User:Yasminemahm./Refugee children

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Nearly half of all refugees are children, and almost one in three children living outside their country of birth is a refugee. These numbers encompass children whose refugee status has been formally confirmed, as well as children in refugee-like situations.

In addition to facing the direct threat of violence resulting from conflict, forcibly displaced children also face various health risks, including: disease outbreaks and long-term psychological trauma, inadequate access to water and sanitation, nutritious food, health care [6] and regular vaccination schedules. Refugee children, particularly those without documentation and those who travel alone, are also vulnerable to abuse and exploitation. Although many communities around the world have welcomed them, forcibly displaced children and their families often face discrimination, poverty, and social marginalization in their home, transit, and destination countries. Language barriers and legal barriers in transit and destination countries often bar refugee children and their families from accessing education, healthcare, social protection, and other services. Many countries of destination also lack intercultural supports and policies for social integration. Such threats to safety and well-being are amplified for refugee children with disabilities. Studies done by the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees show that only half of all refugee children that are elementary school-aged are able to access schooling. Similarly, amongst secondary school-aged children, only 22 percent of children can access schooling. Unfortunately, this culminates in a rate of access to higher education of only one percent amongst all refugees. Additionally, North American schools often don’t have the resources needed to support refugee children. ^[103] Refugee children often have to handle discrimination, low socioeconomic status, have no family, or come to a setting that clashes with their cultural beliefs leading to behavioral issues teachers aren’t always prepared for. ^[117] Extracurricular resources provided to refugee children include supplementary curriculum enrichment resources, videos for the goal or increasing parent and school awareness, informational leaflets and handbooks, as well as ICT based resources, which serve to benefit refugee involvement in the school.

Access to education

Structure of the education system

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. 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.

Structure of classes

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".

Residence

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.

Language barriers and ethnicity

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 behaviour. 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.

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

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

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.

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.

One study demonstrates that teachers in the United States often have little experience with the trauma that refugees often face. The study focuses on how teachers can educate themselves on their students’ situations. The 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

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.

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.

Critical debates on assimilation

Assimilation and integration of refugee children have been demonstrated to positively impact their education and development: “First, for immigrant adolescents living in non-poverty neighborhoods, we find assimilation to be positively associated with educational achievement and psychological well-being but also positively associated with at-risk behavior.” However, the degree and kind of assimilation varies, as demonstrated by Portes and Zhou’s theory of segmented assimilation. The theory posits three paths to assimilation in the United States: “The first is essentially what is predicted by classical assimilation theory, i.e., increasing acculturation and integration into the American middle class (for brevity, referred to henceforward as Path 1). The second is acculturation and assimilation into the urban underclass, leading to poverty and downward mobility (Path 2). The third, “selective acculturation”, is the deliberate preservation of the immigrant community’s culture and values, accompanied by economic integration (Path 3). Through what they refer to as additive assimilation strategy, refugee children are able to preserve cultural ties while pursuing economic and educational integration. This is critical, as 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, a false and prejudiced perspective.

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.