User:Zattaras/Refugee children

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Education

Main article: Education of immigrants in the United States

Education shifts with the different stages of the refugee experience. The report, "Missing Out: Refugee Education in Crisis", compares UNHCR sources and statistics on refugee education with data on school enrollment around the world provided by UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization. The report notes that, globally, 91 percent of children attend primary school. For all refugees, that figure is at 61 percent. Specifically in low-income countries, less than 50 percent of refugees are able to attend primary school. As refugee children get older, school enrollment rates drop: only 23 percent of refugee adolescents are enrolled in secondary school, versus the global figure of 84 percent. In low-income countries, nine percent of refugees are able to go to secondary school. Across the world, enrollment in tertiary education stands at 36 percent. For refugees, the percentage remains at one percent. In 2016, at the General Assembly Summit for Refugees and Migrants, the UNHCR called "for a broad partnership between government humanitarian agencies, development partners and the private sector to address the huge gaps in the provision of quality education for all refugees". Following this summit, the UNHCR met with companies, governments and philanthropists at the 2016 World Humanitarian Summit in Turkey to create the "Education Cannot Wait fund, an initiative to meet the educational needs of millions children and youth affected by crises around the world". Even though there have been global discussions, the UNHCR still believes there needs to be more action taken to fully address this issue at a global level.

Adapting to a new school environment is a major undertaking for refugee children who arrive in a new country or refugee camp. Education is crucial for the sufficient psychosocial adjustment and cognitive growth of refugee children. Due to these circumstances, it is important that educators consider the needs, obstacles, and successful educational pathways for children refugees.

Graham, Minhas, and Paxton (2016) note in their study that parents' misunderstandings about educational styles, teachers' low expectations and stereotyping tendencies, bullying and racial discrimination, pre-migration and post-migration trauma, and forced detention can all be risk factors for learning problems in refugee children. They also note that high academic and life ambition, parents' involvement in education, a supportive home and school environment, teachers' understanding of linguistic and cultural heritage, and healthy peer relationships can all contribute to a refugee child's success in school. While the initial purpose of refugee education was to prepare students to return to their home countries, now the focus of American refugee education is on integration.

In the United States, there is very little policy governing refugee students and their integration into schools. Most policies and policy debate is focused on immigration and asylum itself. This “invisibility of refugees” in government policy is a serious hindrance to the status and stability of refugees in society; it also impacts their access to education and their ability to succeed in their host country. Education services for refugees and immigrants in the United States are inadequate. A recent study revealed that 54% of refugee children in the United States suffer academic problems. With poor educational support, refugees and immigrants have little social, economic, and political power and are unable to self-advocate. Academic and social education is integral for enhancing their power because it provides them with tools such as language and communication skills and understanding of their host society.

Access to education

Structure of the education system[edit]

Schools in North America lack the necessary resources for supporting refugee children, particularly in negotiating their academic experience and in addressing the diverse learning needs of refugee children. Complex schooling policies that vary by classroom, building and district, and procedures that require written communication or parent involvement intimidate the parents of refugee children. Educators in North America typically guess the grade in which refugee children should be placed because there is not a standard test or formal interview process required of refugee children. Sahrawi refugee children learning Arabic and Spanish, math, reading and writing, and science subjects. The ability to enroll in school and continue one's studies in developing countries is limited and uneven across regions and settings of displacement, particularly for young girls and at the secondary levels. The availability of sufficient classrooms and teachers is low and many discriminatory policies and practices prohibit refugee children from attending school. Educational policies promoting age-caps can also be harmful to refugee children.

Many refugee children face legal restrictions to schooling, even in countries of first asylum. This is the case especially for countries that have not signed the 1951 Refugee Convention or its 1967 Protocol. The 1951 Convention and 1967 Protocol both emphasize the right to education for refugees, articulating the definition of refugeehood in international contexts. Nevertheless, refugee students have one of the lowest rates of access to education. The UNHCR reported in 2014 that about 50 percent of refugee children had access to education compared to children globally at 93 percent. The UNHCR discusses how refugee education can help reduce child marriage, child labour, exploitative and dangerous work and teen pregnancy. However, since only half of refugees have access to education in comparison to children globally, refugee children's needs and achievements remain largely unmet and invisible. The lack of access to education for refugees, according to the UNHCR, treats education as a "luxury" and not the "necessity" that it is.  In countries where they lack official refugee status, refugee children are unable to enroll in national schools. In Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, unregistered refugee children described being hesitant to go to school, due to risk of encountering legal authorities at school or while on the way to and from school.

If refugee education programs exist they are weak in impact because they lack structure. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) stresses the importance of including refugee education in national and city planning, in order to attain consistency in funding and curriculum . There need to be policies and programs in place to help refugees and immigrant children.  Refugee children experience so many changes and hardships, including disruptions in their schooling; schools need to be a grounding and stable place for them, otherwise they will not learn to their best potential. Schools need to help students navigate everyday life in a foreign place. Schools are also protection for refugee and immigrant children who are particularly vulnerable to trafficking and other forms of violence and forced labor due to a lack of knowledge of their host societies.

Structure of classes[edit]

Student-teacher ratios are very high in most refugee schools, and in some countries, these ratios are nearly twice the UNCHR guideline of 40:1. Although global policies and standards for refugee settings endorse child-centered teaching methods that promote student participation, teacher-centered instruction often predominates in refugee classrooms. Teachers lecture for the majority of the time, offering few opportunities for students to ask questions or engage in creative thinking. In eight refugee-serving schools in Kenya, for example, lecturing was the primary mode of instruction.

In order to address the lack of attention to refugee education in national school systems, the UNHCR developed formal relationships with twenty national ministries of education in 2016 to oversee the political commitment to refugee education at the nation-state level. The UNCHR introduced an adaptive global strategy for refugee education with the aim of "integration of refugee learners within national system where possible and appropriate and as guided by ongoing consultation with refugees". Refugee children in Rhino camp refugee settlement stuying under a tree

Residence[edit]

A large number of refugee and immigrant students do not live with their parents but live with extended family or older siblings. If they do live with their parents, their parents are constantly working . This puts a burden on refugee children to be more self sufficient in their everyday life, as well as in their schooling, where they face classroom and homework challenges on their own. They often are also tasked with burdens not faced by other students, such as translating for their family members and helping fill in government forms and filing taxes. This added responsibility interferes with their focus on their school work.

Where refugees live also affects their quality of school and resources available. Refugee children who live in large urban centers in North America have a higher rate of success at school, particularly because their families have greater access to additional social services that can help address their specific needs. Families who are unable to move to urban centers are at a disadvantage. Children with unpredictable migration trajectories suffer most from a lack of schooling because of a lack of uniform schooling in each of their destinations before settling.^{[citation needed]}

Language barriers and ethnicity[edit]

Acculturation stress occurs in North America when families expect refugee youth to remain loyal to ethnic values while mastering the host culture in school and social activities. In response to this demand, children may over-identify with their host culture, their culture of origin, or become marginalized from both. Insufficient communication due to language and cultural barriers may evoke a sense of alienation or "being the other" in a new society. The clash between cultural values of the family and popular culture in mainstream Western society leads to the alienation of refugee children from their home culture.

Many Western schools do not address diversity among ethnic groups from the same nation or provide resources for specific needs of different cultures (such as including halal food in the school menu). Without successfully negotiating cultural differences in the classroom, refugee children experience social exclusion in their new host culture. The presence of racial and ethnic discrimination can have an adverse effect on the well-being of certain groups of children and lead to a reduction in their overall school performance. For instance, cultural differences place Vietnamese refugee youth at a higher risk of pursuing disruptive behavior. Contemporary Vietnamese American adolescents are prone to greater uncertainties, self-doubts and emotional difficulties than other American adolescents. Vietnamese children are less likely to say they have much to be proud of, that they like themselves as they are, that they have many good qualities, and that they feel socially accepted.

Classes for refugees, more often than not, are taught in the host-country language. Refugees in the same classroom may also speak several different languages, requiring multiple interpretations; this can slow the pace of overall instruction. Refugees from the Democratic Republic of Congo living in Uganda, for example, had to transition from French to English. Some of these children were placed in lower-level classes due to their lack of English proficiency. Many older children therefore had to repeat lower-level classes, even if they had already mastered the content. Using the language of one ethnic group as the instructional language may threaten the identity of a minority group.

Refugee students are also subject to bullying due to language barriers when attending public schools in their host countries. Bullying is commonly around refugee students' inability to speak the host language perfectly. This type of bullying discourages refugee students to continue learning the language and undermines their confidence in their academic abilities.

The content of the curriculum can also act as a form of discrimination against refugee children involved in the education systems of first asylum countries. Curricula often seem foreign and difficult to understand to refugees who are attending national schools alongside host-country nationals. For instance, in Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya, children described having a hard time understanding concepts that lacked relevance to their lived experiences, especially concepts related to Kenyan history and geography. Similarly, in Uganda, refugee children from the Democratic Republic of Congo studying together with Ugandan children in government schools did not have opportunities in the curriculum to learn the history of their home country. The teaching of one-sided narratives, such as during history lessons, can also threaten the identity of students belonging to minority groups. Vietnamese refugee mother and children at a kindergarten in upper Afula, 1979

Other obstacles[edit]

Although high-quality education helps refugee children feel safe in the present and enable them to be productive in the future, some do not find success in school. Other obstacles may include:

• Disrupted schooling - refugee children may experience disruptive schooling in their country of origin, or they may receive no form of education at all. It is extremely difficult for a student with no previous education to enter a school full of educated children.
• Trauma - can impede the ability to learn and cause fear of people in positions of authority (such as teachers and principals)
• School drop outs - due to self-perceptions of academic ability, antisocial behaviour, rejection from peers and/or a lack of educational preparation prior to entering the host-country school. School drop outs may also be caused by unsafe school conditions, poverty, etc.
• Parents - when parental involvement and support are lacking, a child's academic success decreases substantially. Refugee parents are often unable to help their children with homework due to language barriers. Parents often do not understand the concept of parent-teacher meetings and/or never expect to be a part of their child's education due to pre-existing cultural beliefs.
• Assimilation - a refugee child's attempt to quickly assimilate into the culture of their school can cause alienation from their parents and country of origin and create barriers and tension between the parent and child.
• Social and individual rejection - hostile discrimination can cause additional trauma when refugee children and treated cruelly by their peers
• Identity confusion
• Behavioral issues - caused by the adjustment issues and survival behaviours learned in refugee camps

Role of teachers[edit]

North American schools are agents of acculturation, helping refugee children integrate into Western society. Successful educators help children process trauma they may have experienced in their country of origin while supporting their academic adjustment. Refugee children benefit from established and encouraged communication between student and teacher, and also between different students in the classroom. Familiarity with sign language and basic ESL strategies improves communication between teachers and refugee children. Also, non-refugee peers need access to literature that helps educate them on their refugee classmates experiences. Course materials should be appropriate for the specific learning needs of refugee children and provide for a wide range of skills in order to give refugee children strong academic support.

Educators should spend time with refugee families discussing previous experiences of the child in order to place the refugee child in the correct grade level and to provide any necessary accommodations School policies, expectations, and parent's rights should be translated into the parent's native language since many parents do not speak English proficiently. Educators need to understand the multiple demands placed on parents (such as work and family care) and be prepared to offer flexibility in meeting times with these families.

Teachers in the United States often have little experience with the trauma that refugees often face. They also lack training on how to treat students who have experienced trauma. They often see refugee students as burdens and their different cultures and languages as barriers not assets to their education. This type of treatment of refugee students that diminish their capabilities have grave consequences such as negative developmental outcomes.

A booklet published in 2000 written by Dr. Sheila and Dr. Dick detailed the ways teachers can approach refugee children in school as well as the common problems refugee children present with at school. According to the booklet, refugees can come from traumatizing situations and thus may struggle with school attendance, literacy, and their cultural identity. The problems are said to present themselves as anger, withdrawal, issues with authority, concentration, rules, and other inappropriate behavior. The booklet suggests that teachers address those issues by helping children manage their behavior and emotions. According to Dr. Sheila and Dr. Dick, teachers can do so by knowing what the children need, being supportive, and turning them to specialists if need be.

The study focuses on how teachers can educate themselves on their students' situations. One study encourages teachers to be aware of common behavioral problems that refugee children may exhibit in the classroom like anger, withdrawal, rule testing, problems with authority, inability to concentrate, inappropriate behavior, lower academic achievement. The study also notes how refugee children often exhibit this behavior because they are put into a different cultural context, face discrimination, live with families in low socioeconomic circumstances, have no family, and/or have conflicts with their traditional cultural beliefs. The International Network of Public Schools is a model that can be emulated by schools serving immigrant students or English language learners. These schools prepare teachers specifically for working with refugee and immigrant students. In one example, Strekalova explains that the "most frequent stressful events Croatian refugee children have experienced prior to coming to the United States include: "loss of home (80%), loss of personal belongings (66.7%), separation from family members (66.7%), damage to property (48.9%), exposure to enemy attacks (46.7%), and death of a family member or friend (37.8%). Experiences such as these heavily shape a student's learning ability and educational needs. Teachers must be equipped with not only increased training to address students facing these issues, but the ability to increase student participation in their instruction and allow for the classroom assimilation of students with limited backgrounds in formal education According to the study, teachers who understand these barriers refugee children face and thus the inappropriate behavior they may exhibit can help their students have a more positive school experience.

Academic adjustment of refugee children[edit]

Syrian refugee children attend a lesson in a UNICEF temporary classroom in northern Lebanon, July 2014 Teachers can make the transition to a new school easier for refugee children by providing interpreters. Schools meet the psychosocial needs of children affected by war or displacement through programs that provide children with avenues for emotional expression, personal support, and opportunities to enhance their understanding of their past experience. Refugee children benefit from a case-by-case approach to learning, because every child has had a different experience during their resettlement. Communities where the refugee populations are bigger should work with the schools to initiate after school, summer school, or weekend clubs that give the children more opportunities to adjust to their new educational setting.

Bicultural integration is the most effective mode of acculturation for refugee adolescents in North America. The staff of the school must understand students in a community context and respect cultural differences. Parental support, refugee peer support, and welcoming refugee youth centers are successful in keeping refugee children in school for longer periods of time. Education about the refugee experience in North America also helps teachers relate better with refugee children and understand the traumas and issues a refugee child may have experienced.

Refugee children thrive in classroom environments where all students are valued. A sense of belonging, as well as ability to flourish and become part of the new host society, are factors predicting the well-being of refugee children in academics. Increased school involvement and social interaction with other students help refugee children combat depression and/or other underlying mental health concerns that emerge during the post-migration period.

The teaching style of the International High School of Laguardia Community College in Long Island City, New York, a school for English language learners such as immigrants and refugees, exemplifies the current research done in this area. This high school has not only been extremely successful in teaching these students, but the students of this high school have noteworthy success rates after graduating. The study analyzing this program demonstrates that this success was achieved by addressing the specific needs of immigrant students, supporting their English language learning through providing them with more personalized instruction, adapting the curriculum to be culturally relevant, and creating an environment of inter-student collaboration.

A 2016 study conducted by Dr. Thomas found that education helps refugee children feel socially included within their new culture. For example, Dr. Thomas noted that education often provided a sense of stability as well as support in developing language, cultural, and technical skills.

Debates on assimilation[edit]

Many refugees who arrive in countries that house large numbers of refugees must choose between refugee-specific schools or general public schools in their host country. Refugee-specific schools are usually created by refugees in the area and do not teach the host language. These schools do not focus on integrating students into public schools or into their host society. These schools are also not regulated and do not provide good quality education. However, many refugees prefer to attend these schools as opposed to public schools because they feel more respected and supported. Many public schools are not equipped to properly teach refugee students. Not only are their teachers not trained to teach refugee children, the curriculum ostracizes refugee students. For example in Turkey, public schools only teach in Turkish with no support for those who do not speak Turkish. This makes it extremely difficult for Syrian refugees, who only speak Arabic, to integrate, learn and assimilate in Turkish schools . In the U.S the majority of public schools have English as Second Learner (ESL) programs, to help non-native English speakers catch up to their classmates. ESL programs often lack rigorous curriculum that challenges students and one study points out that ESL teachers are not equipped to understand and care about students . Teachers who do want to support their students in a holistic way often lack support and resources from the school. ESL programs are also often subject to lack of stability in teachers and curriculum which hinders students' learning .

A 2005 study by Yu Xie and Emily Greenman posited that assimilation and integration of refugee children positively impacts their education and development and that in non-poverty neighborhoods, assimilation is positively correlated with their academic achievement and mental well-being. However, the degree and kind of assimilation varies, as demonstrated by Alejandro Portes and Min Zhou's theory of segmented assimilation. According to Xie and Greenman, that theory posits three paths to assimilation in the United States. The first theory, related to the theory of classical assimilation, is of increasing integration into the American middle class. In contrast, the second theory is of assimilation into the urban underclass, which according to Xie and Greenman leads to poverty and downward mobility. The third theory of selective acculturation highlights conserving the culture of the immigrant community paired with economic integration. With additive assimilation strategy, cultural ties are kept while refugee children continue integrating economically and in their educational institutions. According to Xie and Greenman, legacies of institutionalized racism and xenophobia can be exacerbated by the first and second methods suggested by Portes and Zhou. The first method, classical assimilation theory, relies heavily on the premise that Americanization is inherently good.

Studies performed by Koyama and Chang in Arizona show that refugee students benefit from programs which appreciate, rather than seek to eradicate, their cultural and ethnic backgrounds, forging ties between their identities and new experiences. Classical assimilation negatively impacts refugee education by making assimilation more difficult from the start, in addition to perpetuating prejudice and ethnic discrimination. By exalting American identity as the standard, classical assimilation perpetuates racial hierarchies and stereotypes. The second method, acculturation and assimilation into the urban underclass, is even more susceptible to exacerbating institutionalized racism and legacies of xenophobia. Acculturation and assimilation into the urban underclass refers to assimilation into disadvantaged and impoverished communities within the United States, furthering the cycle of poverty and struggle that many refugees are seeking to escape in the first place. This second method is again an example of legacies of racism and xenophobia, as it preys upon the historic marginalization of ethnic minority communities in the United States. Additionally, public education in the United States for the urban underclass faces a variety of issues independent of refugee education programs – the second method of assimilation results in refugees assimilating to communities that are historically underserved educationally, even without taking into account the various barriers and negative impacts of poorly run refugee education programs.

The International Network of Public Schools have established schools in the United States that are specific for refugee students but also provide a framework where students will eventually be integrated in the public school systems and in society in a way that values their culture and background. They do this by having small classes to offer personalized learning for each refugee student. They also offer a holistic support system for students by having dedicated teams of 5-6 teachers, counselors, and advisors assigned to support students. These teams meet regularly to discuss how they can support students with the challenges they are facing . Refugee students are also supported in learning English so they can begin assimilating into their host societies .

Peace education[edit]

Implemented by UNICEF from 2012 to 2016 and funded by the Government of the Netherlands, Peacebuilding, Education, and Advocacy (PBEA) was an education program that aimed to improve peacebuilding. The PBEA program in Kenya's Dadaab refugee camp aimed to strengthen resilience and social cohesion in the camp, as well as between refugees and the host community. The initiative was composed of two parts: the Peace Education Programme (PEP), an in-school program taught in Dadaab's primary schools, and the Sports for Development and Peace (SDP) program for refugee adolescents and youth. There was anecdotal evidence of increased levels of social cohesion from participation in PEP and potential resilience from participation in SDP.

Peace education for refugee children may also have limitations and its share of opponents. Although peace education from past programs involving non-refugee populations reported to have had positive effects, studies have found that the attitudes of parents and teachers can also have a strong influence on students' internalization of peace values. Teachers from Cyprus also resisted a peace education program initiated by the government. Another study found that, while teachers supported the prospect of reconciliation, ideological and practical concerns made them uncertain about the effective implementation of a peace education program.

Pedagogical approaches[edit]

Refugees fall into a unique situation where the nation-state may not adequately address their educational needs, and the international relief system is tasked with the role of a "pseudo-state" in developing a curriculum and pedagogical approach. Critical pedagogical approaches to refugee education address the phenomenon of alienation that migrant students face in schools outside of their home countries, where the positioning of English language teachers and their students create power dynamics emphasizing the inadequacies of foreign-language speakers, intensified by the use of compensatory programs to cater to 'at-risk' students. In order to adequately address state-less migrant populations, curricula has to be relevant to the experiences of transnational youth. One way to incorporate the experiences of transnational youth in the classroom is through what scholars have described as Narrative and Constructive Education. In Narrative and Constructive Education, teachers are often themselves immigrants and they share their own personal experience to "connect and inspire their students''. This teaching method has proved to be effective in a case study of schools that are part of Ednovate, a charter school management company located in Southern California that contains a majority ethnic immigrant and first-generation population. When students "interact with teachers that come from a similar background, their interest in schooling increases". This type of instruction can help motivate refugee children to advance their education as they are able to identify with their authoritative figures. Another pedagogical approach that can be incorporated is an inclusive language approach. In 2005, Arnot and Pinson's study discussed the "ethos of inclusion" as an important characteristic of schools that have refugee students. This classroom approach provided "intensive language and learning support... used visual resources to provide information" and developed "a student-centred, inclusive curriculum which is designed to provide a learning environment and structure suitable for a whole range of students". Pedagogical researchers and policy makers can benefit from lessons learned through participatory action research in refugee camps, where student cited decreased self-esteem associated with a lack of education.

See also:

• Third country resettlement