Dissertation (master)
Change or continuity? A comparative study of the immigrant integration models of Turkey and Germany after the Syrian Crisis
This study aimed to explore the effects of the Syrian refugee crisis on the immigrant integration policies and hence the national models of Turkey and Germany. It tried to assess whether there is a continuity or divergence in the policies after 2011. It also tried to match the two countries with one of the immigrant integration models discussed in the…
2019
“Coming to Norway as a refugee can be misinterpreted as a bad thing” Exploring the Individual Educational Experiences of African Youth in Norway
There is a lot of research written about unaccompanied minors in Norway, but this thesis is concerned with the individual education experiences of African unaccompanied minors. The purpose of this thesis is to explore the experiences of African unaccompanied minors regarding access to education opportunities in Norway. Based on a review of literature on unaccompanied minors, by using four theories:…
2022
Programs on Inclusion for immigrants designed and implemented by NGO’s in Italy. A successful educational path for immigrant students? Case Study of S. Home, a Sardinian NGO
As the refugee crises started in 2015, southern European countries had to deal with an increased number of immigrants arriving to their costs. Due to the still valid Treaty of Dublin, countries of arrival of immigration flows had to adapt their legal systems in order to manage the increased number of requests for protection. In Italy, actors such as NGOs…
2021
Barriers to inclusion of minority language minors in Norwegian and Dutch education: A comparative analyses of various reported voices connected to education
With the increase of immigrants in Norway and the Netherlands, it is increasingly important to have an inclusive education system that sets every minor up to succeed. This comparative research considers the barriers of inclusion to quality education for minority language minors in Norway and the Netherlands. Using UNESCO’s (2008b) inclusion framework, the content of 70 media sources were analysed…
2021
Education for all? The right to education in Greek refugee camps. A case study
In the last years, due to ongoing and new conflicts, the European Union (EU) and its member states have seen increasing numbers of refugees seeking for refuge and security. Since 2015, more than 100 thousand people, 60% of whom are younger than 30 years old, arrived at the shores of Europe in Greece and were suddenly confronted with new challenges…
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
Integration of newly arrived students in primary and secondary education in the Netherlands: The challenges that teachers face and their strategies to overcome them
The integration of newly arrived migrant students (NAMS) in a new educational system has become commonplace in the education literature. Teachers are the agents of inclusive practices to the changing demographic of schooling. Yet, little is known about their struggles when teaching NAMS. This study investigates the challenges that teachers face when it comes to the integration of refugee and…
2021
Learning Norwegian in Norwegian to become Norwegian? A study on the monolingual strategy for refugees learning Norwegian at Voksenopplæringen and how it affects their prospects for integration into society
Refugees in Norway are the group that experiences discrimination and social exclusion the most. The main reason of discrimination and unsuccessful integration is insufficient language skills. Even though, that they are provided with up to 3000 hours of language learning within an Introduction program that is specially designed for them to help them to reconstruct their lives in Norway, there…
2021
The role of civil society organisations in labour market integration of young immigrants in Sweden: An analysis of the organisation Right To Play
During the year of 2015 and the large migration wave that hit Europe, many unaccompanied young refugees came to Sweden. For this particular group, the challenge is to become integrated to the labour market in order to receive a permanent residency permit in Sweden after they graduate their upper secondary education. Over the past few years, it has become more…
2020
Challenges of authenticating migrants’ academic credentials as part of integrating in Norway: A case study of Eritreans in Agder
Due to the complex interplay among various push/pull factors that impact livelihoods and comfort zones in the Global South, an unprecedented number of persons are following unfamiliar emigration routes, heading from South to North. Political unrest, war situations, economic crisis, environmental degradations, high unemployment rates and grinding poverty, human rights violation, and the like are amongst the major factors that…
2020
The role of education on integration policies: A comparison of Sweden, Germany and Turkey after the Syrian refugee crisis
This study aims to produce a comparative research on integration policies of Sweden, Germany, and Turkey that host remarkable number of Syrians after the crisis in Syria which is considered as the biggest humanitarian and refugee crisis of our time. This study mainly examines main integration areas and tools used by Sweden, Germany and Turkey to deal with unexpected number…
2020
School integration in a Southern Norwegian municipality: Factors that hinder the integration of unaccompanied young refugees into the Norwegian schools
Unaccompanied young refugees constitute a vulnerable portion of the refugee population because of the numerous hardships they contend with both in the country of origin and during the flight. Given the plethora of challenges they face, many often find it challenging to integrate into the school environment and society at large. This study attempted to explore and describe the challenges…
2020
What are the educational conditions (in theory and practice) for minor refugees who arrive in Lesvos, Greece?
Since late 2014, Greece has had to confront not only the economic crisis but also the increase of migration flows from the Middle East region. According to the Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989), Article 28 referred to the right of the child to education and that the State has the obligation to make primary education compulsory and…
2020
Digital media in refugees’ everyday life and integration: A case study on the highly educated Syrian refugees in Scania
This thesis sets the goal to contribute to the field of diaspora studies from media and communication studies perspective by focusing on the neglected migrant group of highly educated refugees and their media use. This thesis aims to explore how highly educated refugees utilize digital media in their everyday life after their migration. It also investigates how digital media use…
2020
Navigating troubled waters: Unaccompanied minors views on education and language learning in Austria
This thesis analyses how young refugees experience learning and living in Austria. It examines their motivation for learning and how their motivation may be influenced by the difficulties they face (e.g.: PTSD, anxiety, very low levels of literacy, language barriers, having never attended a school before or having not attended one in a long time, refugee accommodation, and limited access…
2020
Identifying the best practices for the integration of refugee students into the German national school system
Integration is a complex and widely discussed concept, central to the refugee crisis that Europe is currently experiencing. With the large number of minors and young adults entering European countries, the inclusion of refugees (and of other migrants) into national education systems is an important topic to be understood and discussed. Germany is the European country which has taken in…
2020
Mobile learning and self-worth: The case of Syrian refugees from a Kantian perspective
As the war in Syria is about to enter its seventh year, Syrians continue to head towards Europe to seek safety and protection. This challenges European countries to provide urgent relief and services including education for a high number of Syrian refugees every year. However, the journey of Syrian refugees does not end with their arrival to safety. The refugee…
2018
The importance of refugee literature in the EFL classroom
The term ‘refugee literature’ refers to texts which are written by, for, or about refugees. The aim of this diploma thesis is to investigate the importance of refugee literature for today’s EFL classroom. At the heart of this thesis lies the analysis of three novels which are concerned with refugees. Even if only two of them, Refugee Boy by Benjamin…
2018
Widening access to refugees: Responses of Austrian public universities
Europe has been a scene of mass migration unparalleled in scale since the World War II in the last couple of years. With the recent migration flow, higher education institutions have confronted with the new challenge of managing a diverse student body from refugees and asylum seekers. Likewise, refugee and asylum seeking students have encountered various barriers in accessing higher…
2017
Refugee integration policies, gender issues & trauma: A case study in Germany
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…
2019
Understanding and Improving the social integration of immigrant background students in Oslo and Florence
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…
2019
Education, acculturation, and adaptation: Unaccompanied migrant and refugee youths in Italy
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…
2019
Integration & assimilation
Caregivers
Teachers & educational staff
English
Policy & law
Access & participation
Resilience & adaptation
Unaccompanied & separated children
Mental health & psychosocial well-being
Racism & discrimination
Secondary education
Italy
Acculturation
Adult education & training
Interview
Implementing the ways through which refugees can be supported in their higher education in the host countries considering psychological and psychosocial elements and intercessions for their mental health
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…
2019
An investigation into the barriers to education and employment for refugees in Wales
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…
2019
Access to higher education among refugees and migrants in emergency situations in Italy: An opportunity for the so-called “lost generation”
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…
2019
“We would like to support, but well, we can’t.” Parent-teacher collaboration to support Finnish language acquisition among Arabic, Dari and Farsi speaking elementary immigrant children based on positive and challenging experiences in Finnish schools
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…
2019
Educational and mental health intervention methods for refugee children integrating in the Nordic mainstream education: A systematic literature review
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…
2019
Possibilities for a liberating pedagogy: A critical exploration of an Icelandic course for asylum seekers
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…
2019
Teachers’ experiences of teaching multicultural classrooms with refugees on a Greek island
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…
2019
What are the challenges for Early Childhood Education and Care practitioners when educating and caring for children who are living in Direct Provision?
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…
2019
German teacher candidates’ perceptions of their roles in the lives of Syrian refugee students in Dresden
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…
2019
The experiences of female asylum seekers and refugees in accessing higher education in the region Île-De-France
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…
2019
Education of refugee students in Greece: Teachers’ experiences
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…
2019
Without home, without homeland. Without school, too? The right to inclusive education of refugee children
Each year the number of displaced people grows rapidly creating an urgent humanitarian situation in most places of the world. Among them a huge amount is children, children who are helpless and most of the times hopeless for their future. Education stands out as their only way of dreaming and feeling safe again after all the atrocities they experienced in…
2018
More than a game? Exploring sport’s role in refugee and asylum-seeker settlement in Glasgow, Scotland
Up until recently, refugees and asylum-seekers, and even more so, the relationship between sport and settlement, has generally been written out of discussions surrounding sport for development (SFD). This study seeks to fill some of this lacuna through a critical analysis of a grassroots, community football club for male refugees and asylum-seekers - United Glasgow FC (UGFC). Drawing on fieldwork…
2018
An investigation of the difficulties faced by Syrian asylum seekers and Syrian refugees in acquiring a second language and the possible solutions from refugees’ perspective
The current dissertation sheds light on the difficulties that Syrian refugees and asylum seekers face in acquiring the languages of the countries they had to flee to. To do so, this qualitative research investigated the experience of 45 Syrian refugees and asylum seekers who were hosted by 9 different countries around the world (Germany, Turkey, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, France, Malay,…
2018
Adult refugee learners in the Norwegian school system. An exercise in mental contortionism?
Are the aims of competence in Social Studies, LK06 applicable to adult refugee learners? This thesis aims to answer this research problem by investigating how different discourse perspectives interfere in the production of text in the classroom, and how connotations to topic relevant words affect academic achievement. Basil Bernstein’s theory on agent and structure offers the main theoretical framework of…
2017
Integration of refugees in Austrian universities
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…
2017
Navigating Sweden’s parental choice education system: A study of asylum-seeking parents
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…
2017
School-based interventions supporting refugees and asylum seeking children in mainstream schools: A systematic literature review
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…
2017
Strategy development in the context of quality frameworks for education in emergencies – The case of British Council in Greece
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…
2017
How can the Icelandic primary school system meet the needs of refugee children and support their learning and development
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…
2017
University civic engagement in forced migration: A comparative case study on university support programs for migrants and asylum seekers in Norway and the UK
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…
2017
Non-formal education: a way out – The realisation of the right to education of refugees through non-formal education activities in Greece
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…
2017
Aspirations in the context of irregular migration: The migratory trajectories of Syrian asylum seekers arriving in Norway
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…
2016
“They’ve no control over their lives at the moment”: An investigation into critical pedagogical approaches to refugee and asylum seeker English language classes in Ireland
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…
2016
Inclusive education for refugees and asylum seeking children: A systematic literature review
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…
2016
A comparative study of attitude and motivation for learning English, among adult refugees and ethnic Norwegian 10th graders
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…
2016