Feeling a sense of belonging at school is associated with important positive outcomes for youth and requires youth to engage in positive social relationships. Yet there is a limited understanding of the social factors most associated with youths' school belonging and limited evidence about whether correlates of school belonging vary for marginalized groups like newcomers compared to majority groups. Sweden…

Scholars draw increasing attention to the importance of belonging for young refugees’ and migrants’ well-being, indicating the need to develop an in-depth understanding of their experiences seeking to belong in resettlement. For refugee and migrant newcomers, schools might constitute particularly significant spaces in their negotiation of belonging, due to being a central developmental and acculturative context in resettlement, and a…

The concept of belonging has grown in prominence in research and policy relating to new arrivals from refugee and asylum-seeking backgrounds. Arguably, belonging is replacing integration and inclusion as the panacea to perceived problems associated with places and societies where new arrivals settle. Belonging is also prominent in the literature about formal and informal educational contexts. This paper problematises the…

This thesis focuses on young former refugees’ lived experiences of and reflections on processes of place attachment and negotiation of belonging in Norway. The analysis draws on a postcolonial understanding of migration and belonging, and is inspired by post-structuralism and critical phenomenology. The thesis analyses belonging from two perspectives: as a personal relationship to people and places, and as relationally…

This article uses a refugee centred approach to explore experiences of belonging through higher education. It is based on fieldwork conducted during the fall of 2019 in Gaziantep, Turkey. This article aims to understand the factors that form refugees' sense of belonging and the degree to which the contextualized experiences of refugee youths influence their sense of belonging in the…

This article builds on Yuval-Davis’s (2006, 2007, 2011) theories of belonging, in order to relay how practitioners can support unaccompanied asylum-seeking children (UASCs) in developing a positive sense of belonging in educational spaces in England. To do so, the article synthesises literature surrounding theories of belonging, UASCs’ educational access in England and practices supporting UASCs’ educational attainment and sense of…

Research into refugee students’ settlement in host countries highlights school belonging as essential to their wellbeing and academic achievement. This research aimed to understand how secondary school refugee students experience school belonging in the North East of England. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis was used to understand the views of refugee students. Four superordinate themes were developed: agency, participation, safety and separation.…

This study investigated the Syrian refugee students’ sense of school belonging and educational aspirations in Türkiye. The study used a mixed methodology. The sample consisted of 318 Syrian students in middle (grades 5–8) and high schools (grades 9–12) in a metropolitan municipality located in a large city in central Anatolia in the fall of the 2021–2022 academic year. The quantitative…

This chapter begins with a further extract from an interview with Gare, which illustrates how he has experienced a sense of belonging as he has built connections within and outside his education provision. The chapter then moves to a portrait of Jasmine Gardens Academy, which offers a rich case study of how one institution works to foster a growing sense…

Even though receiving newcomer pupils in schools is not a new phenomenon, many education systems grapple with finding adequate schooling arrangements that foster belonging and inclusion. Over the years, policy-makers and school practitioners seem to echo recurring dilemmas in terms of what language support models may promote optimal inclusion, and whether and how to support the language of schooling while…

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…

Schools are chief among the social institutions impacted by migrant flows as key sites of integration and support for migrant children. This article focuses on micro-and meso-level interactions and their importance to experiences of belonging and socio-educational integration for migrant children. It explores outcomes from qualitative research in Ireland conducted as part of a European research project investigating the socio-educational…

Schools are chief among the social institutions impacted by migrant flows as key sites of integration and support for migrant children. This article focuses on micro-and meso-level interactions and their importance to experiences of belonging and socio-educational integration for migrant children. It explores outcomes from qualitative research in Ireland conducted as part of a European research project investigating the socio-educational…

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…

The population of refugees and forced migrants is increasing worldwide, and there is an increasing portion who aspire to pursue higher education. This research paper highlights the gap in existing literature regarding the experiences of refugee students in universities and the best practices for supporting them. Utilising qualitative methods, this research includes media analyses and nine interviews from wellbeing teams…

The education of students from refugee and asylum seeker backgrounds is an international concern. It calls for inspired teachers, sensitive interventions, and informed leadership. This writing discusses the views of students, teachers, general staff, parents, and the principal of a primary school in regional New South Wales, Australia regarding the sense of belonging that is so critical to the very…

This chapter begins with an overview of the context of the movement of people across borders, the notion of a refugee ‘crisis’ in Europe and the political responses to this. Despite hostile and complicated bureaucratic barriers, people still seek refuge in destinations far from their starting points. Often, for young people this is due to the pull of education. This…

Across the world, children are forced to leave their homes for far-flung destinations. This global phenomenon has particular impact in Europe, where there are now more child refugees than since World War II. Education plays an important role for children with extraordinary experiences seeking to build meaningful lives in their new context. This article offers a new theoretical approach to…

This paper investigates how young refugees settled in rural Norway and Denmark experience their new places of residence. We find inspiration in the idea of ‘contradictions of space’ (Kinkaid [2020]. “Re-encountering Lefebvre: Toward a Critical Phenomenology of Social Space.” Society and Space 38 (1): 167–186.) in exploring how young refugees navigate issues in rural life from housing, education, work and…

In Norway, as in other Western countries, the increasing number of refugees in recent years has turned the education of refugee children and young people into a central issue. The challenge countries face is how their education provisions can contribute to young refugees’ successful inclusion into mainstream schools as well as into host societies. The aim of this chapter is…

This systematic review aims to explore refugees' educational access, experiences and outcomes in Europe since 2015. The review follows a systematic process of reviewing and synthesising texts compiled in the Hub for Education for Refugees in Europe (HERE) Knowledge Base to fill gaps in knowledge about the educational trajectories of learners of refugee and forced migrant backgrounds who have arrived…

Given the high number of refugee children and adolescents around the globe, it is critical to determine conditions that foster their adaptation in the receiving country. This study investigated the psychological adaptation of recently arrived adolescent refugees in Germany. We focused on whether psychological adaptation reflects the organizational approach taken by the school that refugee adolescents initially attended. School is…

Background: According to the risk and resilience perspective, protective factors can attenuate the effect of risks and challenges on children's adjustment. For immigrant and refugee children, supportive relationships in the new context can be particularly beneficial. We expected that supportive school relationships play a protective role for the school adjustment of first-generation immigrant and refugee and non-immigrant children, by moderating…

This report provides an overview of the legal and policy framework of integration policies in the UK and explains the main contours of immigrant integration. The report looks into policies (macro-level), practices of stakeholders (meso-level) and experiences of immigrants (microlevel) in five thematic fields: a) labour market, b) education, c) housing and spatial integration, d) psychosocial health and e) citizenship…

In the present study, perceptions of Turkish school administrators and teachers towards Syrian refugee children were examined through metaphors. 71 school administrators and 242 teachers from 27 different provinces of Turkey participated in the study. As a result of the study, the metaphors produced by school administrators were grouped into four categories: "child with cultural adaptation and belonging problems", "fragile…

This article scrutinises the ways in which pupils who have experienced transnational migration construct ‘home’ and the unmaking of ‘home’. Researchers have argued that migrants’ perspectives on belonging are seldom granted scholarly attention. Here, we seek to redress this oversight by inquiring about the ways in which newly arrived migrants define their (un)homeliness in Sweden in the context of astate-sponsored…

After claiming asylum, refugee children work to re-build their worlds across three dimensions: safety, belonging, and success. This article examines the pedagogical practices that support this work arguing that a key, but under-examined practice draws on what we have termed pedagogical love. Building on a qualitative Finnish-Australian study, we suggest that as refugee students enter schools in their host countries,…

This paper investigates opportunities and obstacles refugee women face in establishment in rural areas. Drawing on ethnographic research in three rural municipalities in northern Sweden, including interviews with refugee women, local employers and educational staff, I analyse the women’s space for agency and opportunities to use and capitalise on different resources in relation to the local labour market and belonging.…

Background: The question of how best to support children who are refugees to resettle and thrive in a new country is important and complex. One of the many challenges experienced by such children is disrupted education. It is widely recognised that a sense of belonging and integration within a new school and community are key to enhancing children’s chances of…

This article explores the sustainability of the resettlement of unaccompanied refugee children from their perspective. Against the backdrop of a critical assessment of the multilevel governance of resettlement, it compares two rural municipalities. Unaccompanied refugee children in the municipality with a disempowering local governance model were hindered to engage with civil society, while in the municipality with an enabling model,…

As migratory waves increase and get more complex, social inequalities are likely to arise due to challenges associated with cultural differences, language or lack of supportive networks. Beside international laws and guidelines, responses have been developed for supporting young forced migrants inclusion in host countries. There are suggestions in the literature that sport, if intentionally used as an educational strategy…

This doctoral research project is a visual linguistic ethnography that provides thick descriptions of newly arrived Syrian refugees’ smartphone-mediated digital literacy practices. The study investigates how three male newcomers to Leeds, Rojan, Aban and Mamoud, utilize mobile technologies and online resources, such as multilingual Facebook groups and smartphone applications, to instigate and support processes of settlement and belonging. To trace…

This report explores the Swedish integration policies and practices as well as their implementation as experienced by newcomers. Integration refers to the permanent settlement period that sets in after the acquisition of a permanent residence permit, or when one starts mentally adapting to the host society. Through a multilevel governance approach, it highlights how legal, political, and institutional integration frameworks…

The Italian case is characterised by a considerable delay in the development of a model of integration. Indeed, with a long tradition as a country of emigration, Italy has been culturally less well equipped to face the challenges of a multicultural society. Moreover, the country’s geographical position – which impedes an efficient control of the borders – has incentivised policies…

What happens when we require newcomers to learn a country’s dominant language before they can work, study and become citizens? At first blush, this may seem beneficial for newcomers and local communities alike. In fact, language proficiency requirements across Europe are often treated as innocuous components of broader immigration policies. However, recent scholarship in linguistic anthropology and related fields has…

This article explores the linguistic strategies of young refugees (ages 12-23) in the Netherlands. The study takes place within a societal context in which new migrants and refugees are increasingly pressured to learn Dutch as key to their integration, but English is becoming more and more dominant, and in which learning Dutch is not considered necessary for other newcomer groups…

Refugee children and adolescents have often experienced negative or traumatic events, which are associated with stress and mental health problems. A specific music therapy intervention is developed for this group in school settings. The aim of the present study was to set the first steps in the implementation of this intervention. A process evaluation was performed using a mixed method…

Contrary to popular media tropes of the ‘young, lone, male refugee’ arriving at Europe’s borders, Greece has in fact seen a steady flow of female refugees arriving since 2015. Most newcomers come in family groups, and many, including teenage girls, are mothers – many of whom aspire to continue (or begin) their schooling. While access to formal education has increased…

How school systems respond to immigration has an enormous impact on the economic and social well-being of all members of the communities they serve, whether they have an immigrant background or not. Immigrant Students at School: Easing the Journey towards Integration reveals some of the difficulties immigrant students encounter – and some of the contributions they offer – as they…

The number of refugees arriving to Iceland over the past years has increased a lot, which has led to increased discussion in Iceland on how the country is managing to include refugee students in the school. The school can play an important role in helping the children to deal with their emotions and to establish meaningful connections in the new…

Europe has experienced a significant shift in demographics over the past several decades. This internationalization is in part due to intra-European mobility, falling birth rates among native-born citizens, and the influx of refugees fleeing from civil wars in developing countries such as Syria and Sudan. This trend has sparked research into the integration of immigrant-background students. Data from the Organisation…

The role of MOOCs and OERs as effective resources for social inclusion of disadvantaged groups has been greatly emphasized in recent years due to the increased numbers of refugees and migrants, especially in European societies. A recent study carried out by the Joint Research Centre (JRC) of the European Commission on free digital learning (FDL) opportunities for migrants and refugees…

This paper examines refugee students' experiences in the Austrian mainstream school system. It highlights four areas: school connectedness, social exclusion, support systems and friendships. In the study, 55 refugee students between 8 and 21 years old enrolled in primary and secondary education participated in a semi-structured interview. Data were analysed with directed qualitative content analysis, whereby codes were created deductively…

This study aimed to investigate the perceived social support and hopelessness levels experienced by 416 Syrian refugee women coming to Konya city since 2011 and compare refugee women’s perceived social support and hopelessness levels with the duration of stay in a new country. The Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support and the Beck Hopelessness Scale were used to collect the…

In the aftermath of the so-called ‘refugee crisis’ in 2015, unaccompanied minors have been depicted as potential threats and challenges to receiving countries in the Swedish public debate. Through narratives of unaccompanied youngsters from 2011 to 2012, this article will illustrate that these youngsters were already struggling with the ambiguous refugee figures of the ‘deserving’ and ‘undeserving’ prior to the…

This chapter begins with a portrait of life at Fern College, a bespoke post-16 provision for refugee and unaccompanied asylum-seeking children. The chapter then explains the context for the development of this full-time provision, which is a pilot project whose holistic curriculum was heavily influenced and shaped by the theoretical concepts of safety, belonging and success. The chapter then analyses…

This article is about navigating asylum, employment and language policy in a new country as an asylum seeker. Through the story of one individual, we show that profound inequalities are exacerbated when forced migrants are limited in their choice of language they might study or use. The individual is Tailor F, an Iraqi man seeking asylum, and the country is…

Purpose: In this article, we focus on the language introduction (LI) programme for newly arrived migrants aged 16–19 in Sweden. We ask how it is organized for inclusion and what kinds of exclusion arise from such an organization. More specifically, we ask the question: in what ways do different settings for LI exclude at the same time as they include?…

This research was set within the context of the refugee crisis and children and young people’s (CYP) rights. This study aimed to explore the educational experiences of unaccompanied children and young people (UCYP), a particularly high-risk group who are separated from their parents due to reasons such as war, persecution or violence, and whom do not have the protection of…

This thesis explores the process of social inclusion of adult migrant learners enrolled in integration education programs. It reveals the Inclusectionalities denoting the intersections of inclusion and exclusion through which liminal spaces are revealed that position migrant students as between and betwixt belonging and othering. The study is based on research findings obtained during multiple case study fieldwork in Finland…