In a context of mass displacement and flows of asylum-seeking and refugee peoples across national borders, the need to respond and attend to the education of asylum-seeking and refugee children is urgent and pressing, though it is not without its challenges. This literature review focuses on the educational experiences of asylum seeking and refugee children, including those who are unaccompanied,…

This report provides essential data and information on educational challenges faced by nearly 50 million uprooted children around the world. It notes that some of these children and their families migrate in pursuit of better education or job opportunities, while others are forced from their homes because of conflicts or natural disasters. Whether they are refugees, internally displaced people or…

Notwithstanding the efforts made by EU Member States in recent years, third-country nationals continue to be placed at a disadvantage regarding employment, education and social inclusion compared to EU citizens (OECD/European Union, 2015). For refugees, and people with a migration background at large, education is key for socio-economic success and for overcoming disadvantages in European societies. Education fosters social inclusion,…

Background and objectives: This study set out to explore identities among university students from forced migrant backgrounds. Issues related to identity have been found to contribute to the specific and significant challenges this student group can face in higher education. The research question was: how do students from forced migrant backgrounds understand their identities. Focusing on identities, through a dialogical…

The flow of migration recently in Europe with high numbers of asylum-seekers influenced not only the demographic scale of the European countries, but also the governmental instrumentality through which the crisis can be tackled. In regards to higher education sector, the social dimension of higher educational institutions has consequential responsibility in response to the refugee crisis in Europe. In this…

As high levels of forced migration continue to challenge Europe, countries like Sweden are attempting to incorporate asylum-seekers into its education system. Over the past 50 years Sweden’s education system has undergone a unique shift from a centralized to a decentralized parental-choice model of schools. An approach called plural education promotes equity through shared experience and support for equity creating…

More than 14.000 children who are refugees or asylum seeking are attending compulsory schools in Austria. The refugee crisis is a current topic, which is influencing the everyday school-life in many Austrian schools. Not all schools are prepared for this challenge. In order to point out possibilities for improving the refugee situation in Austrian schools, the aim of this study…

Strategy Development in the context of Quality Frameworks for Education in Emergencies can be a great tool for education providers for supporting refugee children’s integration to formal education and society in Europe. In this MA thesis, the aim was to identify existing quality assurance frameworks, evaluate them and apply the most relevant one to a case study; the British Council…

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…

This study aims at to address the problem of understanding how the University of Oslo (UiO) and the Kings College of London (KCL) support refugees through their respective programs: the Academic Dugnad and Sanctuary. To do so, the first step was to structure a conceptual framework based on the idea that university civic engagement (UCE) can be conceptualized as a…

Teachers worldwide are adapting to meet educational needs caused by increased immigration. Germany has many immigrant students and ranks high in international education. This case study investigated experiences of English-speaking native-born German educators in Germany’s public primary schools when responding to refugee and immigrant students. Experiences when responding means how educators interact with immigrant students in school settings and perceive…

Education is a human right to which any child should have access; yet, the provision of education in emergency situations is particularly difficult and education is often left behind. This holds true when dealing with refugee children´s education as well: for those children, education is a key element that enables their protection and development. Education goes beyond formal and institutionalized…

In Sweden, tutoring in the mother tongue is a special support measure primarily intended for newly arrived students to facilitate their transition into the Swedish school system. Tutoring is premised on the collaboration between the class teacher, responsible for subject-related expertise, and the tutor, who contributes with knowledge of the student’s mother tongue and previous context of studies. In this…

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…

The aim of this study is to obtain information about the awareness of social studies teacher candidates about the refugee problem in Turkey. In this regard, a group of teacher candidates are asked their opinion on the subject of refugees in Turkey and as to how they perceive the problem. Interview method is used in the study for data collection.…

Drawing on discursive psychology this article examines the understandings teachers and principals in Danish Public Schools have regarding Somali diaspora parenting practices. Furthermore, the article investigates what these understandings mean in interaction with children in the classrooms and with parents in home–school communication. It is argued that in a society with increased focus on parental responsibility the teachers and principals…

A large proportion of the children and young people in residential child care in Spain are there as a consequence of abuse and neglect in their birth families. Research has shown that these types of adverse circumstances in childhood are risk factors for emotional and behavioral problems, as well as difficulties in adapting to different contexts. School achievement is related…

This article presents findings from a qualitative study with Unaccompanied Young People (UYP) who have sought asylum alone in the UK without a parent or guardian. The findings explore how UYP create biographical narratives of their past, present, and future as they prepare to leave care, suggesting that UYP who have settled immigration status create coherent biographical narratives that reconcile…

This special issue brings to the forefront the complex educational challenges faced by migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers. It focuses on different ways of understanding equity in relation to education for/with refugees and migrants. The core articles gathered for the special issue originate from the Comparative Education Society in Europe (CESE) conference on the theme of “Equity in and Through…

This article draws on research with a group of refugee women who attend English for speakers of other languages (ESOL) classes at a community center in London. It considers the role education can play in their social integration processes, employing an approach that has been developed from feminist notions of empowerment and social practice theories of literacy and language use.…

The purpose of this study is to explore the educational status of Syrian refugees in Turkish schools, and the perspectives of teachers and school principals regarding the needs of Syrian refugee students in two inner-city elementary schools in Istanbul, Turkey. A qualitative interpretive case study method was employed. Eight participants (seven teachers and one school principal), who had Syrian refugee…

Educational e-services in schools help to bridge the gap between parents and teachers by sharing information about the children's school activities in a collaborative way. However, there is a lack of research explaining how effectively this collaboration takes place and the challenges that inhibit as well as promote such collaboration in a multicultural context. This paper investigates the factors which…

This paper draws on qualitative interviews to explore the educational experiences amongst the UK-born adult children of refugees from Vietnam, Sri Lanka (Tamils) and Turkey (Kurdish). Second generation from refugee backgrounds are characterised by diversity and as a group are increasing numerically. However, little is known about the specificity of their experiences as they have been either subsumed within or…

This paper presents and discusses an arts-based project, carried out by the first-year students in the classroom, at the Department of Social Work, in Athens, Greece. The project was designed for raising ethical awareness and knowledge of the 2015 Europe’s refugee crisis among social work students. The purpose of this project was three-fold: (1) to help students to better understand…

While existing research has shown the importance of the three interrelated domains of the wider policy, the school and home/community environments in the development of quality education for learners, this literature does not fully capture the experiences of the refugee population. In this article we focus on a group of Syrian refugees who came as part of the first large…

In this practical contribution two projects are presented that the authors conducted independently from one another and which are located chronologically before and after the noticeably major immigration wave in Germany in 2015: Christina Witz worked on the short film Good to know - an appointment with the gynaecologist with young farsi-speaking women in a long-term project at the media…

In this article, we adopt a collaborative auto-ethnographic approach to explore the experiences of one refugee university student. Our method involved all three authors systematically analysing narratives written by one of us: R Student. These accounts provide deep descriptions of his life while studying at three different United Kingdom universities and our analysis of them demonstrates that higher education was…

While many unaccompanied minors deal with their precarious situation by focusing on school success, there is a lack of knowledge about the diversity of factors that hinder and stimulate their life trajectories, including their school career. This article focuses on the long term school trajectories of unaccompanied minors who were highly motivated to have a successful school career when they…

[No abstract available]

[No abstract available]

Refugees are people, like you and me. They have been forced to flee their homes by war or persecution, often leaving behind virtually all their worldly possessions. Once they have been recognised as refugees here in the UK, they have a chance to rebuild their lives in safety. But new challenges very rapidly arise. This report is concerned with one…

While many public figures and civil society members perceive irregular migration as the source of various problems that modern societies encounter nowadays, this paper argues that this form of migration is rather the output of an outdated international system. The latter tends to protect the modern societies by enforcing the borders of nation states and leaving the most disadvantaged individuals…

This study investigates critical pedagogical approaches within local contexts of refugee and asylum seeker English language classes within Ireland. Intrinsic to this study is cognisance of the landscape of the setting both in Ireland and worldwide. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) says that the current time is unprecedented in terms of the scale of displaced peoples, asylum…

BACKGROUND In recent years, there has been an increase in the number of children with a refugee background in the Netherlands. All of these children who are under18 years of age mustgo to school, buttheyface many barriers towards inclusion. Appropriately educating this diverse group of children presentsschools with challenges.Supportive programsare needed to overcome these barriers and challenges.AIMThe aim of this…

The research focus of this study is adult refugee learners sitting the Lower Secondary Exam in written English, in Norway. Since 2014, the exam has been the same for all candidates, regardless of their background. In spring 2015, the majority group of exam candidates, ethnic Norwegian 10th grade learners, received the average grade 3.9, while the average exam grade for…

In the face of unprecedented numbers of asylum seekers, German universities are inviting newcomers to enroll in their tuition-free study programs. However, so far only a handful of asylum seekers can be found in lecture halls across the country as legal and financial barriers condemn thousands of young and eager men and women to months and even years of idleness.

The significant increase in refugees in Europe and worldwide during 2015 challenges the paradigm of refugee education. For many decades, 'refugee education' has been primarily associated with the education of refugees in countries far-away as the majority of the world's displaced persons and refugees are hosted by countries in the Global South. However, the recent European 'refugee crisis', that is,…

For this study, we listened to children who had fled with their families. We made a very conscious decision to focus on accompanied minors who have been displaced, because they go through the standard asylum system with their parent/guardian, which is why they often remain "invisible" as regards their own needs and their specific situation. We gave accompanied children who…

Problem Statement: Historically, Turkey is an immigrant country. It has experienced various migration waves from Asia, Awrupa and Africa. Recently, Turkey has confronted a huge wave of migration. Turkey tries to meet many needs besides the educational needs of refugees, but there is not enough study on refugess in the field of educational sciences in Turkey. Purpose of the Study:…

In previous historical periods, people migrated because their lives were in danger; even though we have entered the second decade of the 21st century, such things are unfortunately still taking place, because armed conflicts are still occurring, for instance in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Syria, etc. In 2015, more people emigrated to other countries than in previous decades, especially to Europe;…

Education policy is uniquely placed to address the soft security concerns of refugee resettlement, with educators equipped to recognise, react and respond to the unique education needs and welfare of the Syria’s next generation. An appropriate education policy response to the refugee crisis can reduce the risk of stigma, isolation, intra-community tensions, marginalisation and even radicalisation. The protracted nature of…

Enabling access of refugees to education institutions causes challenges for those countries in Europe, which have accepted large numbers of refugees in 2015. Services are being saturated because of high numbers of refugees, questions regarding living and service provision (as such) become more and more pressuring. Financial means are limited. The Austrian school system has succeeded in providing for those…

The issue of migrants and refugees has occupied Europe for the last few months. Much of the discourse surrounding this issue has been overwhelmingly negative, lapsing at times into stereotype, prejudice and even hate speech. As language teachers at a humanities faculty, we have a responsibility to address this issue in the classroom, especially as classroom experience tells us that…

German authorities are expecting more than 1 million refugees by the end of 2015. These people come to Germany to seek protection and assistance and to build a new life, therefore it is important to welcome them and to assist them in their integration as soon as possible. This situation creates a versatile and perfectly fitting opportunity for cultural and…

Abstract: The following article explores the conceptual background and pedagogical realities of establishing a well-being focussed language pedagogy in the context of an informal educational event called ‘Language Fest’. The event was organised as part of the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council-funded large grant project ‘Researching Multilingually at the Borders of Language, the Body, Law and the State’ –…

German for Foreigners (Deutsch als Fremdsprache) is an established field of German Studies which focuses on the methodology and didactics of teaching a language and a culture of communication. Should we want to refer to German used as the language of communication among immigrants living within a German-speaking environment, we need to talk about German as a Second Language (Deutsch…

The number of refugees who have fled across international borders due to conflict and persecution is at the highest level in recorded history. The vast majority of these refugees find exile in low-income countries neighboring their countries of origin. The refugee children who are resettled to North America, Europe, and Australia arrive with previous educational experiences in these countries of…

Access to needed mental health services can be particularly difficult for newly arrived refugee and asylum-seeking adolescents, although many attend school. This study examined young refugees' impressions and experience of mental health services integrated within the school system. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 40 adolescent refugees discharged by three school-based mental health services across the United Kingdom. Two-thirds preferred to…

Education systems around the world have experienced a rise in the number of newly arrived students. This article explores the manner in which the Swedish education system responds to the diverse needs of these students. Using the concept of post-migration ecology, the authors outline and critically discuss the legal, organisational, and pedagogical responses that make up the educational landscape and…