Gender
Guiding, shaping and resisting: Refugee mothers’ educational strategies as they navigate ‘unsettlement’
Contrary to popular media tropes of the ‘young, lone, male refugee’ arriving at Europe’s borders, Greece has in fact seen a steady flow of female refugees arriving since 2015. Most newcomers come in family groups, and many, including teenage girls, are mothers - many of whom aspire to continue (or begin) their schooling. While access to formal education has increased…
2022
Challenges in the Medical and Psychosocial Care of the Paediatric Refugee—A Systematic Review
Background: After the invasion of Ukraine, neighbouring countries were forced to find systemic solutions to provide medical care to those fleeing the war, including children, as soon as possible. In order to do this, it is necessary to know the communication problems with refugee minors and find proposals for their solutions. Methods: A systematic review of the literature from 2016…
2022
Coping of Young Refugees in Germany: Relations to Gender, Age, and Gender Role Attitudes
Background: Coping is considered to have an important influence on well-being, especially in adolescent refugees dealing with a high amount of stress. In addition, gender differences in coping are a common topic for research and are often attributed to differences in socialization between boys and girls. Aims: The study aims at clarifying the gender differences in coping strategies used by…
2022
Challenges of migrant students in Turkish higher education
Migrant students, including refugees and international students who begin or continue their education in Turkey, encounter several challenges. This study aimed to identify the challenges that migrant students face in the Turkish higher education system. The sample of the study consisted of 75 migrant students from six universities in Turkey in the 2019–2020 academic year. Demographic information of the students…
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 VIDAS Data Set: A Spoken Corpus of Migrant and Refugee Spanish Learners
The VIDAS data set (Verbal Interaction Dataset of Acquired Spanish) presents data from 200 participants from different countries and language backgrounds (50 Philippines with L1 Tagalog; 50 Ukrainians with L1 Ukrainian; 50 Moroccans with L1Arabic; 50 Romanians with L1 Romanian). They completed an oral expression and interaction test in the context of a Spanish certification exam for adult migrants. The…
2022
Gender Differences in Second Language Proficiency-Evidence from Recent Humanitarian Migrants in Germany
In this paper, we address gender differences in the host language proficiency of humanitarian migrants. Prior research has produced inconclusive results with regard to women's host language proficiency relative to that of men: sometimes women's proficiency exceeds that of men, sometimes women lag behind men, and sometimes there are no substantial differences. Using data on recent humanitarian migrants in Germany,…
2022
The Civic Engagement and Social Integration of Refugees in Germany
Civil society has played an important role in meeting the challenges of refugee migration in recent years. This commentary documents the importance of civic engagement for the integration of refugees by linking individual survey data on refugees to a regional measure of civic engagement in Germany. Using the density of newly established civic associations at the county level as a…
2022
Mental Health of Refugee and Non-refugee Migrant Young People in European Secondary Education: The Role of Family Separation, Daily Material Stress and Perceived Discrimination in Resettlement
While scholarly literature indicates that both refugee and non-refugee migrant young people display increased levels of psychosocial vulnerability, studies comparing the mental health of the two groups remain scarce. This study aims to further the existing evidence by examining refugee and non-refugee migrants’ mental health, in relation to their migration history and resettlement conditions. The mental health of 883 refugee…
2022
Critical Thinking and Motivation in Vocational Training and Baccalaureate: A Comparison Study of Students of Spanish Nationality, Unaccompanied Foreign Minors and Young Care Leavers
The present study analyzed academic motivation and its relationship with dispositions towards critical thinking in a sample of 131 students of Spanish nationality and 131 students of foreign nationality (unaccompanied foreign minors and foreign adolescents who had previously experienced the Andalusian care system). For this, an ex-post-facto study was conducted which was descriptive, comparative, and cross-sectional in nature. The main…
2022
Extending organizational socialization theory: Empirical evidence from volunteer work for refugees in France and Australia
How are volunteers who provide assistance to refugees socialized into their organizations? Known as the process through which newcomers evolve from organizational outsiders into insiders, socialization is particularly crucial among volunteers, as they often help vulnerable groups such as refugees. To examine this issue, which is critical to both scholars and practitioners, we draw on a large-scale qualitative study conducted…
2022
L2 French learning by Eritrean refugee speakers of Tigrinya
This study reports data on 47 Tigrinya speaking Eritrean refugees learning French. L2 French proficiency is assessed through the placement test Ev@lang, a standardized grammar test, and fine corpus analyses. Analysis of individual factors shows that, whereas school education, number of years in Switzerland, and French classes attended play no role in proficiency, age penalizes learning and, critically, multilingualism facilitates…
2022
Feasibility of a randomised trial of Teaching Recovery Techniques (TRT) with refugee youth: results from a pilot of the Swedish UnaccomPanied yOuth Refugee Trial (SUPpORT)
Background: Although post-traumatic stress is prevalent among unaccompanied refugee minors (URM), there are few evidence-based psychological interventions for this group. Teaching Recovery Techniques (TRT) is a brief, manualised intervention for trauma-exposed youth, which has shown promising results in exploratory studies. The aim of the present study was to assess the feasibility of conducting a randomised controlled trial (RCT) evaluating the…
2022
Registration of immigrants’ educational attainment in Sweden: an analysis of sources and time to registration
Swedish register data include a number of variables related to individuals’ educational level. In contrast to many other countries, the registers even include information on the education obtained by immigrants outside Sweden. For studies on immigrants’ labour market integration, this is an important asset. However, the quality of data in terms of the source and extent of data coverage for…
2022
The social and economic rationale of inclusive education: An overview of the outcomes in education for diverse groups of students
Since UNESCO’s Salamanca Declaration in 1994, inclusive education has progressively attracted attention in international debates around education policy. While some evidence exists on the positive impact that inclusive education reforms can have on the academic and personal outcomes of diverse students – and in particular of students with special education needs – limited information is available on the economic sustainability…
2022
Towards more multilingual practices in the mathematics assessment of young refugee students: effects of testing language and validity of parental assessment
The study focuses on the assessment of young refugee students, and the role of language and parents therein. Low achievement at tests can stem from lack of knowledge of the content being tested. However, it can also be due to low proficiency in the language of testing. Additionally, poor communication between refugee parents and schools caused by language or cultural…
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
The Rights Hero - Serious Games for Human Rights Education and Integration of Migrant and Refugee Children in Europe
Following the rise of migrant inflows in Europe since 2015, more than 210,000 unaccompanied children have arrived in Europe. This article argues that serious games can in principle fill the gap of human rights education that these children face and ultimately help them develop, but important issues and challenges need to be considered. The article follows the design and development…
2022
The relationships among psychological resilience, intercultural sensitivity and empathetic tendency among teachers of Syrian refugee children in Turkey
Within the provision of education, teachers typically have the closest contact and play a key role in meeting the needs of refugee children through effective communication to achieve culturally qualified education and the provision of more humanistic approach. This descriptive cross-sectional design study is aimed to explore the relationships among psychological resilience, intercultural sensitivity and empathetic tendency in teachers of…
2022
Parental Posttraumatic Stress and School Performance in Refugee Children
Refugee children in the Nordic countries have been reported to perform poorly in school and carry a high burden of familial posttraumatic stress. The present study aimed to investigate the impact of maternal and paternal posttraumatic stress on the school performance of refugee children. We used national register data on school grades at age 15–16 along with demographic and migration…
2022
The Playground Perception of Syrian Refugee Children
Drawings by children are key to understanding their experiences in various aspects such as perceptions of playgrounds and the events that happen in them. This study aims to reveal Syrian refugee children's perceptions of playgrounds. In the study, drawings of children who live in two different cities in Turkey were collated. The results showed that children draw slides, swings, and…
2022
Education of unaccompanied refugee minors in high-income countries: Risk and resilience factors
Record numbers of unaccompanied refugee minors continue to arrive in high-income countries seeking asylum and protection. Despite receiving educational support, unaccompanied refugee minors continue to be vulnerable to negative educational experiences and outcomes. The review investigates what resilience factors enable unaccompanied refugee minors in high-income countries to have positive educational experiences and outcomes. It aims to inform the literature on…
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
Berg L.
Björkenstam E.
de Montgomery C.J.
Hjern A.
Klimek P.
Krasnik A.
Mittendorfer-Rutz E.
Norredam M.
Petersen J.H.
Sijbrandij M.
Randomised control trial
Integration & assimilation
Gender
English
Policy & law
Mental health & psychosocial well-being
Marginalization & segregation
Equity & equality
Vocational and technical education
Secondary education
Sweden
Socio-economic status
Experimental & quasi-experimental study
Early childhood education
Denmark
Non-verbal cognitive development, learning, and symptoms of PTSD in 3- to 6-year-old refugee children
As IQ tests are commonly used as key assessment method, we address the question whether our commonly used standardized IQ tests are appropriate for children from families of diverse cultures and different educational levels in a refugee population. We examined 109 refugee children aged 3–7 years (M = 5.10 years, SD = 1.25) with the “Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children “ (KABC-II;…
2022
Aberl S.
Dudek V.
Eckler L.V.
Fegert J.M.
Friedmann A.
Hahnefeld A.
Mall V.
Münch K.
Nehring I.
Plener P.L.
Sukale T.
Weigand E.
Randomised control trial
Correlational analysis
Caregivers
Gender
English
Mental health & psychosocial well-being
Assessment
Camp setting
Formal education
Language education
Germany
Primary education
Experimental & quasi-experimental study
Early childhood education
Special education
Cognitive learning & development
Effectiveness of Promotive and Preventive Psychosocial Interventions on Improving the Mental Health of Finnish-Born and Immigrant Adolescents
Background: Schools are considered natural environments in which to enhance students’ social–emotional skills and mental health in general, but they can be especially important for students with refugee and immigrant backgrounds. The current study tested the effectiveness of two school-based interventions in enhancing the mental health and wellbeing of adolescents of native, refugee, and immigrant backgrounds. It further analyzed the…
2022
Supporting languages: The socio-educational integration of migrant and refugee children and young people
Recent unprecedented levels of migration, while adding cultural and linguistic diversity, places increased pressure on host countries to develop strategies for effectively integrating new arrivals into society. This article draws on data from IMMERSE which uses participatory and co-creation methodologies with children, parents, educators and policy-makers to examine and develop key indicators of migrant children's socio-educational integration. It discusses Irish…
2022
Home-Based Early Education for Refugee and Local Children via Mothers: A Model of Contextually Sensitive Early Intervention
Contextually sensitive home-visiting programs can foster positive parenting and enhance child development and learning especially among vulnerable families exposed to armed conflict, forced displacement, and poverty. Developed based on ecological model and family resilience theories, the Home-Based Early Childhood Education (HECE) program provided an 11-week home-visiting intervention to Syrian refugee and local Turkish mothers in impoverished host communities of Turkey.…
2022
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
Happy 18th? Unaccompanied minors and the transition to adulthood. An Italian case study
This qualitative study considers the interaction between the Italian migration regime and young male African migrants (age 14-21) who have made the precarious, illegalised journey to Italy, where they are bureaucratically labelled as ‘unaccompanied minors’. The thesis focuses in on what happens when these children become legally adult; examining how the idealised concept of ‘childhood’ has a bordering effect, dividing…
2021
Allies, access and (collective) action: Young refugee women’s navigation of gendered educational constraints in Greece
Contrary to popular media tropes of the ‘young, lone, male refugee’ arriving at Europe’s borders, Greece has in fact seen a steady flow of young refugee women arriving since 2015. While many wish to engage in post-compulsory (15+) education, in order to gain valuable skills and enjoy new freedoms, various factors make it difficult to do so. Based on eight…
2021
‘The teacher makes us feel like we are a family’: students from refugee backgrounds’ perceptions of physical education in Swedish schools
Background: Over the past five decades, the number of people from refugee backgrounds in developed countries has been on the constant rise. Although the field of refugee and forced migration studies in relation to education and sport has grown considerably in recent years, very little is known about refugee-background students’ perceptions of Physical Education (PE). Purpose: The aim of this…
2021
Relationship between school performance and breakfast quality in refugee children: Case study of mardin region
Background: Many studies have found that the academic success of school-age children is proved to be in close relation with regular and healthy nutrition. Objectives: This study aims to investigate the relationship between breakfast quality and academic success of refugee primary-school children. Methods: After scanning 24 schools in the city center, 384 students who were refugee Syrians from primary schools…
2021
Temporality and space in highly skilled migrants’ experiences of education and work in the rural north of Sweden
The aim of this article is to critically explore and analyse opportunities and obstacles faced by highly skilled migrants in rural areas seeking to re-enter their profession, focusing on the lived experiences of migrants residing in northern Sweden. Analysis of their stories focusing on intersections of temporal and spatial positionings reveal different lived experiences and opportunities depending on migration regime…
2021
Skills for transition: the perspectives of women seeking asylum in Ireland
Purpose: Current domestic and international research predominantly examines the past experiences of people seeking asylum and the negative influences such experiences have on health and well-being. However, few studies address the future needs of people seeking asylum, as they transition from Direct Provision. This study aims to address this gap in knowledge by exploring the perspectives of women seeking asylum…
2021
Pre-school Teachers' Stereotypes and Self-Efficacy are Linked to Perceptions of Behavior Problems in Newly Arrived Refugee Children
Introduction: Since 2015, increased numbers of refugee families with pre-school-aged children have arrived in Germany. In pre-schools, teachers' professional competence for teaching those children and adapting to their socio-emotional needs has become increasingly important. Previous research linked teachers' stereotypes and cultural beliefs to their self-efficacy and enthusiasm when teaching immigrant children. This study investigated the links between domains of pre-school…
2021
Impact of the covid-19 pandemic on habilitating residential communities for unaccompanied minors during the first lockdown in italy: The educators’ relational perspective
(1) Background: Italian residential communities for unaccompanied minors suffered a long period of closure during the SARS-COV2 lockdown. Professional educators who work inside these institutions with the aim to habilitate children toward life-span achievements faced a great challenge and responsibility during this period. In this context, the psychological well-being and development of unaccompanied children were at high risk. The aim…
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
Integration policy and refugees’ economic performance: Evidence from Sweden’s 2010 reform of the introduction programme
In this paper, we investigate whether integration policy improves refugees’ economic performance, specifically examining the effects on refugees’ income of Sweden's 2010 reform of the introduction programme (or IP). We also evaluate how the reform effects vary depending on refugees’ gender and educational attainment. Our key finding shows a strong positive effect of the reform on refugees’ income, immediately after…
2021
The relation between quality of life and future expectations for refugee adolescents
Problem: Refugee children and their families encounter various challenges in a new country. Studies on this issue reveal the presence of negative expectations on the future and life among refugees. This study was conducted to investigate the relationship between quality of life and future expectations in refugee adolescents. Methods: This descriptive and cross-sectional study was conducted in Turkey. In this…
2021
A needs assessment study on refugees' inclusion through physical education and sport. Are we ready for this challenge?
In recent years, European countries have become hosting destinations for thousands of people who have been forced to leave their home countries. Greece is one of the main European hosting countries of refugees, especially children. Thus, the pupil population is gradually changing and the need for intercultural education is increasing. Physical education (PE) and sports have been recorded as suitable…
2021
The effect of early childhood education and care services on the integration of refugee families
Devising appropriate policy measures to integrate refugees is high on the agenda of many governments. This paper focuses on the integration of families seeking asylum in Germany between 2013 and 2016. Exploiting regional differences in early childhood education and care (ECEC) services and dispersal policies as exogenous sources of variation, as well as controlling for local level heterogeneity that could…
2021
Students from refugee backgrounds in physical education: A survey of teachers’ perceptions
Sport and physical education are considered important platforms for introducing people from refugee backgrounds to their new environment. However, studies dealing with the specific role of physical education in this context are scarce, although it is often the first and sometimes only setting in which people from refugee backgrounds come into contact with sport in the host country. To this…
2021
The effects of service-learning on physical education teacher education: A case study on the border between Africa and Europe
Recent studies, supported by the European project Europe Engage – Developing a Culture of Civic Engagement through Service-Learning within Higher Education in Europe, suggest that service-learning (SL) is an effective approach to develop personal and social learning linked to real contexts. This particular case study analyses the perceived effects of an SL programme implemented in Melilla (on the border between Africa…
2021
Evaluation of a school-based intervention to promote mental health of refugee youth in Sweden (The RefugeesWellSchool Trial): study protocol for a cluster randomized controlled trial
Background: Sweden is home to a large and growing population of refugee youths who may be at risk of mental health problems such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Thus, there is a need for interventions that address mental health problems in these populations. Schools have been identified as an ideal setting for delivering such interventions as they offer a non-stigmatizing…
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
Displaced Migration and Labour Market Governance in Scotland: Challenges and Opportunities
Labour market conditions in the UK create significant barriers for refugees seeking employment. These include: ethnic and racialised penalties, barriers related to immigration controls, barriers related to employers’ perceptions of these controls and the effects of the ‘hostile environment’. As a result, refugees are more likely to be unemployed or under-employed than a British citizen. GLIMER Stakeholders reported the same…
2020