Equity & equality
Assessing the criteria for equality of the right: Refugees’ higher education from the perspective of human rights [Hak Eşitliğine İlişkin Kriterlerin Değerlendirilmesi: İnsan Hakları Perspektifinden Mültecilerin Yükseköğrenimi]
With the Syrian refugee crisis, the subject of refugees’ access to HE, which was only partially funded owing to donor reluctance, was prominently covered in the news, with concepts such as preventing the lost generation, resilience, reconstructing countries, and education as a human right. With the Ukraine crisis, the issue of supporting the higher education of refugees came to the…
2023
Functioning of a higher educational institution under force majeure circumstances: A case study of Ivan Franko National University of Lviv
Over the last decade, Ukrainian higher educational institutions have faced extraordinary and even dire circumstances three times: russia’s attack on Ukraine in Donbas and occupation of Crimea (2014); a total lockdown caused by a pandemic due to the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) (2020); russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine (2022). Each time, Ukrainian higher educational institutions had to reformat…
2023
“What doesn’t defeat me makes me stronger” A Qualitative Study drawing on the Perspectives of Syrian Refugee University Students in Turkey
Education is one of the most crucial instruments for refugee youth to remove the disadvantages and enhance their social and structural integration into society. However, the unequal education opportunities concerning the barriers avoid the integration of refugee students into society and make them prone to discrimination. This qualitative descriptive design study aimed at describing the experiences of the subjective perspectives…
2023
Place of Residence Does Matter for Educational Integration: The Relevance of Spatial Contexts for Refugees’ Transition to VET in Germany
For the mostly young refugees who arrived in Germany around 2015/2016, completing vocational education and training (VET) represents the most promising opportunity for professional and social integration. However, access opportunities to VET are characterized by spatial inequalities: German districts vary considerably according to labour market structure, economic productivity and demographic development, which constitute the supply and demand for training places…
2023
Restoring Children’s Right to Education during and after War The Case of Ukraine
The need to protect children in armed conflicts has become urgent, especially since the 1990s , is now outstanding in the war in Ukraine. Among the violations against children in Ukraine that were identified by the UN Secretary General in 2005, were attacks on schools , hospitals. This article discusses the question of how the violation of the right to…
2023
A Qualitative Exploration of Experiences of Asylum Seekers and People with Refugee Backgrounds in Accessing the Education System in Romania
Refugees and asylum seekers often confront particular challenges when accessing essential services in host countries. The difficulties these vulnerable groups face in meeting educational needs are documented in numerous studies. Although Romania experienced mainly transit migration, it is recently becoming a destination for refugees and irregular migrants. Most people entering the country are young or minors, and access to education…
2023
Nursing students’ perspectives and care giving experiences with refugees: A qualitative analysis
Background: It is crucial to determine the intercultural sensitivity of nursing students who will provide care to refugees in the future and to examine their perspectives, experiences, and views on providing care to refugees. Objectives: The aim of this study was to describe nursing students' perspectives and caregiving experiences with refugees in Turkey. Design: This study was conducted with a…
2022
Addressing Avoidable Inequalities: The Role of One University in Place-Based Transformational Change
This chapter explores one UK university’s influence and involvement as a key partner within the 2025 Movement, a movement for change with a collective vision to tackle avoidable health and housing inequalities by 2025 in North Wales, UK. The approach to building 2025 is founded in systems leadership and social movements resulting in transformational change in the way we work,…
2020
World-mindedness of young people during the rise in migration in Europe: a case study of Czechia, Finland, Germany and The Netherlands.
During the 2015 sudden rise in migration movements in Europe, approximately 2.4 million refugees arrived in Europe and 1.2 million asylum applications were received in the European Union countries. We were interested in finding out whether these rapid changes and the polarised attitudes represented in the media affected young people's attitudes towards people with different cultural backgrounds. This study, therefore,…
2022
How schools in Germany shape and impact the lives of adolescent refugees in terms of mental health and social mobility
Schools are relevant settings for supporting refugee adolescents' mental health. As education and migration are important social determinants of health, we aim to integrate the qualitative findings of our mixed-methods study into a broader discussion regarding the role of schools and the potential effects on refugee adolescents' lives and mental health, as well as the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.…
2022
A Corpus-Based Comparison of Inclusiveness in L2 Reading Materials for Refugee Children
Despite increased emphasis on the role of inclusive practices and materials in post-COVID-19 classrooms and warnings about implicit biases against disadvantaged groups, the textbook problem has rarely been approached with equity measures in mind. This multimethod study aimed to investigate to what extent L2 reading materials, locally produced and used for refugee education in Turkey and New Zealand, include all…
2022
Teacher agency for social justice in telecollaboration: locating agentive positioning in virtual language interaction
In this study, we draw data from a tripartite telecollaborative project that involved 112 teacher candidates (TCs) from university-based teacher education programmes in France, Turkey, and the USA. Theoretically, we rely on Pantić’s (2015. A model for study of teacher agency for social justice. Teachers and Teaching 21, no. 6: 759–778) model of teacher agency for social justice and use…
2022
The politics of emotion in a parenting support programme for refugees in Norway
Enhancing social skills among citizens who are considered at risk is one of the ways in which a welfare state handles marginalised groups (Prieur et al, 2020). Universalised programmes represent a common way of strengthening the social capabilities of groups deemed in need of such skills (for example, Pettersvold and Østrem, 2019). In this article, we show that emotions perform…
2022
Educational Policies Matter: How Schooling Strategies Influence Refugee Adolescents’ School Participation in Lower Secondary Education in Germany
This article investigates the educational participation of refugee adolescents in Germany as a main European destination country of refugee migration. Opportunities and restrictions for school participation vary not only across countries–, but in the case of the Federal Republic of Germany, also within countries. The influence of different regional educational policies on refugees' educational participation and the extent to which…
2022
Understanding the learning experiences of highly educated refugees from Iraq and Syria en route to economic integration in Luxembourg
This qualitative exploratory study sought to understand highly educated Iraqi and Syrian refugees’ perceptions of their learning experiences during economic integration in Luxembourg. This research sought to elucidate how these new migrants learned to integrate in a country with a long tradition of migration but little exposure to Arabic-speaking groups. Further, it sought to explore participants’ experiences of what knowledge,…
2022
Refugee women’s establishment in the rural north of Sweden: cultural capital in meeting local labour market needs
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.…
2022
Educational Transitions in War and Refugee Contexts: Youth Biographies in Afghanistan and Austria
This article addresses educational transitions under conditions of multiple insecurities. By analyzing empirical data of two research projects with youths in Afghanistan and refugee students in Austria, we show how young people make sense of the social and educational inequalities they encounter on their educational pathways within different national, socio‐political, and institutional contexts. We present in‐depth analyses of two cases…
2022
Uncovering Community Cultural Wealth Through an Early Intervention Program: Syrian Refugee Children Speaking
The voices of young refugee children are often unheard and unacknowledged in early childhood research. Deficit views that perpetuate their vulnerability and victimization pervade research and media. Such omnipresent views need to be challenged by foregrounding and capitalizing on the strengths, agency, and resilience of refugee children. Grounded in the Community Cultural Wealth framework, this study aimed to explore the aspects of…
2022
Labour market marginalisation in young refugees and their majority peers in Denmark and Sweden: The role of common mental disorders and secondary school completion
Background Due to the circumstances of their early lives, young refugees are at risk of experiencing adverse labour market and health outcomes. The post-settlement environment is thought to play a decisive role in determining how this vulnerability plays out. This study compared trends in labour market marginalisation in young refugees and their majority peers during early adulthood in two national…
2022
‘First and foremost, we are teachers, not refugees’: Requalification measures for internationally trained teachers affected by forced migration
This article looks deeper into the educational careers and barriers faced by internationally trained teachers with refugee backgrounds. Highly skilled teachers experience among others formal barriers due to the two-subject regime in Austria. This study analyses the barriers and measures that disable or enable the re-qualification of internationally trained teachers who wish to continue their profession in Austria. Guided by…
2022
Belonging through Higher Education: The Case of Syrian Youth in Turkey
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…
2022
Working With the Encounter: A Descriptive Account and Case Analysis of School-Based Collaborative Mental Health Care for Refugee Children in Leuven, Belgium
Scholars increasingly point toward schools as meaningful contexts in which to provide psychosocial care for refugee children. Collaborative mental health care in school forms a particular practice of school-based mental health care provision. Developed in Canada and inspired by systemic intervention approaches, collaborative mental health care in schools involves the formation of an interdisciplinary care network, in which mental health…
2022
Migrants, Refugees and Asylum Seekers’ Integration in European Labour Markets: A Comparative Approach on Legal Barriers and Enablers
The Sirius first open access book entitled 'Migrants, Refugees, and Asylum Seekers' Integration in European Labour Markets. A Comparative Approach on Legal Barriers and Enablers' discusses how, and to what extent, the legal and institutional regimes and the socio-cultural environments of a range of European countries (the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Italy, Switzerland and the United Kingdom), in the…
2021
Making a familial care worker: the gendered exclusion of asylum-seeking women in Denmark
The Nordic universalist welfare states place great value on promoting gender equality among immigrant minorities. Yet, as this article demonstrates, there is a tension in the Danish asylum regime between the gender mainstreaming objective that is prominent in the integration discourse and policy and the actual practices of migrant camp employees tasked with activation and preparing asylum seekers for integration…
2021
‘Refugees here and Finns there’ – categorisations of race, nationality, and gender in a Finnish classroom
Schools represent a central meeting place where societal inequalities are reproduced and questions of social justice become important. This study focuses on categorisations related to race, nationality, and gender in interactions in Finnish teaching environments, as well as teacher reflections on these situations. We discuss the implications of the categorisations on social justice and the role of the teacher in…
2021
The promise of refugee lifelong education: A critical review of the field
The increasing number of refugees, coupled with the protracted nature of refugee situations around the globe, underline the critical importance of refugee education. Since 2010, education has been one of the global strategic priorities of the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), but much of the focus and resourcing has been on primary education and, to a lesser extent, secondary education.…
2021
Understanding the politics of inclusion, the ‘refugee’ and nation: analysis of public policies and teacher narratives in Iceland
Even though Iceland is yet to host as many refugees as other European countries, the number of young refugees seeking resettlement is growing rapidly. Little Icelandic research has been devoted to refugee youth and their social or educational inclusion to date. This study focuses on how young refugees are represented in the Icelandic context in relation to often-conflicting ideological perspectives…
2021
Example of best practice: refugee teachers at the University of Potsdam. A requalification program for newly arrived teachers in Germany
The Refugee Teachers Program, established at the University of Potsdam, Brandenburg, in 2016, represents a successful model for training and integrating individuals with foreign teaching qualifications through an 18-month teaching and language course. Initially created to help meet the demand for teachers in Germany, the Refugee Teachers Program has been further refined over the course of the last three years…
2021
Syrian Refugees in Turkey: (Un)Equal Opportunities in Education
The number of Syrian refugees seeking shelter in Turkey continues to rise as Syria enters its tenth year of violence. The ongoing crisis has resulted in more than 3.5 million registered Syrian refugees (UNHCR 2019). Although multiple social, economic, and security related debates have been studied by researchers in this field, the scope of this chapter focuses on the education…
2021
Social inclusion of refugees into higher education: policies and practices of universities in Norway
Pursuing higher education is one of the top priorities of many refugees after settlement in host countries. However, refugees’ participation in the labour market is the prime focus of integration policies and practices in various host nations, including Norway. This coupled with some complex challenges embedded in institutional policies and practices impede social inclusion of refugees into higher education in…
2021
Schooling contexts of refugees at primary schools in two hotspots: comparison of italy and turkey [İlkokullardaki̇ mülteci̇leri̇n eğİti̇msel bağlamlari: İtalya ve türki̇ye karşilaştirmasi]
This study aimed to investigate refugee pupils’ schooling contexts, their social relationships with teachers and native peers in math, social studies, and native language courses at primary schools. The research is a combination of two parts that originated from the observations in Italy to highlight the refugees’ schooling contexts in classrooms, then followed by the part that took place in…
2021
Refugee woman in the spanish press: a didactic proposal for critical analysis of discourse in the university classroom [La mujer refugiada en la prensa española: una propuesta didáctica de análisis crítico del discurso en el aula universitaria1]
This paper offers a reflection on the inclusion of the gender perspective in the university classroom, specifically, within the compulsory subject of Strategies for communication in multilingual groups of the Degree in Social Education at the University of Almería (Spain). In this, a didactic training proposal for Social Education students is proposed from the parameters of Critical Discourse Analysis to…
2021
An Informal Education Intervention in Response to the Covid-19 Pandemic: Homework Mentorships in a Berlin Refugee Shelter
The Covid-19 pandemic and resulting damage is often portrayed in staggering numbers and statistics. This article offers, by contrast, a personal and qualitative account of employees, volunteers, and young residents at a refugee home in Berlin, Germany. Through the story of a boy who has spent the past 4 years in several of Berlin’s 84 remaining refugee accommodations, we examine the…
2021
Improving access to the labour market for refugees in Sweden: Key findings and recommendations
Sweden is often singled out as having comparatively inclusive integration policy measures for migrants in general and refugees and their families in particular. Still, the employment gap between the native born and foreign born is among the largest among OECD countries, and the situation for refugees is especially difficult. Persistently high unemployment rates among refugees and their families have prompted…
2020
Integration into the Labour Market and Skills Training of Migrants in Sweden
Sweden ratified the UN convention of refugees in 1954; the right of asylum was fully implemented in the new Foreigner Act of 1954 (SFS 1954:193). The new act enabled permanent residency (bosättningstillstånd) and the equal status of foreigners on the labour market was emphasised in the preparatory work (see government bill, Prop. 1953:41). For a long time, refugee immigration was…
2020
Home Learning Inequalities among Refugees, Asylum Seekers and Migrant Communities
Due to the Coronavirus pandemic families are now responsible for directing their children’s home learning. This has exacerbated existing educational inequalities among disadvantaged pupils and those who do not have suitable home learning environments. Through our research we have identified additional barriers that are affecting students from refugee, asylum seeker and migrant backgrounds. We have suggested recommendations, which need to…
2020
Integration Policies, Practices & Experiences: Poland Country Report
This report focuses on integration policies towards beneficiaries of international protection in Poland in the period of 2011-2019. It also sheds light on the experiences of integration of the beneficiaries of such protection. The findings of our research indicate that the case of Poland is characterised by lack of official integration strategy. Several legal acts deal with different aspects of…
2020
Experiences and expectations of successful immigrant and refugee students while in upper secondary schools in Iceland
The influx of refugees and immigrants into Iceland continues to affect the society socially, culturally, and politically. Like many other European countries, Iceland has become home to many refugees and immigrants, including young adults. This influx has affected the education system, and many schools have developed different models to serve the diverse needs of the increasing number of immigrant children…
2020
Critical perspectives on social inclusion in integration education programs for adult migrants
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…
2020
English
Racism & discrimination
Equity & equality
Formal education
Tertiary education
Narrative analysis
Language education
Case study
Observation
Curriculum
Cognitive learning & development
Finland
Interview
Adult education & training
Integration & assimilation
Teachers & educational staff
Inclusion
Migrants, refugees, and “diversity” at German universities: A grounded theory analysis
The current displacement crisis in the German context has focused scholarly attention on refugee student access to higher education. However, much less research has attended to supports at higher education institutions (HEIs) for enrolled migrant and refugee students. In fact, education research in the German setting rarely focuses on students from any migrant background, though these students comprise between 20-25%…
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
The neglected minority: Higher education opportunities for refugee background students in England and Poland
At the end of 2018, there were almost 26 million refugees and 3.5 million asylum seekers worldwide. Only an estimated 3% currently have access to higher education (HE) (UNHCR, 2019). While international organisations have begun addressing this HE access issue, the body of relevant research remains relatively underdeveloped. Using a qualitative simultaneous multimethod research design (Morse, 2003), employing both quantitative…
2020
Contesting the politics of negative emotions in educational policymaking: A ban on Asylum seekers’ school visits in Finland
In this article, we analyse a recent case of educational policymaking in the city of Oulu in Finland. The case concerns a ban on asylum seekers’ visits to local schools and day-care centres. Our primary aim is to study the role that negative political emotions play in the decision making process of our case. We primarily utilise Martha Nussbaum’s work…
2020
Contesting language policy for asylum seekers in the Northern periphery: the story of Tailor F
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…
2020
Towards more equitable education: meeting health and wellbeing needs of newly arrived migrant and refugee children—perspectives from educators in Denmark and Sweden
Purpose - In 2015, Scandinavia experienced the arrival of many refugee children. Research has documented a higher prevalence of mental health problems among refugee compared to non-migrant children. Education and schools play an important role in the health and wellbeing of children, especially those who are vulnerable, and equity in education may help combat social and health inequalities. This study…
2020
Teaching non-italian students: Italian adaptation of the questionnaire on teachers’ perspectives * [Insegnare agli studenti non italiani: Adattamento in italiano del questionario sulle percezioni degli insegnanti]
The survey of teachers’ perspectives on the teaching of refugees and immigrant pupils by Kurbegovic (2016) is used to evaluate five dimensions of teachers’ self-perception: Self-efficacy, Implementation Practices, Cultural Competence, Competence/Preparation and Student Needs. The present study is aimed at analysing the self-awareness of primary school teachers of the teaching of refugee and immigrant students in Italy. The survey of…
2020
Refugee Youth Educational Trajectories
This is an account of three refugee youth—Yaser, Abas, and Malek—who fled from their home countries and arrived in Greece after 2015 as unaccompanied asylum-seeking minors. All three youngsters were fluent in English and engaged in public narration at the Intercultural Forum in Nafplion Greece in June 2018. Through vivid narratives, they showcase their tireless efforts to obtain formal education…
2020
Transformation of teachers’ understandings of refugee families’ engagement: multilingual family mathematics spaces
Today in many countries, teachers working with children with refugee status are seeking ways to practice inclusive family engagement. In our two-year-long project, we worked with early childhood teachers serving refugee students in public schools in Turkey, which hosts the world’s highest number of child refugees. Our project focused on creating equitable mathematics teaching and learning opportunities and developing a…
2020
Diminishing social inequality between refugee children and their peers growing up in Denmark
Not being in employment, education or training (NEET) as a youth consistently predicts adverse educational, labour market and health outcomes. School-aged refugee children are known to be particularly vulnerable within each of these domains. Yet little is known about how these outcomes have evolved over time. This study explores trends in the risk of youth NEET status during the early…
2020
Social inclusion of refugees into higher education in Norway: A critical analysis of Norwegian higher education and integration policies
In numerous countries, the widening participation of underrepresented groups in higher education has become an official part of education policies. However, inequalities continue in some areas, including refugees’ participation. Norway hosts many refugees, but little is known about the social inclusion of refugees into higher education in the country. In this paper, three documents representing Norwegian higher education and integration…
2020