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 is to provide a summary of possible school-based interventions, which can support the inclusion of children who are refugees or asylum seeking in mainstream compulsory schools. In order to reach the aim, a systematic literature review was conducted in five different databases. Therefore inclusion and exclusion criteria were defined. Due to the limited amount of studies about the inclusion of refugees, studies were included that focused on topics that might influence the inclusion of refugees (e.g. mental health). Eleven studies were identified in which twelve different interventions emerged. The results show that all interventions had positive effect on supporting refugees in schools. Positive effects were mostly focusing on emotional and behavioural symptoms of refugee children, decreasing trauma symptoms and expressing needs and feelings according to identity issues and acculturation. However, some studies did not report significant results. The main focus of the studies was on mental health related factors, such as reducing trauma symptoms. Other important aspects that occurred in the results and might be of importance for the inclusion of refugees in schools, were relationships of refugees in schools with teachers and peers as well as teachers attitudes. This study shows possibilities of supporting the inclusion of children who are refugees or asylum seeking in mainstream schools.
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