The Educational Experiences of Refugee Children in Countries of First Asylum
This policy report explores the educational histories of young refugee children in first-asylum countries and identifies elements of these that are relevant to post-resettlement education in the United States.
“The histories of resettled refugee children are often hidden from their teachers and other school staff in the U.S. by factors such as language barriers, privacy concerns, cultural misunderstandings and stereotypes.”
More than a decade of in-depth research conducted on refugee education in countries of first asylum illuminates four key aspects of educational experiences that are particularly salient for U.S. teachers and schools: limited and disrupted educational opportunities, language barriers to educational access, inadequate quality of instruction, and discrimination in school settings.
The report includes findings from field-based case studies involving children from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Myanmar, Somalia, and Syria, who were living in first-asylum countries Bangladesh, Burundi, Egypt, Kenya, Malaysia, and Uganda.
Read The Educational Experiences of Refugee Children in Countries of First Asylum (2015) by Sarah Dryden-Peterson as featured by the Migration Policy Institute.