factors
Record numbers of unaccompanied refugee minors continue to arrive in high-income countries seeking asylum and protection. Despite receiving educational support, unaccompanied refugee minors continue to be vulnerable to negative educational experiences and outcomes. The review investigates what resilience factors enable unaccompanied refugee minors in high-income countries to have positive educational experiences and outcomes. It aims to inform the literature on…
2022
Migrants, Refugees and Asylum Seekers’ Integration in European Labour Markets: A Comparative Approach on Legal Barriers and Enablers
The Sirius first open access book entitled 'Migrants, Refugees, and Asylum Seekers' Integration in European Labour Markets. A Comparative Approach on Legal Barriers and Enablers' discusses how, and to what extent, the legal and institutional regimes and the socio-cultural environments of a range of European countries (the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Italy, Switzerland and the United Kingdom), in the…
2021
The interaction between identity preservation and linguistic integration of immigrants: The case study of Eritreans in Switzerland
This study investigates the interaction between identity preservation and linguistic integration of Eritrean immigrants in the French speaking part of Switzerland. The focus is put on Eritrean refugees and asylum seekers, who have been in Switzerland between six months to three years. This research is guided by three main research questions: a) what are their language use? b) what are…
2021
Refugee students’ inclusion in higher education – A multi-dimensional analysis of the German-speaking part of Switzerland
With an increasing number of refugees and asylum seekers, the recognition of the importance of inclusion pathways is growing. The role that higher education plays in the resettlement of students with refugee backgrounds is increasingly receiving attention. However, only a small amount of research has been dedicated to the experiences of refugee students in Switzerland. Thus, institutions may be poorly…
2021
An overview of refugee education in Europe
The overview of refugee children education in Europe we provide in this book is part of the Erasmus + project “ITIRE: Improving teaching to improve refugee children education”. Following the unprecedented flow of forced migrants to Europe in 2015, several countries have adopted measures to facilitate the enrolment of refugee children in the educational system. These actions have produced a…
2020
France
Greece
Bulgaria
Access & participation
Spain
Latvia
Türkiye
Denmark
Cyprus
Malta
Iceland
Albania
Norway
Belgium
Luxembourg
Intervention
Romania
Monaco
Switzerland
Bosnia
Czechia
Human rights
Croatia
Germany
Estonia
Sweden
Finland
Italy
Macedonia
Austria
Poland
Slovenia
Portugal
United Kingdom
Serbia
Slovakia
Caregivers
Netherlands
Lithuania
English
Ireland
Hungary
Being inside out: the slippery slope between inclusion and exclusion in a Swiss educational project for unaccompanied refugee youth
This article discusses how important social markers surrounding the figure of the unaccompanied minor, such as ‘integration’ and ‘deservingness’ are negotiated and made sense of by unaccompanied refugee youth and their teachers in a Swiss integration class. Starting from the premise of the classroom as both, a project of future-making and control, I investigate the ambiguous potential of education in…
2020
Refugee students’ access to three european universities: An ethnographic study
The article presents an ethnographic fieldwork carried out at three universities in Switzerland, Germany, and France, and analyses how access to higher education for refugees was addressed in the three cases, how and which institutional change and activities were initiated, and by which actors. The article argues that the topic cannot be addressed in isolation but has to consider four…
2019
Frontiers of belonging: the education of unaccompanied refugee youth
As unprecedented numbers of unaccompanied African minors requested asylum in Europe in 2015, Annika Lems witnessed a peculiar dynamic: despite inclusionary language in official policy and broader society, these children faced a deluge of exclusionary practices in the classroom and beyond. Frontiers of Belonging traces the educational paths of refugee youth arriving in Switzerland amid the shifting sociopolitical terrain of…
2022
Identity processes and sense: Constructing a training project during asylum procedure [Dynamiques identitaires et sens d’un projet de formation au cours de la procédure d’asile]
The beginning of life in exile is a period of transition with a profound change of life trajectory. It requires adaptation to a new context and initiates profound identity processes. In this situation, investing in a vocational training project means a particular commitment to construct a new life course. This paper looks into asylum seekers' various motivations to get engaged…
2020
Integration of provisionally admitted asylum seekers in Switzerland: The role of vocational training [Intégration des demandeur·euse·s d’asile admis·es provisoirement en Suisse: Rôle de la formation professionnelle]
Migration is now an integral part of global issues and the integration of migrants is of increasing concern to public authorities and these populations. In Switzerland, provisionally admitted asylum seekers are one category that encounters more integration difficulties related mainly to their status. Among difficulties, those relating to access to the labor market and vocational training are still crucial despite…
2020
Unlocking the Potential of Migrants: Cross-country Analysis
Among the millions of asylum seekers who recently arrived in OECD countries, the majority are young people who may be able to take advantage of vocational education and training (VET) opportunities to help them enter skilled employment. This report provides advice to governments and other stakeholders who are seeking to use VET to promote integration, in particular for young humanitarian…
2019
Highly skilled asylum seekers: Case studies of refugee students at a swiss university
The article argues that the applicability and value of “skills” depend to a considerable degree on the way in which a person enters a country. Based on a study on potential university students with refugee backgrounds, it shows how difficult it can be to transfer skills through the migration channel of asylum in Switzerland and how social and cultural capital…
2018
Unaccompanied minor asylum seekers-processes of subject formation and feelings of belonging in the context of educational experiences in Switzerland
This article addresses unaccompanied minor asylum seekers’ (UAMs) educational experiences in Switzerland. Drawing on ethnographic research we explore what it means for UAMs to get an education and how having access or not having access to particular forms and spaces of education plays a part in the process of their subject formations. We get insights into such processes in diverse…
2017
The construction of “official outlaws”. Social-psychological and educational implications of a deterrent asylum policy
With the increasing numbers of immigrants seeking to obtain political asylum, the receiving conditions and the deportability of refused asylum seekers have emerged as major issues. Concern with these questions has been addressed through renewed asylum policies involving expeditious processing of applications, tight restrictions upon the right to work, removal of support or detention for failed asylum seekers. These asylum…
2015