Resilience & adaptation
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
Colonial imaginaries and psy-expertise on migrant and refugee mental health in education
Education has become, rather unproblematically, a site for mental health management, with policies and implementation strategies that identify and support students’ mental health. Different forms of in-school mental health support have increased both in the Global North and South, with teachers being on the frontline when identifying students’ mental distress and recommending treatment pathways. Through an investigation of data produced…
2023
Young, unaccompanied refugees’ expectations of social workers and social worker roles
Background: Young people who have travelled to another country, unaccompanied and with refugee status, are a both resilient and vulnerable group with specific needs. Supporting them is often challenging for social workers, and providing this support is mediated by the expectations that these young people have of social workers and social worker roles. Aim: In this study, we explore how…
2023
Prevalences of mental distress and its associated factors in unaccompanied refugee minors in Germany
Prevalences for mental disorders within minor refugees are comparatively high and heterogeneous. To reduce heterogeneity and identify high-risk subgroups, we compared unaccompanied refugee minors (URM) to accompanied refugee minors (ARM) regarding depressive symptoms and mental distress. Furthermore, we examined associative factors of mental distress in URM on a broad scale. We conducted a survey with a cross-sectional design in four…
2023
Cross-sectional study
Regression analysis
Vocational & technical education
Integration & assimilation
Adult education & training
Caregivers
Gender
English
Resilience & adaptation
Unaccompanied & separated children
Mental health & psychosocial well-being
Formal education
Tertiary education
Detention & deportation
Language education
Germany
Surveys & questionnaire
Creative (en)counterspaces: Engineering valuable contact for young refugees via solidarity arts workshops in Thessaloniki, Greece
This article explores the role of non-formal arts education in Thessaloniki, Greece for fostering contact considered valuable by the young refugee community. Drawing on accounts of their daily life, gathered over eight months of ethnographic fieldwork for a project on their post-15 educational participation, the article details how around the city, young refugees (aged 15-25 years) experience conflicted encounters involving…
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
Pre-schoolers’ images, intergroup attitudes, and liking of refugee peers in Germany
There is extensive research on children's intergroup attitudes, but their perceptions of refugee children have rarely been studied. We conducted a study with 5- and 6-year-old children (N = 60) in Germany following the arrival of unprecedented large numbers of refugees in 2015 and 2016. Children completed a set of three tasks that measured their perceptions of refugee children (minority…
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 refugee’s social skills and resilience: Moderating effects of time in refugee camp, parental education, and preschool attendance
In this cross-sectional study, we examine the relationship between social skills and resilience and the moderating effects of time spent in a refugee camp, parental education, and schooling on Syrian children who have been forcibly displaced to Turkey. Five hundred and twenty-six preschool-aged children (56.3% female, M-age = 5.79) were recruited to participate in this research. The Turkish version of…
2023
Including the Excluded: Sense-Making and Job Crafting as Drivers of Dialogical Change Management in Italian Universities for Refugees’ Inclusion
Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) are increasingly called to substantiate their impact on society in terms of inclusivity and social sustainability, as prioritized in the pursuit of the "Third Mission" (TM). Today, HEIs are confronted with the demand to ensure refugees' inclusivity. However, how administrative and teaching staff enact such change within the organization to match the TM goals is under-investigated.…
2023
Models for Organising the Education of Ukrainian Children Who Have Fled the War in Lithuanian Municipalities: Psychological, Material, and Linguistic Support
This article presents the situation of the education of Ukrainian refugee children in Lithuania. It analyses the political and practical actions taken by the Lithuanian state when, after the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, schools unexpectedly received a large number of children from Ukraine who had not come of their own free will, having fled the war. This article…
2023
Implementation and quality of an early childhood education program for newly arrived refugee children in Germany: an observational study
Early childhood education [ECE] can foster the social-emotional adjustment and development of young refugee children. Still, the large numbers of newly arriving refugee families challenge the ECE capacities of host countries. In Germany, state authorities have subsidized flexible ECE programs for refugee children in response to this situation. The goal of this study was to examine the implementation and quality…
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
Struggles of Refugee-Receiving Schools in Turkey
A total of 82.4 million persons had emigrated from their countries by the end of 2020 because of global conflicts. A total of 3.6 million settled in Turkey, which became the most refugee-receiving country. Among those resettled in Turkey, the majority were school-aged children, and schools became an inseparable instrument in the adaptation process. Thus, schools play a vital role…
2023
Changes in life satisfaction among unaccompanied asylum-seeking and refugee minors who participated in teaching recovery techniques (TRT)
BackgroundUnaccompanied asylum-seeking and refugee minors report low life satisfaction and high levels of mental health problems, nevertheless they often do not seek or receive help for their problems. Teaching Recovery Techniques (TRT) is a low-threshold, five sessions intervention developed to reduce distressing war- and disaster-related trauma reactions among children and youth. In this study, we investigate if TRT can contribute…
2023
Educational integration of forcibly displaced persons in the EU countries [Integración educativa de personas desplazadas forzadamente en los países de la UE]
The aim of this work was to study the policy of the EU member states on the educational integration of forcibly displaced persons from Ukraine and to identify its consequences. Interviews were conducted with forcibly displaced persons from Ukraine to six EU countries. The School Motivation Questionnaire, by Luskanova, and the Phillips' School Anxiety Scale were used. The hosting countries…
2023
A Music Therapy Intervention for Refugee Children and Adolescents in Schools: A Process Evaluation Using a Mixed Method Design
Refugee children and adolescents have often experienced negative or traumatic events, which are associated with stress and mental health problems. A specific music therapy intervention is developed for this group in school settings. The aim of the present study was to set the first steps in the implementation of this intervention. A process evaluation was performed using a mixed method…
2022
Finding Their Way The Journey to University for Refugee and Asylum-Seeking Young people in Coventry
This research report explores the journey to higher education for refugee and asylum-seeking young people living in Coventry. It is the product of a partnership between Refugee Education UK and the University of Warwick's English and Comparative Literary Studies Department. The qualitative research study explores the barriers to university facing refugee and asylum-seeking young people in Coventry, and reveals the…
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
Migrant and Refugee Students from the Global South at Austrian Universities: A Typology for Targeted Support
Drawing on qualitative data from five focus group discussions (N=23), we developed a typology with migrant and refugee students from the Global South living in Vienna and studying at an Austrian university. Our findings indicate that different levels of support are required, depending on both structural and personal factors that respondents displayed. Structural factors include residence permit, field and level…
2022
Thrown in at the deep end? Perceptions of burdens, gains, and contributions to the integration of refugee students among teachers with(out) target group-specific professional knowledge
In Germany, young migrants and refugees whose German language skills are not sufficient for attending regular classes at school are assigned to so-called “preparation classes”. As the name implies, the main objective of these classes is to teach German language skills and thereby prepare students for regular classes or vocational education and training. Teachers in these classes face special challenges:…
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
Social Engagement and Cultural Adaptation of Young Refugees Through Gaming and Playful Design
The document addresses one of the main themes of the present day, i.e., the problem of forced migration—commonly referred to as seeking refuge. The target user of this study is exiled children who, in most cases, arrive at their destination alone and with few or no primary survival conditions. UNHCR (2015) points out that more than 65 million people worldwide…
2022
Professional intercultural communicative competence and labour market integration among highly-educated refugees in the Netherlands [Professionelle interkulturelle Kommunikationskompetenz und die Integration von hochqualifizierten Geflüchteten in den niederländischen Arbeitsmarkt]
In the last decade, thousands of forcibly-displaced people have sought refuge in the Netherlands. Many of them are highly educated, and their integration into the host society's labour market could improve their own quality of life as well as making a significant contribution to the country's economy. However, refugees face many challenges in their search for employment. This is the…
2022
Social and emotional learning (SEL) of newcomer and refugee students: Beliefs, practices and implications for policies across OECD countries
Social and emotional learning (SEL) strengthens students’ abilities to regulate their emotions, thoughts, and behaviours and to interact successfully with others. There are an array of important social and emotional skills (SES): goal-setting, working to one’s potential, resilience, creativity, perseverance, problem solving, and caring about the welfare of others, among them. All students need SEL, but newcomer and refugee students…
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
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
“I Fight, I Don’t Give up Hope”: Resilience and Life Satisfaction among Syrian Refugee University Students in Turkey
Forced migration is a phenomenon that profoundly affects the levels of resilience and life satisfaction of refugees. Hence, the purpose of current study is to address how Syrian refugee university students who study in Turkey recovered after deformation caused by significant changes in their life. This study employed a convergent mixed method design. The quantitative results indicated that there were…
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
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
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
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
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
Effectiveness of psychosocial school interventions in Finnish schools for refugee and immigrant children, “Refugees Well School” in Finland (RWS-FI): a protocol for a cluster randomized controlled trial
Background: Schools are natural environments in which to enhance young people’s social and emotional skills, mental health, and contact between diverse groups, including students from refugee and immigrant backgrounds. A layered or tiered provision of services is recommended as it can be effective to meet the needs of war-affected adolescents who variably show mental health problems (such as posttraumatic stress…
2022
Punamäki R.-L.
Kankaanpää R.
Andersen A.
Hilden P.K.
Verelst A.
Derluyn I.
Aalto S.
Vänskä M.
Lepistö R.
Soye E.
Watters C.
Peltonen K.
Integration & assimilation
Caregivers
Teachers & educational staff
English
Access & participation
Resilience & adaptation
Mental health & psychosocial well-being
Intervention
Experimental & quasi-experimental study
Cognitive learning & development
Finland
Randomised control trial
Socio-emotional learning & development
Academic self-efficacy and future work skills in unaccompanied foreign minors: structural equation analysis according to residence time [Autoeficacia académica y habilidades para el futuro laboral en menores extranjeros no acompañados: Análisis mediante ecuaciones estructurales según tiempo de residencia]
The present study seeks to develop an explanatory model of existing relationships between future work skills and academic self-efficacy of a sample of Unaccompanied foreign minors (UFM) (n = 340) in Spain. The structural model demonstrated that management of cognitive load represents the main future work skill amongst UFM. Nonetheless, adaptive thinking acquires more relevance amongst those who have spent…
2021
Teachers’ attitudes to syrian refugee students in Turkey
From the last decade on, the matter of refugees in Turkey has become a key issue in almost all social and political areas including education. Following the refugee influx from 2011 on, Turkey has immediately taken action to provide the Syrian refugee students with necessary educational opportunities in its mainstream schools. The present study was targeted at revealing Turkish teachers’…
2021
Refugee education in Turkey: barriers and suggested solutions
Education is among the areas most affected by immigration. Addressing refugee children’s schooling is an important contribution to the refugee crises, which span the world with far-reaching socio-economic effect. This study unpacks the challenges that refugee children, mainly from Syria, face in integrating into primary and secondary public schools in Turkey. It also proposes some tentative resolutions, drawing from the experiences…
2023
The role of different school organizational models in the psychological adaptation of refugee adolescents
Given the high number of refugee children and adolescents around the globe, it is critical to determine conditions that foster their adaptation in the receiving country. This study investigated the psychological adaptation of recently arrived adolescent refugees in Germany. We focused on whether psychological adaptation reflects the organizational approach taken by the school that refugee adolescents initially attended. School is…
2021
Refugees in the Educational System: Views of Turk and Refugee Students
One of the most important topics in the field of education is refugee education as a result of the rapid increase in refugee numbers in recent periods in Turkey. The aim of this research is to investigate opinions of refugees and Turkish students about education given to refugees in Turkey. The basic assumption of the study is that the characteristics…
2021
Practicing critical media literacy education with/for young migrants: Lessons learned from a participatory action research project
During settlement, migrant youth negotiate between various transitional spaces, which include educational, mediated and transnational spaces. To what extent can critical media literacy education acknowledge and strengthen young migrants’ resilience? In this article, we evaluate the Netherlands-based participatory action research project Critical media literacy through making media. Gathered empirical data include participant observation in two classes, in-depth interviews with 3…
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
The role of civil society organisations in labour market integration of young immigrants in Sweden: An analysis of the organisation Right To Play
During the year of 2015 and the large migration wave that hit Europe, many unaccompanied young refugees came to Sweden. For this particular group, the challenge is to become integrated to the labour market in order to receive a permanent residency permit in Sweden after they graduate their upper secondary education. Over the past few years, it has become more…
2020
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
“It’s very hard, but I’ll manage.” Educational aspirations and educational resilience among recently resettled young refugees in Norwegian upper secondary schools
Purpose: This article explores the question: what shapes young refugees’ often high educational aspirations? A sense of mastery and future hope are among the numerous factors that can positively predict school achievements. High aspirations may thus contribute to both young refugees’ improved educational outcomes and wellbeing. Method: We discuss findings from semi-structured interviews in three Norwegian upper secondary schools in…
2020
Educational pathways for refugee students: Comparing higher education interventions for refugees in Germany and Lebanon
The aim of this study was to understand how refugees go from acquiring education in the form of non-formal educational training to transitioning into formal higher education in accredited, degree granting institutions. Among all refugees on the globe today, only 3% will manage this pathway and successfully go on to tertiary level studies. That is a shameful fact when considering…
2020
Education transitions for refugee and asylum-seeking young people in the UK: Exploring the journey to further and higher education
The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) enshrines the right to education for all children. This right is not suspended when children are forced to flee their home countries. Amidst the uncertainty and adversity of forced displacement, education is a source of hope, a space of safety and a gateway to opportunities for the future. Yet…
2020
Navigating troubled waters: Unaccompanied minors views on education and language learning in Austria
This thesis analyses how young refugees experience learning and living in Austria. It examines their motivation for learning and how their motivation may be influenced by the difficulties they face (e.g.: PTSD, anxiety, very low levels of literacy, language barriers, having never attended a school before or having not attended one in a long time, refugee accommodation, and limited access…
2020
Adjustment of syrian refugee children into pre-school education in Turkey
A qualitative case study was used in this study in order to determine the pre-school education adjustment problems of a Syrian child refugee who had fled from his homeland and took refuge in Turkey. The research participants were the child’s family, teachers, and the principal of the school where the child was educated at pre-school. For the purposes of the…
2020
The effect of local discourses adapted by teachers on Syrian child refugees’ schooling experiences in Turkey
This critical ethnography explains how and why refugee children experience schooling in specific ways by examining teachers’ use and interpretation of local refugee accommodation policies. It argues that locals’ understanding of refugee protection framework to host refugees generates discourses such as brotherhood/sisterhood and guest and these discourses have an impact on the schooling practices and teachers’ approaches to educating refugee…
2023
Integration and adaptation policy towards migrants in Germany: Lessons from unexpected experiences
This chapter reviews the integration experiences and policies in Germany before and after the so-called “refugee crisis’. Chancellor Angela Merkel’s famous words ‘wir schaffen das’ (we manage this) have mobilized both policy actions and a massive grassroots engagement. In this context, we discuss the scope, efficiency and impact of German integration and adaptation policies. We review critically how Germany has…
2020