Refugee Education: Integration and Acceptance of Refugees in Mainstream Society: Volume 11

This chapter focuses on the concept integration and its wider meaning in the context of refugees and internally displaced people across the globe. The purpose of this volume is to highlight the various interventions used to integrate refugees and the efforts implemented by the non-governmental organizations and local governments toward achieving an optimal level of integration with host communities. Using case studies and other empirical research, this volume presents a broad and in-depth overview of the various methods implemented to integrate the refugees into the society. This chapter provides an overview to this volume and establishes a framework for a better understanding of the nature of integration. It also reveals the complexity of the perception-practice dynamic and the multifaceted factors, which influence the various levels of integration.

In today’s era, the world faces the largest number of displaced people since the World War II, wherein a massive number of refugees fleeing to various countries has become a new reality. The response by the media and public indicates fear, anxiety, and a lack of trust, which are logical consequences of the current discourse that focuses on blame and anger. This chapter describes theoretical perspectives of trauma on the brain, and shares various restorative approaches emphasizing a compassionate-witnessing model. It discusses the urgent need of creating safe communities for the refugees and suggests restorative practices to facilitate the process. The authors share actual examples from a refugee-hosting camp in a Western European country, and how the integration of restorative practices allows trust and respectful communication to develop and strengthening relationships. This makes it possible to use restorative approaches to respond to conflicts. The chapter recommends how staff, educators, and volunteers could respond with compassion and empathy to traumatized refugees. The suggested restorative processes could be shared with staff and volunteers’ training, higher education faculty in preparing future teachers to work with refugee students, and with teachers who are challenged, working with refugee population.

Israel is a desirable destination of international migration. Most migrants suffer from job insecurity, the small number of supportive family, and environmental anchors.

This chapter aims at outlining the activities and concepts of the young volunteers of the non-formal education practice operating in a big city for the benefit of the migrant children and the implications of this practice on the future of the children in the receiving society.

The research findings indicate that the young volunteers operate in three different focuses of interaction: (1) creation of a personal–emotional communications system; (2) ethical-humanistic education; and (3) promoting success in school studies.

The practice described in this research dealing with the assistance of young volunteers may serve as a model for the advancement and integration of other migrant populations in both, Israel and the world.

Refugee healthcare professionals are a particular subset of refugees whose education and training requirements are specific to regulatory bodies in host countries. This chapter will use a UK-based organization (Refugee and Asylum Seeking Centre for Healthcare Professionals Education (REACHE) North West) as a case study to demonstrate the process of requalification, return to work, and integration. There are a variety of strands in this process which include language, clinical knowledge and practice, cultural influences, and experience of the asylum and refugee process. In this chapter, there is a model of education and training for working with refugee healthcare professionals which can be adapted to work with staff trained internationally to support the development of education and training material for successful integration into work.

The initiative featured here constructs a partnership between a refugee community with roots in South Sudan and the United States largest university writing program in an international resettlement city. The initiative positions inquiry, as a premise for authentic learning, in public as a participatory practice; it approaches difference as a resource for joint problem solving. Here, inquiry is something both public-workers-in-training and adult refugee learners do together – with one another and a host of other stakeholders with vested interests in the capacity of public institutions in order to become more responsive to diverse constituents resettling in Phoenix, Arizona, under conditions of forced migration. The research is presented across four phases. In counterpoint to the prevailing narrative of South Sudanese as a people “in need,” the culmination of the chapter presents interviews with citizens across South Sudan. These interviews bear witness to communities’ self-determination that instead casts education not only as their responsibility, but also their desire—one to which they have historically committed significant resources. In this fourth phase, findings with community members in South Sudan are put in conversation with the previous three phases wherein South Sudanese refugees tell of their encounters with credentialing institutions in Phoenix.

The chapter presents a critical analysis of the reception system for non-asylum seeking unaccompanied migrant children in Calabria, a region of South Italy. It focuses on the main features of local welfare for migrants’ children emerging from a qualitative research carried out by mixing different sources: analysis of literature and semi-structured interviews to different stakeholders (politician, local administrators, juvenile judges, social workers, management of foster-care communities, and educators). Shortages in individualized planning, lack of resources for qualifying the educational staff, economic difficulties of local administrators, frequent absence of a cultural and linguistic mediator, lengthy delays in appointing tutelary judge, weakness of social territorial services to support communities, difficulties in organizing training and creating job opportunities, lack of verification and monitoring of inclusion interventions, organizational isolation of reception communities, fragility of networking and sporadic collaboration among different stakeholders involved in protection system, and inadequate collection of data and information about migrant children hosted in foster-care communities are salient limits of the local policies and interventions for non-asylum seeking migrants’ children. The chapter also includes a brief presentation of latest innovation in this policies filed, highlighting some of the best practices in education, training, and employment conducted in the Protection System for Refugees and Asylum Seekers, better organized, more specialized, and supported by the national government.

Diversity is an important concern at all levels of learning. This chapter discusses how acceptance of diversity and genuine inclusion of all learners does not happen easily; however, purposeful and collaborative experiences allowing various groups of students to interact with one another can be valuable. Personal impressions of the importance of diversity in classrooms are shared; in addition, a review of some related literature regarding the implications of cooperative experiences that engage students across cultures and languages is presented. Descriptions of two collaborative experiences in which pre-service teachers connected with refugees and International students are also shared. An especially important focus of this chapter is on how pre-service teachers benefit from multicultural experiences. Pre-service teachers were encouraged to consider biases and cultural differences while interacting with individuals from other countries, all of which might help them in their careers. International learners were also more connected to the learning community, and were inspired to learn more about the English language and American culture through social experiences with others. When intentional communication occurs, feelings of isolation might decrease and confidence can increase, thus creating a positive learning experience for all.

This chapter provides information on the specific programming needs of victims of torture pursuing higher education, and policy and practice guidelines which will support them in that pursuit. This is a community-based participatory action research project that brought together partners who had educational, research, practical, and real-life expertise in working with marginalized groups on this complex issue, with each partner playing an essential and a vital role in the research. A partnership between George Brown College, the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, the Wellesley Institute, and the Canadian Centre for Victims of Torture established this community-based participatory action research project. The project established innovative outreach for people seeking to integrate into Canadian society through education following experiences of torture and war as a means to aid in the meaningful integration of survivors into Canadian society. This work is scalable to other settings (e.g., universities and colleges across Canada) and groups with experiences of marginalization (e.g., Aboriginals, visible minorities, etc.).

This chapter will explore, from a practice and a personal perspective, multidisciplinary strategies that promote successful transition from middle school to college among male refugees in urban settings. These best practices are based on the combined experiences of the authors as they have formally and informally worked together to help these young people navigate becoming young adults in the United States. This opening section will highlight the value of collaborative, formal, and informal networks, comprised of community-based organizations, K-12 institutions, and healthcare providers, which support refugee transition into adulthood and higher education in the urban setting. Last, this chapter will focus on the role of sport, social media, and mentors as a framework of support for refugee students as they navigate their way through higher education access, financing, and retention in the United States.

Far too often refugees are being researched on; however, the purpose of this chapter is to research with refugees while exploring the ways refugee youth in a higher education protracted context can become producers of research and knowledge. I sought to collaborate with my co-researchers / co-authors through a community-based action (CBA) approach at Kakuma Refugee Camp to assure that their youthful (ages 18–35) voices were included in this study. A CBA approach seeks to speak with participants, not for them. They learned about the research process, why research is needed, and how we can produce it together. Using a critical-hope framework, that is, a pedagogical tool that uses a critical theory lens to address unjust systems through meaningful dialogue and empathic responses, we co-led 30 psychosocial peace-building education (PBBE) courses in Kakuma and Nairobi, Kenya. Data were collected from the researcher and co-researchers’ reflective logs on our own observations in the PBBE courses. A thematic analysis approach was chosen in order to avoid focusing on the norms and/or creating specific norms that dictate, demand conformity, and silence divergent voices. There were three themes: time, place, and person.

Each year, our university’s small community welcomes 200 refugees. Many refugee children’s schooling is interrupted due to long waits in refugee camps, so they need additional educational opportunities. Families from the refugee community and representatives from the Church World Services, a local refugee-resettlement agency, partnered with James Madison University to create a summer program that provides children from the refugee community with more support in English and reading. Creativity And Reading Education (CARE) is a summer program for Pre-K-3rd grade children in the refugee community that integrates creativity and English/literacy development by utilizing community-based field trips for real-world connections and applications. Pre-service teachers in this six-credit experience planned and facilitated morning meetings, integrated literacy/creativity activities, read aloud sessions, and vocabulary focused on field trips. We partnered with the schools and recruited 16 pre-service teachers, 30 children, and 10 parents to participate in the three-week program. This chapter explicates how CARE was conceptualized and implemented during its pilot year. We highlight our community partnerships, illuminate challenges and lessons learned, and explain next steps as the subsequent iteration of the CARE program that evolves to serve more students and families.

This chapter will explore the impact of life in warzones, life in transit, and life in camps on children’s development. It will consider the potential of play-based approaches in supporting children holistically, providing respite, and enabling positive learning experiences.

It draws upon the authors’ experiences of two visits to the Dunkirk Refugee Children’s Centre at La Liniere refugee camp, located in the Grande-Synthe area of Dunkirk. We will discuss the approaches that have proved successful in supporting children’s learning and development, the challenges faced, and the lessons learned. It will consider how these approaches could support successful transition into more formal education. Finally, it will examine the implications for staff training and development.

How can schools, specifically school leaders, be an integral part in helping students from refugee backgrounds build resilience in their new settings? The following literature review has been written to give a brief overview of the refugee-resettlement process in US history, how things have developed with the study of posttraumatic stress disorder, and how school leaders can work with students who may have suffered from traumatic experiences. It is concluded with some suggestions for schools and school leaders on how to work with refugee students and their families. With a refugee crisis around the globe, this study is part of a growing body of research regarding the issue of refugee resettlement; specifically, how school leaders can be involved in the resettlement process of refugee students. Continued research is needed that will continue to build on the current body of knowledge around this vital issue affecting so many today.

This chapter summarizes a therapeutic art-based education project in Houston and two United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees resettlement camps in Burkina Faso, a small landlocked country in West Africa. The project, which was developed and led by the authors, Be the Peace – Be the Hope, was born from a spirit of hope and concern for the plight of children; particularly, for the mounting numbers of children displaced by war and conflict. Many of these children now live in resettlement camps. The ages of the participating students ranged from 8 to 22 in the camps. Many participating Houston middle and high school students had arrived recently in the United States and several had been refugees themselves.

There is an intersection between the global refugee crisis and higher education within the context of the United States. This chapter provides an overview of emerging trends in refugee migration and internal displacement, reviews the historical approach to refugee resettlement to the United States, and offers a discussion of the relationship between K-12 schools and the United States higher-education structure. Data suggest that the majority of the refugee population resettled to the United States is below the age of 35 years, and is therefore most likely to engage with higher education. In the context of this chapter, refugees and those who have previously held refugee status, and interact with the higher-education system, are referred to as “students from refugee backgrounds.” Students from refugee backgrounds are a diverse group in many ways, including but not limited to country of origin, culture, religious and/or spiritual affiliation, English language proficiency, migration history, and educational background. The combination of these factors poses a unique set of challenges to their transition to the United States and the higher-education environment. This chapter highlights some of these challenges and explores the growing role of colleges and universities in facilitating educational access and support.