ITIRE Improving teaching to improve refugee children education An Overview of Refugee Education in Europe Edited by Fabio Dovigo 1 2 This ebook is published in Open Access under a Creative Com- mons License Attribution- Noncommercial-No Derivative Works (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).! You are free to share - copy, distribute and transmit - the work under the following conditions: You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work). You may not use this work for commercial purposes. You may not alter, transform, or build upon this work. © Aarhus University - 2020 ISBN: 87-7684-526-5 KA203 Strategic Partnerships for Higher Education 4 5 TABLE OF CONTENTS Preface 7 1. Introduction and rationale: an overview of RE in Europe 8 2. RE approaches and strategies in Northern Europe 10 3. RE approaches and strategies in Southern Europe 28 4. RE approaches and strategies in Central Europe 48 5. RE approaches and strategies in Eastern Europe 57 6. RE approaches and strategies in Western Europe 73 Conclusions 98 6 FABIO DOVIGO PREFACE The overview of refugee children education in Europe we provide in this book is part of the Erasmus + project “ITIRE: Improving teaching to improve refugee children education”. Following the unprecedented flow of forced migrants to Europe in 2015, several countries have adopted measures to facilitate the enrolment of refugee children in the educational system. These actions have produced a positive impact on reaffirming the right to education, which is important for all children, but assumes a special relevance for those who have been uprooted and sometimes separated from their families. However, while there is wide consensus at the European level on the idea that school is a protective factor for refugee children, educational policies and practices are still mostly developed only at the national and, above all, local level. Although refugee children have specific profiles in terms of educational needs and potentials, they are often offered programmes that have been designed having other kinds of migrant students in mind. Moreover, most of the knowledge and good practices developed by institutions working in different European countries and regions tend to remain at the local level. Cultural and linguistic barriers still widespread in Europe are partly responsible for this fragmentation. Nevertheless, improvements in this area are undoubtedly held back by the current political climate, in which the refugee topic is seen as extremely delicate and, consequently, put often aside. Our book aims to contribute overcoming this stalemate, by providing an outline of policies and practices brought about in Europe regarding refugee children’s education. Dissemination of existing knowledge would help not only enhance educational interventions, but also inspire practitioners working in this field, who frequently feel isolated while they do their best to support children with forced migration background. The collection of information has been divided by identifying five broad European areas. This option has been adopted only for functional reasons. It doesn’t imply that these areas have clear features and trends in common, even though some shared patterns can be detected. Moreover, a relevant share of information concerning refugee education is published only in the national languages. Accordingly, we made an effort to retrieve all relevant data accessible in several European languages. However, data available widely vary depending on the country examined or, more precisely, on the level the country has been affected by the refugee waves and/or able to carry out research on refugee children’s education. This is especially evident regarding good practices, which are rarely recognised and documented in-depth. Regardless of these limitations, we hope this publication will provide researchers and practitioners with a more systematic picture of current refugee children’s education in Europe. This, in turn, would enable us to develop more effective strategies in this critical sector. 7 HERMÍNA GUNNÞÓRSDÓTTIR, MARCELA DOUGLAS, MERETE SAUS & GRY PAULGAARD 1. INTRODUCTION AND RATIONALE: AN OVERVIEW OF REFUGEE EDUCATION IN EUROPE According to the UNHCR’s report Global Trends - Forced Displacement in 2018 (UNHCR, 2019) on changes in UNHCR’s population of concern related to ongoing crises, the number of refugees under UNHCR’s care is almost double that of 2012, with two thirds coming from just 5 countries. Furthermore it is stated that the total global refugee population under UNHCR’s mandate is now at the highest level ever recorded, 20.4 million and has nearly doubled since 2012 when it stood at 10.5 million (UNHCR, 2019). When the origin of refugees is analysed it appears that, as in 2017, over two thirds of the world’s refugees come from just five countries: Syria, Afghanistan, South Sudan, Myanmar and Somalia and since 2014, the main country of origin for refugees in 2018 was Syria, with 6.7 million at the end of the year 2018. Refugees from Afghanistan were the second largest group and South Sudan the third most common country of origin. Turkey continued to host the largest population of Syrian refugees, or 3.7 million at the end of 2018. Pakistan hosted the second largest refugee population with 1.4 million refugees, almost exclusively from Afghanistan. Uganda continued to host a large refugee population, numbering 1.2 million at the end of 2018, the largest being from South Sudan. Looking at Europe it appears that during 2018, the refugee population in Germany continued to increase, numbering 1,063,800 at the end of the year. More than half were from Syria (532,100), while other countries of origin included Iraq (136,500) and Afghanistan (126,000). Other countries hosting significant refugee populations at the end of 2018 included DRC (529,100), Chad (451,200), Kenya (421,200), Cameroon (380,300) and France (368,400) (UNHCR, 2019). In a recent book on The integration of migrants and refugees, published by the European University Institute (Bauböck & Tripkovic, 2017) it is argued that current circumstances in Europe regarding migrants and refugees, poses challenges to traditional approaches to immigrant integration employed by the European countries. Parallel there are challenges related to negative reactions in some EU countries due to increased numbers of newcomers in countries that have so far not had so much experience with immigration (p.2). Other and similar reviews have identified the challenge of collecting data on refugee children in education per se as this group of students are most often not distinguished separately. On the other hand there are a huge number of studies on the education of children of immigrants (Ibid, p.62). Depending on the situation in each country it can vary if and how these two groups of students – immigrants and refugees – are taught together. The rapid changes the last few years in Europe regarding refugees fleeing from war or hard living conditions can’t be seen anymore as temporary and something that will settle. The rate can and will vary from year to year but those who have already migrated and are refugees across Europe need appropriate support in order to keep on their lives. Thus, it’s important to recognize the need and the responsibility within each country. Evidence from countries with an extensive experience on RE show that the ability of schools to provide immediate and appropriate support is pivotal to favour a smooth accommodation process and ensure settlement, safety, and security for children (Bash, 2006; Porche et al. 2011). Conversely, inadequate educational support often translates into students’ disengagement, feelings of disempowerment, poor relationships with peers, and early school leaving. This, in turn, can affect not only learning achievements of refugee children, but also their coping strategies and resilience, undermining future prospects in terms of employment and socio-economic status, so heightening social exclusion (Block, 2014; Taylor, Sidhu, 2012). In order to respond actively and systematically to this situation, educational practitioners and directors need to have relevant knowledge and an overview of the situation, both globally and locally. This report is aimed to give an overview of the different approaches and strategies adopted in order to improve the current understandings and resources related to refugee students’ education in Europe. 8 REFERENCES Bauböck, R. & Tripkovic, M. (2017). Preface. In R. Bauböck & M. Tripkovic (Eds), (pp. 1-6). Italy: European University Institute. Block, K., Cross, S., Riggs, E. & Gibbs, L. (2014). Supporting schools to create an inclusive environment for refugee students. International Journal of Inclusive Education, 18(12), 1337-1355, DOI: 10.1080/13603116.2014.899636 Crul, M. R. J., Keskiner, E., Schneider, J., Lelie, F., & Ghaeminia, S. (2017). No lost generation? Education for refugee children: a comparison between Sweden, Germany, The Netherlands and Turkey. In R. Bauböck, & M. Tripkovic (Eds.), The Integration of Migrants and Refugees: An EUI Forum On Migration, Citizenship And Demography (pp. 62-80). Retrieved from: EUI. https://doi.org/10.2870/30835(Retrieved on 31/05/20) Taylor, S. & Sidhu, R.K. (2012) Supporting refugee students in schools: what constitutes inclusive education?, International Journal of Inclusive Education, 16(1), 39-56, DOI: 10.1080/13603110903560085 UNHCR (2019). Global Trends. Forced Displacement in 2018, Geneva: United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Retrieved from: https://www.unhcr.org/5d08d7ee7.pdf (Retrieved on 31/05/20) 9 HERMÍNA GUNNÞÓRSDÓTTIR, MARCELA DOUGLAS, MERETE SAUS & GRY PAULGAARD 2. RE APPROACHES AND STRATEGIES IN NORTHERN EUROPE 2.1 THE FRAMEWORK OF RE IN NORTHERN EUROPE In the UNHCR data base on refugees, Northern Europe consists of eight countries, the Nordic countries: Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Norway and Iceland, and the Baltic countries: Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia with a total population of 33,121,044. At the end of year 2017, the total number of refugees, asylum-seekers and stateless persons in Northern Europe was 788,717 (UNHCR, 2019, table 1).