Marginalization & segregation
(Im)possibilities of parity of participation in school settings in the lives of unaccompanied youth
Despite the rhetoric of inclusion and equal participation, educational practices end up producing social exclusion. In this research, we are interested in practices where outcomes fail to match efforts with respect to students’ opportunities to participate equally. The research was carried out as a focused ethnography with young people who arrived in Finland as unaccompanied asylum-seeking youths. The results show…
2023
Governing resettlement beyond safety: Multilevel governance as a model for sustainable resettlement of unaccompanied refugee children in rural Sweden?
This article explores the sustainability of the resettlement of unaccompanied refugee children from their perspective. Against the backdrop of a critical assessment of the multilevel governance of resettlement, it compares two rural municipalities. Unaccompanied refugee children in the municipality with a disempowering local governance model were hindered to engage with civil society, while in the municipality with an enabling model,…
2023
Ukrainian refugees struggling to integrate into Czech school social networks
We provide a brief insight into the integration of Ukrainian refugees in school social networks in the Czech Republic following the mass migration caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Our sample contains twelve classrooms with a total of 266 students in grades 5 to 9; 21.05% of the students were of Ukrainian origin. We employed multiplex exponential random graph…
2023
Multicultural education and students with special needs: A case study from Greece
Students of different ethnic backgrounds (e.g. refugees, immigrants) who also have special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) are considered as a ‘high risk’ group within the school context, whereas teachers do not realise how deeply the teaching process is embedded within their students’ own cultures or the stigma or bullying they might face. The aim of the present study was…
2024
The migratory experience: Challenging inclusionary measures
This chapter explores how refugees wishing to attend tertiary education experience a language learning initiative in Norway. It shows how this ostensibly inclusionary measure, instead of supporting the refugees' ambitions, hampers their efforts and works to exclude. Through a collaboration involving five prior participants enrolled in language learning, all with refugee status, and three researchers positioned differently towards the topic,…
2023
Ethnic diversity fosters the social integration of refugee students
Forced migration has become a global megatrend, and many refugees are school aged. As social integration is key to their wellbeing and success, it is pivotal to determine factors that promote the social integration of refugee youth within schools. Here, using a large, nationally representative social network dataset from Germany, we examine the relationships of refugee adolescents with their peers…
2023
With a little help from my friends? Acculturation and mental health in Arabic-speaking refugee youth living with their families
Introduction: Refugee youth are often faced with the compounding challenges of heightened exposure to traumatic events and acculturating to a new country during a developmental period when their sense of self is still forming. This study investigated whether refugee youth's acculturation orientation (separation, integration, marginalization, and assimilation) is associated with depressive and posttraumatic stress symptoms and aimed to identify additional…
2023
Child friendship patterns at a refugee center in Greece
Since 2015, Greece has seen a large influx of refugees, resulting in increased needs for accommodation and education provision. As most newcomers come in family units, innovative educational measures were established to assist schooling and inclusion for refugee children. Schools provide opportunities to young refugee communities for initiating connections and maintaining friendships with local native peers. However, segregated accommodation structures,…
2023
Refugee Students’ Psychosocial Well-Being: The Case of a Refugee Hospitality Centre in Greece
Education can be important for assisting the psychosocial well-being of marginalized communities such as refugees and contributes to the effective processing of feelings and isolation prevention by mitigating the long-term effects of trauma and developing strategies to manage life changes. A small-scale study was conducted on 21 students from a Refugee Hospitality Center in Greece to investigate their psychosocial well-being…
2023
Catholic education and social justice in Europe
This article focuses on two major issues in contemporary Catholic social justice: care for the poor and the inclusion of migrants and refugees. The care for the poor is examined in the gospels and in the contemporary articulation of the preferential option for the poor, drawing on the theology of Gustavo Gutierrez and Jon Sobrino. Pope Francis and his 'preferential…
2023
Associations between social factors and school belonging among newcomer and non-newcomer youth in Sweden
Feeling a sense of belonging at school is associated with important positive outcomes for youth and requires youth to engage in positive social relationships. Yet there is a limited understanding of the social factors most associated with youths' school belonging and limited evidence about whether correlates of school belonging vary for marginalized groups like newcomers compared to majority groups. Sweden…
2023
The marginalised few: reflections from the lived experiences of forced displaced academics in Turkish academia
During the last decade, there has been an unprecedented increase in the number of Syrian asylum seekers, including forced displaced academics (FDAs), in Turkey. Along with providing essentials, there is the issue of social integration for these people. To efficiently deal with this problem, Turkish authorities have developed both educational policies and some legal arrangements to accommodate the employment process…
2022
Stateless in School: The ‘discomfort’ of Kurdish asylum seekers
The lives of children seeking asylum and refuge are complex; invariably both transnational and intersectional. Their educational needs and schooling experiences are often overlooked or lack nuanced understandings. This article focusses on Kurdish children seeking asylum in Germany. Qualitative data is presented to uncover the perceptions and understandings of schools, teachers and parents of children living through their unique educational…
2022
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
Music facilitator experiences of working in asylum seeker centres: Complexities, dilemmas and opportunities
Accommodation centres for those seeking asylum present particular contexts in which to facilitate music making. Contextual and systemic difficulties abound. An exploration of a music project within six asylum seeker centres in Ireland is presented with a focus on the experiences of the four facilitators involved. Data are presented from facilitator reflective logs, researcher observations and recorded professional development sessions…
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
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
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
The Reception of New Migrants in French Urban and Rural Schools: Comparing the Cases of Bulgarian Roma and Syrian Refugees
This article examines the ways in which schools in France face the challenges posed by new types of migrant and refugee pupils. It is based on comparative ethnographic fieldwork carried out in various localities of a French department and on interviews with school personnel confronted with the arrival of children from two groups who embody the perceived distinction between undesirable…
2022
School Adaptation of Students Under Temporary Protection (From the Eyes of Turkish and Syrian Students) [Geçici Koruma Altında Bulunan Öğrencilerin Okula Uyumları (Türk ve Suriyeli Öğrencilerin Gözünden)*]
This study aims to examine the school adjustment of Syrian children who were obliged to leave their country for different reasons and who are under temporary protection in Turkey according to the opinions of Turkish and Syrian students. The study, which was carried out in accordance with qualitative research methods, has participants consisting of 10 Turkish and 10 Syrian students…
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
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
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
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
Integration Policies, Practices & Experiences: United Kingdom Country Report
This report provides an overview of the legal and policy framework of integration policies in the UK and explains the main contours of immigrant integration. The report looks into policies (macro-level), practices of stakeholders (meso-level) and experiences of immigrants (microlevel) in five thematic fields: a) labour market, b) education, c) housing and spatial integration, d) psychosocial health and e) citizenship…
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
Dead end schools? Refugee teenagers and school segregation in Germany
The German school system is facing an extraordinary challenge in integrating well over 200,000 children and teenagers who have sought asylum since the summer of 2015. Despite the remarkable efforts of teachers, school administrators, and policy-makers, in recent years many young refugees have been unable to access a nearby school within the three months set forth by European Union legislation.…
2020
Social Innovation in Fashion Design: Can Design Provide Opportunities of Inclusion to Refugees in Greece?
Nearly 60.000 war refugees remain stranded in Greece [1], without any plan of amelioration for their living conditions. Design thinking strategy combined with social innovation could generate new scenarios of inclusion in the Greek society through the exchange of culture, knowledge and practical skills. In order to examine this hypothesis, members of Politecnico di Milano collaborated with Ankaa, a social…
2020
Ecology of social justice leadership: How schools are responsive to refugee students
Witnessing a tremendous influx of refugees in the last years, Turkish schools have turned into a multicultural environment with various ethnic, racial, and religious student populations. Given that there may be cases of marginalization or injustices for the refugee students at Turkish schools, this study seeks to explore to what extent school principals can perform social justice practices within the…
2020
Higher education for refugees: A need for intersectional research
Refugees pursuing higher education in the context of host countries face numerous challenges, but the literature is sparse on relevant university supports. This article evaluates the existing transnational literature using quantitative textual analysis to point toward the need for scholarship on intersectional programs serving refugee students. Wethen move to outline examples of such university structures, probing how intersectional programs undergird…
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
Designing an international distance postgraduate programme for language educators as a critical reaction to the needs of refugees and migrants
In this paper we present and discuss the conception and design of the new postgraduate programme "Language Education for Refugees and Migrants" (LRM) as an initiative of the Hellenic Open University in order to critically react to the needs of refugees and migrants in current times of refugee flows to and through in Greece. We describe the course design and…
2017
Identiti(es) and investment in learning English: An ethnographic study of Syrian refugees in the UK
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,…
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
Living with difference: Refugee education and school segregation processes in Greece
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…
2019
How the different policies and school systems affect the inclusion of Syrian refugee children in Sweden, Germany, Greece, Lebanon and Turkey
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…
2019
On the brink of education: Experiences of refugees beyond the age of compulsory education in Austria
This paper offers first-hand accounts of refugees beyond the age of compulsory education having arrived in Austria during the last five years. Their accounts were collected using qualitative interviews and a visual method to allow for different approaches towards their educational biographies. Nine individual and two group interviews (altogether with 16 young people) were conducted, where the majority of the…
2018
Refugee students in Spain: The role of universities as sustainable actors in institutional integration
This article examines the role of institutions-particularly universities-in the recent refugee crisis. It contributes to the debate on the integration of refugees through the higher education system in Spain. Based on semi-structured interviews with refugees and experts in the institutions linked to the reception and integration of refugees, the paper presents evidence-albeit within an under-developed field of analysis-which has strong…
2018
English language as an inclusion tool: The case of Syrian refugees in UK primary schools
This chapter discusses the concept of linguistic capabilities as an analytical tool to examine the inclusion processes for participants. The linguistic capabilities concept has been used to address barriers to the wellbeing of marginalised communities. Using the lived experiences of Syrian refugee primary school children, their families, school teachers and other key informants, the chapter explores the critical role of…
2018
Understandings of identities among university students from forced migrant backgrounds: A dialogical narrative analysis
Background and objectives: This study set out to explore identities among university students from forced migrant backgrounds. Issues related to identity have been found to contribute to the specific and significant challenges this student group can face in higher education. The research question was: how do students from forced migrant backgrounds understand their identities. Focusing on identities, through a dialogical…
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
Working together in a deficit logic: home–school partnerships with Somali diaspora parents
Drawing on discursive psychology this article examines the understandings teachers and principals in Danish Public Schools have regarding Somali diaspora parenting practices. Furthermore, the article investigates what these understandings mean in interaction with children in the classrooms and with parents in home–school communication. It is argued that in a society with increased focus on parental responsibility the teachers and principals…
2017
Big dreams, did they come true? Opportunities and obstacles in the school trajectories of unaccompanied refugee minors [Grootse dromen, uitgekomen? Kansen en obstakels in de schoolloopbaan van alleenstaande minderjarige asielzoekers]
While many unaccompanied minors deal with their precarious situation by focusing on school success, there is a lack of knowledge about the diversity of factors that hinder and stimulate their life trajectories, including their school career. This article focuses on the long term school trajectories of unaccompanied minors who were highly motivated to have a successful school career when they…
2017
Syria’s lost generation: Refugee education provision and societal security in an ongoing conflict emergency
Education policy is uniquely placed to address the soft security concerns of refugee resettlement, with educators equipped to recognise, react and respond to the unique education needs and welfare of the Syria’s next generation. An appropriate education policy response to the refugee crisis can reduce the risk of stigma, isolation, intra-community tensions, marginalisation and even radicalisation. The protracted nature of…
2016
Educational assessment of Syrian refugees in Turkey
In political, social and economic terms, Turkey is the most affected country of the Syrian crisis. More importantly, Turkey as a host country of Syrian refugees has been living a dramatic demographic change. The most marginalized group living in Turkey is children. Refugee education has hence become of top priority. The global report in refugee education is below the critical…
2015