Lucy Hunt | Université du Luxembourg (original) (raw)
Papers by Lucy Hunt
The Integration of Refugees in the Education and Labour Markets: Between Inclusion and Exclusion Practices, 2024
Little is known about young refugees’1 post-compulsory educational trajectories in Greece, despit... more Little is known about young refugees’1 post-compulsory educational trajectories in Greece, despite high numbers of teenagers continuing to arrive and integration policies being implemented. While access to education has been increasing since 2015, enrolment and attendance rates for 15 to 18-year-olds remain low and drop-out rates are high. Based on findings from a doctoral study, this chapter explores the macro-level factors – relating primarily to policy and organisation – which constrain and enable this age group’s participation in post-compulsory learning. Data was generated
through semi-structured interviews with refugee youth, their parents, their teachers and other education stakeholders, and triangulated via document analysis and participant observation as a volunteer teacher in the region. The key challenges identified related to coordination, preparation (of staff and students), segregation and the impact of uncertainty and poor reception conditions. The ways forward proposed by participants included promoting training, flexibility, alternative routes and a holistic and cohesive response.
Reclaiming Migrant Motherhood: Identity, Belonging, and Displacement in a Global Context, 2022
Critical Perspectives on Refugee and Migrant Integration in Education: Grassroots Narratives from Multiregional Settings, 2024
This chapter takes the form of a thought experiment, in which the reader is invited to consider t... more This chapter takes the form of a thought experiment, in which the reader is invited to consider the case of Rasoul, a fictional sixteen-year-old refugee in Thessaloniki, Greece. His narrative acts as an amalgamation of the findings from an observational study seeking to understand why only half of the eligible migrant youth population in Greece is enrolled in post-compulsory education. The text follows Rasoul through a day at school, using his story as a lens through which to consider the various obstacles refugees in Greece may face while attempting to access formal education. Possible difficulties include insufficient parental support, accommodation insecurity, physical distance to school, a lack of reception classes, the inadequacy of volunteer language learning programs, and lack of teacher support for new arrivals and the lack of motivation this generates among the students toward their education. The chapter also describes factors contributing to continued enrollment and attendance. Positive interactions with teachers, constructive relationships with peers, and an active search for other sources of support are all factors related to increased motivation and hope. Finally, the author explores the implications of these findings for government best practices in supporting displaced youth.
Mobilities, 2023
Creative practices have made a standing contribution to mobilities research. We write this articl... more Creative practices have made a standing contribution to mobilities research. We write this article as a collective of 25 scholars and practitioners to make a provocation: to further position creative mobilities research as a fundamental contribution and component in this field. The article explores how creative forms of research-whether in the form of artworks, exhibitions, performances, collaborations, and morehas been a foundational part of shaping the new mobilities paradigm, and continues to influence its methodological, epistemological, and ontological concerns. We tour through the interwoven history of art and mobilities research, outlining five central contributions that creativity brings. Through short vignettes of each author's creative practice, we discuss how creativity has been key to the evolution and emergence of how mobilities research has expanded to global audiences of scholars, practitioners, and communities. The article concludes by highlighting the potency of the arts for lively and transdisciplinary pathways for future mobilities research in the uncertainties that lay ahead.
Educational Research Review, 2022
Record numbers of unaccompanied refugee minors continue to arrive in high-income countries seekin... more Record numbers of unaccompanied refugee minors continue to arrive in high-income countries seeking asylum and protection. Despite receiving educational support, unaccompanied refugee minors continue to be vulnerable to negative educational experiences and outcomes. The review investigates what resilience factors enable unaccompanied refugee minors in high-income countries to have positive educational experiences and outcomes. It aims to inform the literature on risk and resilience factors and the development of future interventions. Eighteen articles met the eligibility criteria for the review. Twenty-six factors were identified as risk and resilience factors related to five socio-ecological levels: child, microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem, and macrosystem. The findings revealed significant heterogeneity. Microsystemic and mesosystemic factors were found to play the most important role in educational resilience. Meanwhile, young mothers, minors who experienced immigration detention, and minors whose immigration statuses are unknown or pending are sub-groups of unaccompanied refugee minors who are particularly vulnerable to risk. Findings are discussed with implications for future research, policy, and practice. Future studies need to elaborate whether their findings are particular to the condition of being unaccompanied or being refugee.
University of Oxford, 2023
This qualitative study provides an ethnographic exploration of the experiences of young refugees ... more This qualitative study provides an ethnographic exploration of the experiences of young refugees (aged 15-25) in Greece as they engage with education, amid and despite their uncertain and precarious conditions – here theorised as (manufactured) conditions of ‘unsettlement’. Instead of focusing only on their deficits – as in much refugee education research – it asks: How do young refugees in Greece experience and navigate unsettlement’ in/via education? This question was iteratively investigated
through individual and pair semi-structured interviews with refugee and asylum-seeking youth in Thessaloniki (involving creative tasks), as well as other educational ‘stakeholders’ (such as parents, teachers and non-governmental organisation (NGO) staff). This interview data was triangulated with findings from document analysis and field notes from my participant observation as a volunteer teacher and assistant at four NGOs in the city, including one migrant women’s centre.
The findings are presented via a collection of four papers which have either been published in or are under review at four international, peer-reviewed journals, across disciplines. The papers aim to highlight the limited supports and educational opportunities available for refugee youth aged 15+, and the ways in which ‘unsettlement’ shapes their everyday lives and (educational) decision-making – with one paper dedicated to young women’s experiences. At the same time, the papers explore how youth respond to and navigate these challenges both within and outside of education, and the role of educational actors and other relationships in this process. As such, the papers contribute to important discussions of young refugees’ (educational) agency and its relational and collective nature – as well as its gendered dimensions. In addition, throughout the thesis, I touch on the potential of arts-based approaches for better understanding and disseminating young refugees’ perspectives, and the role of arts education in their navigation of precarity.
In the individual papers, the thesis uses conceptual lenses from different
disciplines to explore and elucidate the nature of the inequality and precarity refugee youth face in Greece, and how they negotiate and chart a path through it. Paper 1 draws from politics and border studies, for example, in analysing how bordering practices permeate their everyday lives; Paper 3 borrows the language of ‘encounters’ from human geography and ‘counterspaces’ from youth, leisure and critical race
studies, to conceptualise their interactions in non-formal educational
paces; and Paper 4 dives deeper into the concept of ‘crisis’. In the Discussion, the thesis ties all of these theoretical threads together to provide an overarching account of their ‘unsettlement’ – i.e. the layered forms of (arguably manufactured) uncertainty and precarity which shape their experiences of displacement. To conceptualise how they negotiate, and indeed constantly renegotiate, a way through this unsettlement, the
thesis employs the term ‘navigation’ throughout – drawing from anthropology, and specifically the work of Henrik Vigh (2009, 2010). This lens is particularly fitting for movement through a socio-political
environment which, as for displaced communities in Greece, is constantly shifting.
European Journal of Education, 2024
This systematic review aims to explore refugees' educational access, experiences and outcomes in ... more This systematic review aims to explore refugees' educational access, experiences and outcomes in Europe since 2015. The review follows a systematic process of reviewing and synthesising texts compiled in the Hub for Education for Refugees in Europe (HERE) Knowledge Base to fill gaps in knowledge about the educational trajectories of learners of refugee and forced migrant backgrounds who have arrived in Europe. The review includes studies that focus on all forms of educational provision and services for refugees and forced migrants in Europe: formal, non-formal and informal. The review also takes a meta-ethnographic approach to data analysis and synthesis. Key findings highlight the interconnectedness of safety, belonging and success in education for learners with refugee and forced migrant backgrounds and the necessity of economic redistribution, cultural recognition and political participation for achieving these goals.
TRAJECTORIA: Anthropology, Museums and Art, 2024
This paper argues for greater and more critical engagement with creative visual communication in ... more This paper argues for greater and more critical engagement with creative visual communication in ethnographic research with/for linguistically and culturally diverse groups of young people, such as those who have been forcibly displaced across borders. It is based on eight months of doctoral fieldwork with displaced youth in Thessaloniki, Greece, during which the author aimed to better understand their educational decision-making in a context of unsettlement. This involved participant observation as a volunteer teacher in various educational spaces (including language classes and arts workshops); and individual and group interviews (involving creative methods) with youth aged 15-25 and other educational stakeholders. The paper addresses various ways in which creative visual communication (specifically, drawing) became a part of this project-as the setting, a method and a form of dissemination-and offers reflections on its associated challenges, possibilities and responsibilities. It argues that when used with critical reflection, drawing has the potential to transgress both physical and social borders among youth, anthropologists and the wider public.
Migration Studies, 2024
This article explores the role of non-formal arts education in Thessaloniki, Greece for fostering... more This article explores the role of non-formal arts education in Thessaloniki, Greece for fostering contact considered valuable by the young refugee community. Drawing on accounts of their daily life, gathered over eight months of ethnographic fieldwork for a project on their post-15 educational participation, the article details how around the city, young refugees (aged 15-25 years) experience conflicted encounters involving both hostility and solidarity. While this hostility impacts their aspirations, self-image, and feelings of inclusion, a large solidarity movement attempts to counteract these challenges by offering educational activities for 'inclusion' such as arts workshops in temporary spaces. These offers were popular among youth in the study, as they constituted a welcoming opportunity for building social connections, language skills, and self-confidence-outcomes that extended beyond the physical space of the workshops. As such, they functioned as valuable, creative '(en)counterspaces'. Based on observations from one case study site, this article unpacks the key processes that promoted these valued outcomes-including collaboration, mediation, and informal contact-as well as the role played by arts materials and artsmaking practices in these processes. This article also offers key considerations for designing similar activities, such as being sensitive to inclusivity and power relations. It aims to build on the literature on both 'counterspaces' and 'encounters' by documenting the outcomes young refugees value from contact in these sites of solidarity, and how and why they proactively seek them out; as well as analysing the other actors and specific activities involved in them.
Migration Studies, 2024
Since the 1990s, social scientists have noted that public spaces in cities have become increasing... more Since the 1990s, social scientists have noted that public spaces in cities have become increasingly inhospitable to the ‘other’, debating whether the spatial component of interaction between strangers is capable of mediating social and cultural differences (Fincher and Iveson 2008; Amin 2012; Hall 2012; Sennett 2018; Berg and Nowicka 2019). The theme of this Special Issue—‘Urban encounters: living with difference in cities’—speaks to a need to explore topics of belonging, identity, participation and interaction with others within urban spaces more deeply. It aims to unpack the concepts of encounter and interaction with others (Valentine 2008; Mayblin et al. 2016) in the hope of building pathways between disciplines and approaches. Daily life, here, becomes a point of enquiry and a practical challenge. Looking at everyday spaces and the quotidian as a sphere of interaction, the key concepts which emerge—relating to the management of diversity and contestations of identity and belonging—are as conflicted as the situations they tend to describe.
Review of Education, 2023
This scoping review aims to explore the role of gender in refugees' educational access, experienc... more This scoping review aims to explore the role of gender in refugees' educational access, experiences, and outcomes in Europe since 2015. Gender can act as a significant barrier to education, and gender stereotypes and bias can affect learning opportunities and outcomes. As a response, a scoping review was conducted to explore the role of gender in refugees' educational access, experiences, and outcomes in Europe since 2015. This review follows a systematic process of reviewing and synthesising texts compiled in the Hub for Education for Refugees in Europe (HERE) Knowledge Base to fill the gaps in knowledge about gender-related post-migration experiences of refugees and displaced individuals who have arrived in Europe. The review includes studies that focus on educational services for refugees in Europe and uses a meta-ethnographic synthesis approach to data analysis and synthesis. Using a socio-ecological framework, it was found that at the individual level, access and progression were shaped by previous educational attainment, health issues, survival tactics and future aspirations; at the micro-level, by relationships with family, educators and peers; at the meso-level, by public perceptions of refugee learners and home-school interactions; and at the macro-level, by administrative barriers, the asylum system, socio-economic factors and the tailored opportunities and community support available. The majority of the studies referred to the experiences of women and girls.
DiGeSt - Journal of Diversity and Gender Studies, 2021
Contrary to popular media tropes of the 'young, lone, male refugee' arriving at Europe's borders,... more Contrary to popular media tropes of the 'young, lone, male refugee' arriving at Europe's borders, Greece has in fact seen a steady flow of young refugee women arriving since 2015. While many wish to engage in post-compulsory (15+) education, in order to gain valuable skills and enjoy new freedoms, various factors make it difficult to do so. Based on eight months of ethnographic fieldwork - involving semi-structured interviews with refugee youth (aged 15-25) and other stakeholders - this paper details young refugee women's expressions of collective and relational agency as they navigate educational constraints. These constraints primarily stem from tensions in micro-level relationships with family, peers and teachers which result from, or are exacerbated by, the conditions of 'unsettlement'. Young refugee women's navigational tactics involved finding and shaping alternative learning opportunities, educating peers and leveraging collective strength. The paper concludes with implications and recommendations for gender-sensitive educational initiatives.
Social Sciences, 2021
Greece has been a site of various crises in recent years: firstly, the financial crash of 2008; s... more Greece has been a site of various crises in recent years: firstly, the financial crash of 2008; secondly, the ongoing ‘refugee crisis’, which peaked in 2015; and thirdly, the current COVID-19 pandemic. This paper addresses the first of these crises, and particularly how state responses to increased migration flows shape young refugees’ (aged 15–25) (re-)engagement with post-15 learning opportunities upon arrival in the country. It is based on semi-structured interviews with young refugees living in Thessaloniki, conducted as part of an ethnographic doctoral project on educational decision-making. The findings reveal that three key institutional bordering practices in Greece—namely the bordering of space (via encampment), time (via enforced waiting), and public services (via administrative barriers)—played central roles in young refugees’ (re-)engagement with post-15 education; often causing their dreams to be diverted or downgraded. However, with determination and the support of willing gatekeepers, refugee youth found ways to (re)construct adapted learning trajectories despite, and in response to, these arrival challenges.
The Integration of Refugees in the Education and Labour Markets: Between Inclusion and Exclusion Practices, 2024
Little is known about young refugees’1 post-compulsory educational trajectories in Greece, despit... more Little is known about young refugees’1 post-compulsory educational trajectories in Greece, despite high numbers of teenagers continuing to arrive and integration policies being implemented. While access to education has been increasing since 2015, enrolment and attendance rates for 15 to 18-year-olds remain low and drop-out rates are high. Based on findings from a doctoral study, this chapter explores the macro-level factors – relating primarily to policy and organisation – which constrain and enable this age group’s participation in post-compulsory learning. Data was generated
through semi-structured interviews with refugee youth, their parents, their teachers and other education stakeholders, and triangulated via document analysis and participant observation as a volunteer teacher in the region. The key challenges identified related to coordination, preparation (of staff and students), segregation and the impact of uncertainty and poor reception conditions. The ways forward proposed by participants included promoting training, flexibility, alternative routes and a holistic and cohesive response.
Reclaiming Migrant Motherhood: Identity, Belonging, and Displacement in a Global Context, 2022
Critical Perspectives on Refugee and Migrant Integration in Education: Grassroots Narratives from Multiregional Settings, 2024
This chapter takes the form of a thought experiment, in which the reader is invited to consider t... more This chapter takes the form of a thought experiment, in which the reader is invited to consider the case of Rasoul, a fictional sixteen-year-old refugee in Thessaloniki, Greece. His narrative acts as an amalgamation of the findings from an observational study seeking to understand why only half of the eligible migrant youth population in Greece is enrolled in post-compulsory education. The text follows Rasoul through a day at school, using his story as a lens through which to consider the various obstacles refugees in Greece may face while attempting to access formal education. Possible difficulties include insufficient parental support, accommodation insecurity, physical distance to school, a lack of reception classes, the inadequacy of volunteer language learning programs, and lack of teacher support for new arrivals and the lack of motivation this generates among the students toward their education. The chapter also describes factors contributing to continued enrollment and attendance. Positive interactions with teachers, constructive relationships with peers, and an active search for other sources of support are all factors related to increased motivation and hope. Finally, the author explores the implications of these findings for government best practices in supporting displaced youth.
Mobilities, 2023
Creative practices have made a standing contribution to mobilities research. We write this articl... more Creative practices have made a standing contribution to mobilities research. We write this article as a collective of 25 scholars and practitioners to make a provocation: to further position creative mobilities research as a fundamental contribution and component in this field. The article explores how creative forms of research-whether in the form of artworks, exhibitions, performances, collaborations, and morehas been a foundational part of shaping the new mobilities paradigm, and continues to influence its methodological, epistemological, and ontological concerns. We tour through the interwoven history of art and mobilities research, outlining five central contributions that creativity brings. Through short vignettes of each author's creative practice, we discuss how creativity has been key to the evolution and emergence of how mobilities research has expanded to global audiences of scholars, practitioners, and communities. The article concludes by highlighting the potency of the arts for lively and transdisciplinary pathways for future mobilities research in the uncertainties that lay ahead.
Educational Research Review, 2022
Record numbers of unaccompanied refugee minors continue to arrive in high-income countries seekin... more Record numbers of unaccompanied refugee minors continue to arrive in high-income countries seeking asylum and protection. Despite receiving educational support, unaccompanied refugee minors continue to be vulnerable to negative educational experiences and outcomes. The review investigates what resilience factors enable unaccompanied refugee minors in high-income countries to have positive educational experiences and outcomes. It aims to inform the literature on risk and resilience factors and the development of future interventions. Eighteen articles met the eligibility criteria for the review. Twenty-six factors were identified as risk and resilience factors related to five socio-ecological levels: child, microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem, and macrosystem. The findings revealed significant heterogeneity. Microsystemic and mesosystemic factors were found to play the most important role in educational resilience. Meanwhile, young mothers, minors who experienced immigration detention, and minors whose immigration statuses are unknown or pending are sub-groups of unaccompanied refugee minors who are particularly vulnerable to risk. Findings are discussed with implications for future research, policy, and practice. Future studies need to elaborate whether their findings are particular to the condition of being unaccompanied or being refugee.
University of Oxford, 2023
This qualitative study provides an ethnographic exploration of the experiences of young refugees ... more This qualitative study provides an ethnographic exploration of the experiences of young refugees (aged 15-25) in Greece as they engage with education, amid and despite their uncertain and precarious conditions – here theorised as (manufactured) conditions of ‘unsettlement’. Instead of focusing only on their deficits – as in much refugee education research – it asks: How do young refugees in Greece experience and navigate unsettlement’ in/via education? This question was iteratively investigated
through individual and pair semi-structured interviews with refugee and asylum-seeking youth in Thessaloniki (involving creative tasks), as well as other educational ‘stakeholders’ (such as parents, teachers and non-governmental organisation (NGO) staff). This interview data was triangulated with findings from document analysis and field notes from my participant observation as a volunteer teacher and assistant at four NGOs in the city, including one migrant women’s centre.
The findings are presented via a collection of four papers which have either been published in or are under review at four international, peer-reviewed journals, across disciplines. The papers aim to highlight the limited supports and educational opportunities available for refugee youth aged 15+, and the ways in which ‘unsettlement’ shapes their everyday lives and (educational) decision-making – with one paper dedicated to young women’s experiences. At the same time, the papers explore how youth respond to and navigate these challenges both within and outside of education, and the role of educational actors and other relationships in this process. As such, the papers contribute to important discussions of young refugees’ (educational) agency and its relational and collective nature – as well as its gendered dimensions. In addition, throughout the thesis, I touch on the potential of arts-based approaches for better understanding and disseminating young refugees’ perspectives, and the role of arts education in their navigation of precarity.
In the individual papers, the thesis uses conceptual lenses from different
disciplines to explore and elucidate the nature of the inequality and precarity refugee youth face in Greece, and how they negotiate and chart a path through it. Paper 1 draws from politics and border studies, for example, in analysing how bordering practices permeate their everyday lives; Paper 3 borrows the language of ‘encounters’ from human geography and ‘counterspaces’ from youth, leisure and critical race
studies, to conceptualise their interactions in non-formal educational
paces; and Paper 4 dives deeper into the concept of ‘crisis’. In the Discussion, the thesis ties all of these theoretical threads together to provide an overarching account of their ‘unsettlement’ – i.e. the layered forms of (arguably manufactured) uncertainty and precarity which shape their experiences of displacement. To conceptualise how they negotiate, and indeed constantly renegotiate, a way through this unsettlement, the
thesis employs the term ‘navigation’ throughout – drawing from anthropology, and specifically the work of Henrik Vigh (2009, 2010). This lens is particularly fitting for movement through a socio-political
environment which, as for displaced communities in Greece, is constantly shifting.
European Journal of Education, 2024
This systematic review aims to explore refugees' educational access, experiences and outcomes in ... more This systematic review aims to explore refugees' educational access, experiences and outcomes in Europe since 2015. The review follows a systematic process of reviewing and synthesising texts compiled in the Hub for Education for Refugees in Europe (HERE) Knowledge Base to fill gaps in knowledge about the educational trajectories of learners of refugee and forced migrant backgrounds who have arrived in Europe. The review includes studies that focus on all forms of educational provision and services for refugees and forced migrants in Europe: formal, non-formal and informal. The review also takes a meta-ethnographic approach to data analysis and synthesis. Key findings highlight the interconnectedness of safety, belonging and success in education for learners with refugee and forced migrant backgrounds and the necessity of economic redistribution, cultural recognition and political participation for achieving these goals.
TRAJECTORIA: Anthropology, Museums and Art, 2024
This paper argues for greater and more critical engagement with creative visual communication in ... more This paper argues for greater and more critical engagement with creative visual communication in ethnographic research with/for linguistically and culturally diverse groups of young people, such as those who have been forcibly displaced across borders. It is based on eight months of doctoral fieldwork with displaced youth in Thessaloniki, Greece, during which the author aimed to better understand their educational decision-making in a context of unsettlement. This involved participant observation as a volunteer teacher in various educational spaces (including language classes and arts workshops); and individual and group interviews (involving creative methods) with youth aged 15-25 and other educational stakeholders. The paper addresses various ways in which creative visual communication (specifically, drawing) became a part of this project-as the setting, a method and a form of dissemination-and offers reflections on its associated challenges, possibilities and responsibilities. It argues that when used with critical reflection, drawing has the potential to transgress both physical and social borders among youth, anthropologists and the wider public.
Migration Studies, 2024
This article explores the role of non-formal arts education in Thessaloniki, Greece for fostering... more This article explores the role of non-formal arts education in Thessaloniki, Greece for fostering contact considered valuable by the young refugee community. Drawing on accounts of their daily life, gathered over eight months of ethnographic fieldwork for a project on their post-15 educational participation, the article details how around the city, young refugees (aged 15-25 years) experience conflicted encounters involving both hostility and solidarity. While this hostility impacts their aspirations, self-image, and feelings of inclusion, a large solidarity movement attempts to counteract these challenges by offering educational activities for 'inclusion' such as arts workshops in temporary spaces. These offers were popular among youth in the study, as they constituted a welcoming opportunity for building social connections, language skills, and self-confidence-outcomes that extended beyond the physical space of the workshops. As such, they functioned as valuable, creative '(en)counterspaces'. Based on observations from one case study site, this article unpacks the key processes that promoted these valued outcomes-including collaboration, mediation, and informal contact-as well as the role played by arts materials and artsmaking practices in these processes. This article also offers key considerations for designing similar activities, such as being sensitive to inclusivity and power relations. It aims to build on the literature on both 'counterspaces' and 'encounters' by documenting the outcomes young refugees value from contact in these sites of solidarity, and how and why they proactively seek them out; as well as analysing the other actors and specific activities involved in them.
Migration Studies, 2024
Since the 1990s, social scientists have noted that public spaces in cities have become increasing... more Since the 1990s, social scientists have noted that public spaces in cities have become increasingly inhospitable to the ‘other’, debating whether the spatial component of interaction between strangers is capable of mediating social and cultural differences (Fincher and Iveson 2008; Amin 2012; Hall 2012; Sennett 2018; Berg and Nowicka 2019). The theme of this Special Issue—‘Urban encounters: living with difference in cities’—speaks to a need to explore topics of belonging, identity, participation and interaction with others within urban spaces more deeply. It aims to unpack the concepts of encounter and interaction with others (Valentine 2008; Mayblin et al. 2016) in the hope of building pathways between disciplines and approaches. Daily life, here, becomes a point of enquiry and a practical challenge. Looking at everyday spaces and the quotidian as a sphere of interaction, the key concepts which emerge—relating to the management of diversity and contestations of identity and belonging—are as conflicted as the situations they tend to describe.
Review of Education, 2023
This scoping review aims to explore the role of gender in refugees' educational access, experienc... more This scoping review aims to explore the role of gender in refugees' educational access, experiences, and outcomes in Europe since 2015. Gender can act as a significant barrier to education, and gender stereotypes and bias can affect learning opportunities and outcomes. As a response, a scoping review was conducted to explore the role of gender in refugees' educational access, experiences, and outcomes in Europe since 2015. This review follows a systematic process of reviewing and synthesising texts compiled in the Hub for Education for Refugees in Europe (HERE) Knowledge Base to fill the gaps in knowledge about gender-related post-migration experiences of refugees and displaced individuals who have arrived in Europe. The review includes studies that focus on educational services for refugees in Europe and uses a meta-ethnographic synthesis approach to data analysis and synthesis. Using a socio-ecological framework, it was found that at the individual level, access and progression were shaped by previous educational attainment, health issues, survival tactics and future aspirations; at the micro-level, by relationships with family, educators and peers; at the meso-level, by public perceptions of refugee learners and home-school interactions; and at the macro-level, by administrative barriers, the asylum system, socio-economic factors and the tailored opportunities and community support available. The majority of the studies referred to the experiences of women and girls.
DiGeSt - Journal of Diversity and Gender Studies, 2021
Contrary to popular media tropes of the 'young, lone, male refugee' arriving at Europe's borders,... more Contrary to popular media tropes of the 'young, lone, male refugee' arriving at Europe's borders, Greece has in fact seen a steady flow of young refugee women arriving since 2015. While many wish to engage in post-compulsory (15+) education, in order to gain valuable skills and enjoy new freedoms, various factors make it difficult to do so. Based on eight months of ethnographic fieldwork - involving semi-structured interviews with refugee youth (aged 15-25) and other stakeholders - this paper details young refugee women's expressions of collective and relational agency as they navigate educational constraints. These constraints primarily stem from tensions in micro-level relationships with family, peers and teachers which result from, or are exacerbated by, the conditions of 'unsettlement'. Young refugee women's navigational tactics involved finding and shaping alternative learning opportunities, educating peers and leveraging collective strength. The paper concludes with implications and recommendations for gender-sensitive educational initiatives.
Social Sciences, 2021
Greece has been a site of various crises in recent years: firstly, the financial crash of 2008; s... more Greece has been a site of various crises in recent years: firstly, the financial crash of 2008; secondly, the ongoing ‘refugee crisis’, which peaked in 2015; and thirdly, the current COVID-19 pandemic. This paper addresses the first of these crises, and particularly how state responses to increased migration flows shape young refugees’ (aged 15–25) (re-)engagement with post-15 learning opportunities upon arrival in the country. It is based on semi-structured interviews with young refugees living in Thessaloniki, conducted as part of an ethnographic doctoral project on educational decision-making. The findings reveal that three key institutional bordering practices in Greece—namely the bordering of space (via encampment), time (via enforced waiting), and public services (via administrative barriers)—played central roles in young refugees’ (re-)engagement with post-15 education; often causing their dreams to be diverted or downgraded. However, with determination and the support of willing gatekeepers, refugee youth found ways to (re)construct adapted learning trajectories despite, and in response to, these arrival challenges.