England did not participate in the 1st NRT round (2017-18: Setting the scene workshop). For this reason, the ‘Setting the scene’ stage was incorporated in the preparation activities of the 2018-19 workshop. Specific topics were identified as priority policy areas both through a review of the findings from recent research carried out in these areas and through consultation with a…

The context is provided on the basis of the conclusions of the Access to Educational Report for refugee and migrant children in Europe, carried out jointly by Unhcr, Unicef ​​and Iom. A greater effort is needed to ensure that all minors who are migrants, refugees and asylum seekers have access to quality education and guarantees for the continuation of their…

The National Round Table (NRT) 2019 program was structured around 4+1 topics related to educational integration of refugee children. The 4 main topics were chosen by the participants in the NRT 2018 in Sofia as the most relevant nationally. To take advantage of the pan-European nature of the SIRIUS Network and its spin-off projects, a special focus was put on…

On 7th July 2019, a new government has been elected in Greece, for the forthcoming four years. The new Minister of Education as well as the new vice Minister of Migration Policy will be interviewed in order to select data about the new forthcoming education policies. Amongst the first announced structural changes are the transfer of the Autonomous Department of…

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…

Taking place at the University of Edinburgh – a founding member of the ACU – from 7-8 March 2019, 'Extending the welcome' brought together academics, policymakers, students, and partners from across the Commonwealth and beyond to explore the role of universities in supporting displaced people worldwide. Providing a forum to share best practice, the event showcased innovative approaches to supporting…

ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) provision for asylum seekers and refugees in Scotland is distinctive within the UK. The Scottish Government waives ESOL fees for asylum seekers, meaning that ESOL provision is not formally restricted according to immigration status. The ESOL environment in Scotland is currently characterised by complexity. ESOL providers include: colleges, local authorities, ALEOs, the third…

This study focuses on a group of refugee women from the Middle East who were forced to leave their homes, live in a refugee camp, and move to a small town in Iceland. Interviews were conducted to explore their experiences of resettlement in their new home. Five themes emerged: receptivity of the community, “Islamic way of life,” gender roles, lack…

Background: As of February 2020, Northern Ireland (NI) has welcomed 1,815 Syrian refugees, almost half of whom are under the age of 18 (NI Department for Communities, 2020), and many of whom have special educational needs. This study aims to explore the reasonable adjustments made by educational communities thus far, to minimise the impact of potential barriers to learning for…

Three UN agencies are calling on European States to increase resources and practical support for their school systems to ensure all refugee, asylum-seeking and migrant children can access and stay in quality education. In a briefing paper published today, UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, UNICEF, the United Nations Children’s Fund, and IOM, the International Organization for Migration, detail the obstacles…

This report outlines how individuals at the University of Leicester’s English Language Teaching Unit (ELTU) re-evaluated their role as Gatekeepers to the University by implementing new measures to facilitate the admission of a group for whom the gates would typically be shut: refugees and asylum seekers (RASs). It describes how, incrementally and in response to the human stories of individuals…

[No abstract available]

The recent influx of refugees has brought new adversities for countries which seek to grant asylum for displaced families. Policy makers and societies suddenly realize the challenges that urban systems face in integrating the sudden influx of newcomers. This dissertation provides an understanding of the role that states and societies play in the process of social integration of newcomers, using…

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…

Migration worldwide is characterized by the presence of unaccompanied minors, separated from their parents or any primary caregivers. The present study aimed to fill literature gaps on the acculturation and adaptation of unaccompanied migrant and refugee adolescents. The Ward and Geeraert model (2016), which explores how acculturation unfolds within different ecological contexts, namely societal, institutional and familial, was employed to…

Refugee is a person who has to flee his or her country due to the dangers threatening his or her life. The percentage of refugees, who have been forced to abandon their country in search of a better life, is being increased. As a result of hardships they have been coping with during their immigration, they might suffer from psychological…

Forced migration is one of the most important issues of our time. By the end of 2017, 68.5 million people were estimated to be forcibly displaced across the world due to factors such as persecution, human rights violations, environmental degradation, and conflict (UNHCR 2017). A small percentage of displaced people come to the United Kingdom, and some have been resettled…

This research gathers and analyses the good practices of refugee reception and integration in the Italian higher education system. The methodological approach includes both qualitative and quantitative methods based on interviews and questionnaires to students, professors, and government scholarship secretariats. Several Italian institutions collaborated in this research. The study found that the number of scholarships offered is higher than the…

After rising numbers of international immigrants in European countries including Finland since 2015, both receiving societies and immigrants have faced different challenges of integration. Education is one main factor influencing decisively immigrant’s and in particular immigrant children’s integration into receiving societies. And undoubtedly, parents play a key role in their children’s success in education and later life. In consequence, in…

BACKGROUND Good mental health makes integration and participation easier. Many refugees have a great deal of resilience and it is important to maintain it and where possible to strengthen it. How much psychological complaints and disorders occur is partly dependent on having (prospect of) work, education or other forms of participation in society, experiencing social support, and having a social…

Second-language learning courses that are often offered to asylum seekers provide a unique opportunity for a pedagogy of critique to be implemented. However, there is essentially no existing research in Iceland, and very little internationally, that considers the practicality of implementing a pedagogy of critique within second-language classrooms for asylum seekers. Moreover, the experiences of teachers and students within these…

Schools and teachers play key roles in promoting positive re-settlement outcomes for refugees and migrants. As such, this requires schools and teachers to identify and respond to their diverse linguistic, cultural and emotional needs (Pastoor, 2015; Block et al., 2015; Hek, 2005). As a result, teacher roles can stem beyond their traditional expectations when presented with refugee and migrant pupils…

Recent global reports by UNHCR indicate that 65.6 million people around the world have been forced out of their homes and among them are nearly 22.5 million refugees; half of them are children. Greek islands serve as hotspots following the EU-Turkey deal of 2016, which meant that refugees entering EU through Greek islands could not move to the mainland without…

This PhD project explored the experiences of 14 adult Syrian refugee language learners, recently arrived in the North East of England, as they learned English and negotiated their sense of self in their new environment. It sought to uncover the ways in which identities, identity transformations, and relations of power were implicated in the Syrians' investment in learning English. Further,…

The importance of the role of the Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) practitioner in the life of the child is understood and acknowledged (Hayes, O'Toole and Halpenny, 2017). This study focused on discovering the challenges Early Childhood Educators face when teaching children who are living in Direct Provision. The Bronfenbrenner bioecological theory was used as the theoretical framework as…

Beginning in 2011, the Syrian Conflict caused the widespread displacement of over five million people and caused a steep rise in the number of asylum seekers entering the European Union. Chancellor Angela Merkel adopted a controversial open-door policy in the summer 2015 that lifted previous quotas on the number of refugees that could enter Germany (Liebe, Meyerhoff, Kroesen, Chorus, and…

As one of the leading members of the European Union, France is highly regarded in terms of the development of sustainable systems for managing migration flows and upholding human rights. Considering that the region Île-de-France receives the highest number of asylum demands in the nation, local government structures are facing the challenge of addressing the rights and needs of asylum…

Greece encountered an unparalleled flow of people in 2015, what has been described as a “refugee crisis”. A substantial proportion of the refugee population comprised of children under the age of 18. The Greek state has been called to provide these children with the fundamental right to education. Considering that the need for refugee education provision at such a large…

European policy on migration does not safeguard the rights of refugees as they travel into and across European State borders (Rygiel, Ataç, Köster-Eiserfunke, & Schwiertz, 2015). Furthermore, refugees currently in transit through Europe have little or no access to media platforms. Mainstream media frames the current migration flow into Europe with narratives of charity, sympathy, and criminality (Rettberg & Gajjala,…

In September 2015, Germany witnessed an unanticipated migration of refugees toward the European Union. The government established an open-border policy that meant Germany would harbor all refugee arrivals. In large, the civil society joined efforts to create a so-called Willkommenskultur (welcome culture) during the “summer of welcome.” This chapter will introduce the project “Start ins Deutsche” (German language kick-off) of…

This chapter is dedicated to presenting and analyzing the accounts of young men in the UK from an asylum-seeking background about how they experience a university. The chapter has been written with the goal of contributing to existing literature about how to promote an understanding about the active engagement of refugee students in higher education in the UK. It focuses…

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The German vocational education and training (VET) system is admired around the world for its ability to prepare young people for skilled employment. In Germany, VET smooths transitions into work and is closely aligned with labour market demand. This report focuses on an unprecedented test of the German VET system: how to respond to the significant increase in migrants who…

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…

Migration has been at the centre of policy debates across the OECD in recent years. This synthesis report identifies eight pillars of policy-making that the Strength through Diversity project has revealed to be crucial if education systems to effectively support newcomers. For each pillar, the report details a set of principles driving the design and implementation of system-level policies and…

What role did higher education play in addressing the refugee crisis? Many asylum seekers and refugees entering Europe in 2015 and 2016 were in the typical higher education age range and had been enrolled in university programmes in their home country. However, while continuing to study may be beneficial both for individuals and for host countries, integrating people who have…

There are currently 4,560 refugee and asylum-seeking children in care in England, but little is known about their care histories and educational outcomes. This study analysed the educational outcomes of unaccompanied refugee and asylum-seeking children in care at age 16 (n = 167) in 2013, using secondary data analysis. It compared their care histories and educational experiences with other children…

Since 2015, a large number of migrants (refugees and asylum seekers) from the Middle East, Asia, and Africa have arrived in Greece and continued their onward journey to western European countries where they settled. As various European Union (EU) countries have later blocked the flow of migrants from Greece to their final destination, thousands of them have been trapped in…

Since 2012, more than three million Syrian refugees have fled to Turkey. While these refugees vary in socioeconomic background, it is notable that 50% of Syrian refugee children in Turkey display symptoms of post-traumatic stress and that more than 663,138 of these children between the ages of six and seventeen are not enrolled in school. For those children who are…

This article presents two rich case studies of schools catering for Syrian refugee students in the Turkish city of Ankara. The article attempts to identify the challenges facing the two schools in this complex reality and the strategies developed by the two principals and their teaching staff to cope with academic, pedagogic and administrative functioning difficulties. Qualitative data collection and…

The main objective of this research is to analyze the perception of pre-service teachers’ attitudes towards Syrian refugee children, who migrated to Turkey after the outbreak of the war in Syria. A factorial design is used to compare the independent and interactive effects of pre-service teachers’ attitudes on Syrian refugees. Participants consisted of 353 senior-level university students. This study finds…

Previous research has shown that children's intergroup similarity judgements are based not only on ethnicity but also on other dimensions such as sports interest. The present research investigates the role of personality in perceived similarity between ingroup children and refugee outgroup children. A study was conducted among 9- to 12-year-old children (N = 124) at two elementary schools in the Netherlands. It…

Global challenges and recent changes in conflict areas in the Middle East, Asia and Africa are reasons for the contemporary forced migration into European countries, which have become places of destination or transit posts for a great number of refugees. Cities have become the focus of the socio-spatial debate, as the main units for receiving refugees, either in state camps…

Background: Resettlement can be particularly challenging for women as having a lower socioeconomic status and language barriers, may impede women's access to education, employment opportunities, health-care services, as well as the cultural, social, material and resilience factors that facilitate adjustment and adaption. Thus, the aim of this study is to further explore the perception of refugee women in Sweden concerning…

Since the war in Syria started in 2011, many children left their war-torn country, alone or together with their families, and fled to neighboring countries in the Middle East, to Turkey or to Europe. This article will compare how Syrian refugee children are included – or not - in school systems both in Europe (Sweden, Germany and Greece) and outside…

The article confronts comparative research outcomes on factors that helped or hindered the educational success of immigrant youth and second generation in the past decades in several European countries with the institutional responses of European educational systems to the challenges of integrating a substantial number of refugee and other newly arrived children since 2014. Especially studies on the second generation…

This qualitative study aims to explore the extent to which 8–15-year-old Syrian children in Turkey face discrimination and ostracism at school and in the community, as well as to reveal what they think about their life in Turkey. The study group was 22 Syrian refugee children, recruited using criteria sampling by taking into account such personal data as age, gender,…

This article reports on a qualitative study that investigates the experiences of Syrian university students in Izmir, Turkey using in-depth semi-structured interviews with 15 informants. The research is geared towards exploring the social, academic, and linguistic issues emerging in the acculturation period; factors moderating the integration process as well as students' coping strategies. The results are discussed within the framework…

There is a growing body of literature that recognizes the role Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) can play in improving access to education globally, and particularly to thousands of people in developing and developed countries. There is increasing concern, however, that the millions of displaced refugee learners throughout Europe, the Middle East, and other regions are still disadvantaged when it…

Between 2014 and 2017, around 623,000 people arrived by sea in Italy. This has led to a huge problem for guarantee quality instruction for migrants, especially young people; research carried out by UNICEF has shown that young migrants represent the desire to be able to resume regular education as soon as possible. The answer to these new education challenges finds…