Policy & law
Refugee Education: Theorising Practice in Schools
In the last five years, more child refugees have made perilous journeys into Europe than at any point since the Second World War. Once refugee children begin to establish their new lives, education becomes a priority. However, access to high-quality inclusive education can be challenging and is a social justice issue for schools, policymakers and for the research community. Underpinned…
2021
Refugee education in Europe: Learning after lockdown
Schools and higher education systems worldwide are finishing their third academic year under disruptions caused by COVID-19. The pandemic has had unprecedented effects on education. During peak infection periods, many countries mandated school and university closures for weeks or months, forcing hundreds of millions of teachers, parents, children and students around the globe to stay at home and switch to…
2022
Educators’ interactions with refugee pupils: knowledge, attitudes, and practices
The value of school for refugee and asylum seeking children is well established, in terms of their right to education under international law, their socio-emotional well-being, and their adaptation to living in a new country and culture. Yet there is a critical gap in our understanding of refugee education from the perspectives of educators – the people who interact with…
2022
Summer Preschools for Syrian Refugee and Host Community Children in Turkey: A Model of Contextually Sensitive Early Intervention
Research Findings: This study evaluated the impacts of the Summer Preschools Program on 5-to-6-year-old Syrian refugee and local children from vulnerable communities of Turkey. Developed as a community-based contextually sensitive early intervention model, the program aimed to promote developmental well-being and school readiness of children from forced displacement and abject poverty backgrounds by supporting cognitive, language, and socioemotional development prior…
2022
Opening up the University: Teaching and Learning with Refugees
Through a series of empirically and theoretically informed reflections, Opening Up the University offers insights into the process of setting up and running programs that cater to displaced students. Including contributions from educators, administrators, practitioners, and students, this expansive collected volume aims to inspire and question those who are considering creating their own interventions, speaking to policy makers and university…
2022
Educational Integration from the Perspective of Refugee Parents and Children [VKLJUČEVANJE V VZGOJNO-IZOBRAŽEVALNI SISTEM IZ PERSPEKTIVE STARŠEV IN OTROK BEGUNCEV]
This article is based on a research project executed by the authors in 2021. It revolves around the experiences of refugee children and parents within the Slovenian educational system. Data was acquired from twelve families. Interviewees spoke about the positive and negative aspects of educational integration. Those mainly consisted of language difficulties, learning difficulties, and discrimination. The presented research aims…
2022
Moving on from Dutch to English: Young Refugees Feeling Betrayed by the Dutch Language Integration Policy and Seeking for More Inclusive Environments
This article explores the linguistic strategies of young refugees (ages 12-23) in the Netherlands. The study takes place within a societal context in which new migrants and refugees are increasingly pressured to learn Dutch as key to their integration, but English is becoming more and more dominant, and in which learning Dutch is not considered necessary for other newcomer groups…
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
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
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
HIGHER EDUCATION POLICIES FOR SYRIAN REFUGEES IN TURKEY: OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES FOR SYRIAN AND TURKISH STUDENTS
Turkey has been hosting the largest Syrian refugee migration in the world since 2011, which has necessitated a continuous change in state-level measures to cater for the deficiencies of a forced displacement ranging from economic to social and educational instruments. Despite constructive national policies and legislation of the Turkish government and financial support, refugee access and enrollment in higher education…
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
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
Multi-stakeholder approach for better integration of refugee students: Stakeholder engagement in the practice-research-policy transfer in refugee education policy
Ample research has shown the importance of collaboration between practitioners, researchers, and policy makers to ensure holistic, inclusive, and effective policy making, particularly in the field of refugee education. Many countries, however, still face challenges in engaging with stakeholders during all the stages of the practice – research – policy transfer in the context of refugee education in a meaningful…
2022
How vocational education and training (VET) systems can support Ukraine: Lessons from past crises
Russia’s large-scale aggression against Ukraine has led to the most important humanitarian crisis in the OECD area since World War II, affecting millions of people and a severe economic, social and educational shock of uncertain duration and magnitude. This policy brief discusses how VET systems in host countries can become more inclusive and supportive of Ukrainians displaced by Russia’s large-scale…
2022
Relocation 2.0: tying adult refugee skills to labour market demand
This Cedefop policy brief is based on an empirical piece of work carried out in Greece and Portugal. The work tested if, and under what conditions, intra-EU relocation of refugees based on skills and labour market needs in countries of relocation may work. Experience gained indicates six ways in which progress can be made to expand relocation in Europe based…
2022
Refugees from Ukraine: support to school children and teachers: April 2022
Since the start of the Russian military invasion of Ukraine on 24 February, more than 3 million people have fled the country, with UN estimates suggesting that more than half of them are children. To respond to this unprecedented situation, the EU agreed in record time to activate the Temporary Protection Directive to help people fleeing war in Ukraine. The…
2022
Access for Syrian refugees into higher education in Germany: a systematic literature review
In the early years of the twenty-first century, the European Union faced an influx of refugees from war-torn areas of the world. By the end of 2015, nearly a million new refugees had arrived in Germany alone, half of them from Syria. Understanding how the Syrian refugee population has interacted with the German system of higher education is crucial for…
2022
Educating in the context of ‘Dispersal’: rural schools and refugee-background students
Policies of dispersal are increasingly favoured internationally for the resettlement of refugees and asylum seekers. With forty percent of the world’s forcibly displaced people being school-aged children, the dispersal of refugee-background people into regional areas means that rural schools are central sites of community response to refugees. Little is known in published research about how rural schools engage in refugee…
2022
The Right of Foreigners to Study and to Research in the Republic of Albania [Prawo cudzoziemców do nauki i prowadzenia badań w Republice Albanii]
The European Union has achieved much in promoting cross-border access to education in the course of the last two-and-a-half decades. Free movement of students is one of EU law’s most important achievements in the general context of free movement of persons. Today, EU law confers far-reaching educational rights upon workers and their family members and it entitles all EU citizens…
2022
An interpretive perspective on co-production in supporting refugee families’ access to childcare in Germany
The arrival of large numbers of refugees in Germany since 2015 has led to unprecedented levels of civic participation in service delivery. This is supported in integration policy, including through local coordination. We connect this empirical case with the conceptual debate on co-production, adopting an interpretive approach. We explore how volunteers and local coordinators interpret encounters between civic and state…
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.
Equity & equality
Vocational and technical education
Secondary education
Sweden
Socio-economic status
Experimental & quasi-experimental study
Early childhood education
Denmark
Randomised control trial
Integration & assimilation
Gender
English
Policy & law
Mental health & psychosocial well-being
Marginalization & segregation
‘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
Education and Employment of Refugees and Migrants in the Formal Elderly Healthcare Sector: Results from an Online Survey in Italy
The increase in older people with long-term care needs and the shortfall in the formal elderly healthcare workforce are questioning the healthcare system sustainability in Italy. Migrants have been employed for many years in the informal care sector as live-in carers often experience unfair working conditions. Appropriate training can help migrants and refugees enter the formal care sector, improve their…
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
The war in Ukraine has revealed a hierarchy of victims
The invasion of Ukraine is an illegal act of aggression that violates the UN Charter and has targeted civilians and civilian infrastructure. It has resulted in the gravest refugee crisis in Europe since the Second World War and neighbouring European states have responded to the crisis with generosity and open borders. However, some of the Western media coverage of the…
2022
Practitioners’ perspectives and needs: Developing skills to support unaccompanied asylum-seeking children (UASCs) in experiencing ‘belonging’ in English educational spaces
This article builds on Yuval-Davis’s (2006, 2007, 2011) theories of belonging, in order to relay how practitioners can support unaccompanied asylum-seeking children (UASCs) in developing a positive sense of belonging in educational spaces in England. To do so, the article synthesises literature surrounding theories of belonging, UASCs’ educational access in England and practices supporting UASCs’ educational attainment and sense of…
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
Longitudinal evaluation of friendship project: A multicultural – antiracist program for elementary school children
This study presents the results of the evaluation of Friendship Project-Greek version (FP-GR), a school based multicultural and anti-racist program aiming to develop intercultural skills and positive intergroup relationships, as well as familiarize and sensitize children with refugees’ life circumstances and difficulties. The aim of the study was to adapt FP in the Greek context and evaluate its longitudinal effectiveness…
2022
Refugees and the educational attainment of natives: Evidence from Norway
Increases in immigration raise a range of challenges for schools. Existing research primarily investigates the impact of immigrants on native test scores and demonstrates mixed results. Using Norwegian register data and narrow within-school, within-family comparisons, we demonstrate negative effects of refugees on native math performance, and no effect on English or Norwegian performance. These effects are concentrated amongst groups of…
2022
Second Language Assessment Issues in Refugee and Migrant Children’s Integration and Education: Assessment Tools and Practices for Young Students with Refugee and Migrant Background in Greece
European countries—Greece included—recognize the fact that the language of schooling in the host country constitutes the first step for the newcomer children’s reception and integration. Greece, as a dominant receiving country, has adopted a top-level policy for its educational system. Considering the above, this research paper presents and analyzes the assessment tests and practices that educators have access to for…
2022
Integration Through Education: Using ICT in Education to Promote the Social Inclusion of Refugees in Germany
Social inclusion of refugees through Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) has been gaining attention by researchers in the field of Information Systems. On a similar context, recent research has identified education among the main dimensions of integration and social inclusion of refugees. This study aims to uncover some of the benefits of ICT solutions related to education and digital learning…
2022
Supporting young Afghans’ education and wellbeing: urgent policy priorities
REUK has 12 years’ experience working with Afghan refugee children and young people in the UK, as well as in Afghanistan, and has published leading research for the United Nations on education for young Afghan refugees in the UK. Drawing on this expertise, this document sets out key urgent policy priorities for supporting the education and psychosocial wellbeing of young…
2021
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
Learning to integrate, waiting to belong: language, time and uncertainty among newcomers in Germany
What happens when we require newcomers to learn a country’s dominant language before they can work, study and become citizens? At first blush, this may seem beneficial for newcomers and local communities alike. In fact, language proficiency requirements across Europe are often treated as innocuous components of broader immigration policies. However, recent scholarship in linguistic anthropology and related fields has…
2021
The educational outcomes of refugee and asylum-seeking children in England
New research from the Education Policy Institute, supported by Unbound Philanthropy, finds that asylum-seeking children who enter the UK separated from their parents are on average over three years behind non-migrant children at school by the time they take their GCSEs. The new EPI working paper, which is the first study to examine the educational outcomes of the majority of…
2021
Teach us for what is coming: The transition into adulthood of foreign unaccompanied minors in Europe: case studies from France, Greece, Ireland, Italy, and the Netherlands
This report looks at what it is like to be a young person alone and seeking safety in Europe when turning 18. It paints a difficult situation with many shortcomings but also some promising practices. The main finding is there is no legal framework or specific support schemes for unaccompanied minors (UAMs) entering adulthood. This leaves many young people to…
2021
Back to School? Refugee children in Greece denied right to education
Refugee children in Greece also face dire prospects of receiving a quality education. Even before Covid-19, less than a third of refugee and migrant children were actually enrolled and attending school. The education crisis on the Greek islands is particularly acute. Less than 15% of children in refugee camps attended formal school in the previous year. In the notorious Reception…
2021
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
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
Living in the European borderlands: Representation, humanitarian work, and integration in times of crises in Greece
The migration flows that peaked during the 2015-2016 “refugee crisis” have had long-lasting effects to the countries of the European South. The latter have been deemed as border wardens of the European Union, filtering the “undesirables” who pose a threat to the European North, and by extension a proclaimed “Western way of life.” This project examines the living conditions of…
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
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
Promoting the mental health and well-being of first-generation immigrants, asylum seekers and refugee young people in schools: A participatory action research study
Background: There is a dearth of literature that reports on what first-generation immigrants, asylum seekers and refugee young people see as effective self-help tools in matters relating to mental health. Some 50 million first-generation migrant children and young people may have experienced violence, loss and displacement. This can lead to young migrants suffering with negative psychological and social impacts, and…
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
Navigating university spaces as refugees: Syrian students’ pathways of access to and through higher education in Turkey
This paper aims to explore how refugee students construct pathways of access to higher education by drawing on interviews with 15 Syrian university students studying at different universities across Turkey. The research is located within a capabilities-based human development paradigm from which it outlines the factors that enable students’ transition into university and looks at how they navigate complex higher…
2021
School caringscapes: Understanding how time and space shape refugee and immigrant adolescents’ caring practices and wellbeing in Danish schools
Schools are increasingly cited as spaces of support for learners facing adversity. It is therefore not surprising that recent migration flows have contributed to a mushrooming of school-focused policies and interventions looking to promote the mental health and wellbeing of refugee and immigrant learners. In response to a research focus on how teachers, schools and school-based interventions care for the…
2021