Blended Higher Education Opportunities For Refugees

This study aims to gain an understanding of higher education interventions taking place in refugee camps around the world that implement hybrid online and on-site models. Through an archival, database study, this uncovers the most salient characteristics of 8 international interventions (Australian Catholic University, Borderless Higher Education for Refugees, Jesuit Worldwide Learning: Higher Education at the Margins, InZone, Kepler, Mosaik, Global Border Studies, and Education for Humanity) in regard to logistics, academics, technology, and pedagogy. The study found multiple ways in which these programs seek to increase inclusion and success of refugee learners. These techniques include (1) free tuition, (2) nutrition, security, and transportation accommodations, (3) gender equity provisions, (4) course accreditation, (5) preparatory courses, (6) student support and development, (7) durable solutions related to employment, (8) tailored curricula, (9) flexibility of course structure, (10) critical thinking & reflection, (11) hybrid, adaptable, and portable course delivery, (12) on-site technology support, and (13) accommodations related to electricity and internet connectivity.

This volume will provide educators at all levels with a research and evidence based understanding of the educational opportunities and challenges facing refugees. The chapters focus on language, teaching and pedagogical issues surrounding refugee education.

Education is a pivotal influence on all members of society. However, in the case of immigrants and refugees integrating into a new country, allowing proper learning opportunities can offer specific challenges that must be overcome. Educational Development and Infrastructure for Immigrants and Refugees is an innovative source of scholarly research on the role of education for refugees and immigrants, and it examines methods to develop effective learning processes for these students. Highlighting a range of perspectives on topics such as lifelong learning, legal considerations, and multiculturalism, this book is ideally designed for teachers, policy makers, researchers, academics, and professionals actively involved in the education sector.

This book discusses digital learning opportunities in higher education for refugees with different educational, social, cultural and linguistic backgrounds. Based on findings from practical studies and research projects from several countries, the book highlights the numerous challenges when it comes to the successful integration of refugees into higher education. These challenges arise at both the individual and the institutional level. The contributions included in this book show how these challenges can be effectively met using digital teaching-learning platforms. The work thus offers a comprehensive insight into the opportunities online-based learning platforms offer regarding the successful integration of refugees into higher education Overall, the research presented in this volume is relevant for political stakeholders, university practitioners in the field of migration research, university research, and online and digital learning.

This textbook serves as a guide for practitioners whose goal is to enhance refugee students’ learning experiences. With millions of children globally in refugee or seeking asylum status, this volume is a must-read for every 21st century educator. Often, refugee students have missed a substantial amount of schooling as a result of the disruptions in their home countries and transit through refugee camps. Others have never been to school at any time. Refugees enter school with the same hopes and aspirations as other students, but they also confront serious challenges. This textbook helps educators to restore hope through the following topics: empowering refugees in school liberating structures in resettlement camps increasing opportunity at university designing compassionate pedagogies leveraging technology connecting the community Each chapter includes points to ponder as educators work to apply the principles of restoring hope for refugee students and their families. This textbook also provides practical suggestions and case studies that will help educators to put theory into practice. Teachers and professors who are passionate about honing their skills will find this book a comprehensive resource when displaced students enter their classrooms. This volume will also be of great interest to teacher-educators, pre-service teachers, educators serving in refugee camps and school administrators.

Refugees and Higher Education provides a cross-disciplinary lens on one American university’s approach to studying the policies, practices, and experiences associated with the higher education of refugee background students.

The first in-depth exploration of the persistence and pervasiveness of a dangerous legal fiction about people who cross borders: the binary distinction between migrant and refugee. Today, the concept of "the refugee" as distinct from other migrants looms large. Immigration laws have developed to reinforce a conceptual dichotomy between those viewed as voluntary, often economically motivated, migrants who can be legitimately excluded by potential host states, and those viewed as forced, often politically motivated, refugees who should be let in. In Crossing, Rebecca Hamlin argues against advocacy positions that cling to this distinction. Everything we know about people who decide to move suggests that border crossing is far more complicated than any binary, or even a continuum, can encompass. The decision to leave home is almost always multi-causal and often involves many stops and hazards along the way--a reality not captured by a system that categorizes a majority of border-crossers as undeserving, and the rare few as vulnerable and needy. Drawing on cases of various "border crises" across Europe, North America, South America, and the Middle East, Hamlin outlines major inconsistencies and faulty assumptions upon which the binary relies, and explains its endurance and appeal by tracing its origins to the birth of the modern state and the rise of colonial empire. The migrant/refugee binary is not just an innocuous shorthand, indeed its power stems from the way in which is it painted as objective, neutral, and apolitical. In truth, the binary is a dangerous legal fiction, politically constructed with the ultimate goal of making harsh border control measures more ethically palatable to the public. This book is a challenge to all those invested in the rights and study of migrants, to interrogate their own assumptions and move towards more equitable advocacy for all border crossers.

Ultimately, this study hopes to demonstrate that these programs, while paving the way for addressing the immense refugee higher education gap, produce a promise for change that cannot be actualized given structural limitations on refugees' lives and futures.

This edited volume addresses critical issues surrounding higher education access for students of refugee backgrounds. It combines a variety of theoretical and methodological perspectives on the challenges, opportunities, experiences and expectations of refugee students, as well as some of the institutional frameworks that facilitate their access to higher education. Following a critical discussion of the notion of ‘integration’, the team of authors who are made up of academics and refugee students critically investigate higher education as an objective of as well as a means to greater inclusion and integration.