Issues of recognition and participation in changing times: the inclusion of refugees in higher education in the UK

Higher Education has become and an increasingly diverse and globalised system in which the binaries between ‘traditional’ and ‘non-traditional’ students, exclusion and inclusion have less resonance and analytical purchase. Drawing on longitudinal, empirical research with a group of refugees in higher education, this paper will argue that higher education can be marked simultaneously by belonging and recognition, deficit and exclusion. Complex differences and inequalities remain hidden and unspoken, raising new questions and challenges for pedagogy and for equal participation of students

Abyssal lines and cartographies of exclusion in migration and education: towards a reimagining

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Managing the transition to a new life: a longitudinal study of learning processes and identity (re)formation among refugees in the UK

Over the last two decades there have been dramatic increases in the movement of people around the globe. The UK, like other wealthy countries in the global north, has become the recipient of increasing numbers of refugees, many of whom are highly qualified and have professional backgrounds (Kirk 2004; Houghton and Morrice 2008). This thesis captures the experiences of refugees with professional and higher level qualifications as they seek to rebuild their lives in the UK. Rather than look at migration through more traditional lenses of assimilation and acculturation it instead links the experience of refugees with theories and processes of learning and identity formation. This offers a more nuanced and fine grain understanding and analysis of refugee experience. The study is guided by two broad questions: firstly, how might individual biography shape and inform the strategies adopted by refugees in the UK, and secondly, what insight does learning (both informal and formal) offer to our understanding of the processes involved in transition to the UK. To address this I have adopted a longitudinal approach which follows five refugees over a four year period as they move through the asylum system, negotiate a new social space and enter higher education. The narratives presented illuminate the hybridity of experience and indicate how each refugee has his or her own personal story which is linked to their unique biographical, cultural and social background. However, each narrative is lived within the broader social template of what it means to be a refugee in the UK in the first decade of the twenty first century, and how this template is negotiated, managed and sometimes subverted in different ways. These experiences cross cut and intersect with differences of ethnicity, of gender, of country of origin, faith and age. I draw on Bourdieu’s framework of capital, field and habitus as tools to apprehend and explore the processes underlying the narratives (1977; 1998; 1999). Becoming a refugee in the UK firmly placed participants into symbolic structures of inequality and disadvantage. They are structured and positioned through mechanisms of capital transformation and trading which mean that they rarely have opportunities to convert and trade up the capitals they possessed into symbolic capital, and educational and employment reward. The narratives presented depict the struggles of refugees to accrue and convert capital in order to claim a positive identity. It is also about the struggle to be recognised as having moral worth, to be respected and seen to be respectable (Skeggs 1997; Sayer 2005). A broad range of learning processes are involved in managing transition. To capture the profundity and complexity of subjective construction and identity formation I suggest conceptualising learning as processes of ‘becoming’ and ‘unbecoming’(Biesta 2006; Hodkinson et al. 2007). From the disintegration and deconstruction of self which accompanies migration this research illuminates how participants learn to ‘become’, which in its broadest sense is learning how to rethink themselves in order to live with integrity and dignity in a new social space

Dar protagonismo a los refugiados en su reasentamiento en el Reino Unido

Cada vez hay más refugiados en el Reino Unido que han pasado por un programa de reasentamiento. Los nuevos estudios realizados en ciudades británicas destacan las posibilidades que brinda la incorporación de la experiencia de los refugiados en el diseño de los programas

'You can't have a good integration when you don't have a good communication':English language learning among resettled refugees in the UK

The research presented here is based on a large-scale, multi-methods study of refugees who have been resettled to the United Kingdom. We analyse quantitative data on language proficiency four or more years after resettlement to identify the key characteristics of those who are most likely to have low language proficiency and to be at risk of long-term dependency and exclusion. Qualitative interviews on experiences of language learning suggest that English-language policy and provision serve to exacerbate and compound the risk of social exclusion, rather than ameliorate the risk. Our findings draw attention to the lack of recognition and understanding of the diversity of resettled refugees and their differential capacities, needs and opportunities for learning. They also highlight the conflict between the policy goal of rapid entry into the labour market and the goal of language learning. These findings have clear implications for integration strategies and policy

Retrospective Exploration of the 3Rs Education Program: Systemic Facilitators and Barriers to Implementation

Individuals with intellectual disabilities (ID) have historically been denied basic rights and thus have been subjected to abuse. The 3Rs: Rights, Respect and Responsibility Human Rights Education Program was implemented and researched through a partnership with Community Living Welland Pelham and Brock University initially and then cascade training on the program was provided to five developmental service sector agencies from across the Niagara Region. This research evaluated the role of the 3Rs education program on the shift to a rights-based service agenda across those five agencies. Interviews were conducted with the Executive Director and Liaison staff from each of the agencies and a thematic analysis was used to describe factors that facilitated organizational changes and a cultural shift. Systemic barriers to the change were also explored. The results indicated that the 3Rs education program provides the catalyst necessary for the shift to a rights-based service agenda and that the resultant changes in practices now embedded in the organizations are reflective of a shift to a rights-based service agenda

Putting refugees at the centre of resettlement in the UK

There are growing numbers of refugees in the UK who have been through a resettlement programme. New research in four UK cities highlights opportunities to incorporate the refugees’ expertise into programme design

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. Recognition of the role of lifelong learning for refugees has been much slower, only recently entering into prominence in global documents and policies. For refugees, the hope and desire for education that will enable them to achieve sustainable and dignified livelihoods has always been a core part of their realities. Lifelong learning has the potential to provide the bridge between disrupted schooling and future aspirations of self-reliance and participation in society. This article situates the emerging agenda for refugee lifelong learning in a postcolonial and global context. The author begins with a critical examination of the postcolonial “logics” which continue to construct and frame the study of refugees, before problematising how lifelong learning is incorporated and conceptualised in global policy. She draws the conclusion that despite global commitments, the realisation of lifelong learning for refugee youth and adults is likely remain frustrated for some time by normative assumptions firmly embedded in the conceptualisation of lifelong learning and the education frameworks of nation states. However, she argues that the recent global disruption to education and the inequalities that have been exposed by the COVID-19 pandemic provide an opportunity to rethink how education is conceptualised and the importance of providing lifelong learning opportunities to enable young people and adults to fulfil their aspirations

Improving refugee well-being with better language skills and more intergroup contact

The effects of intergroup contact on prejudice are well established. However, its effects on minority group well-being have been rarely studied. We hypothesised that contact with members of the majority culture will be related to better well-being, and that this is facilitated by majority language proficiency. We tested this hypothesis in a three-wave longitudinal study of refugees over two years (N = 180). Cross-lagged path modelling confirmed that intergroup contact at earlier time points was associated with increased well-being at later time points; the reverse associations (from earlier well-being to later contact) were not reliable. Self-rated earlier English language competence was positively associated with later intergroup contact (but not the reverse), suggesting that improving majority language proficiency might be the key to better well-being of refugees, with intergroup contact being the mediator between language and well-being