The Integration of Migrants and Refugees: EDUCATION | Maurice Crul

Keynote speech by Maurice Crul | Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and Erasmus University Rotterdam.

Recording during the EUI Forum on Migration, Citizenship and Demography, Conference on the Integration of Migrants and Refugees, 29 September 2016

https://www.eui.eu/events/detail?even...

Key issues:
• Immersion, separate school classes or early tracking for newly arrived children?
• Urban segregation or school system: what explains the lack of educational achievement of immigrant origin children?
• Access to pre-school and post-compulsory education for refugee children Education is considered as one of the key tools for the integration of immigrants. Securing equal educational opportunities creates more equal access to job opportunities which, in turn, determines their socio-economic status. Research on education for immigrants has focused on a number of issues, such as: how well do the immigrant children do in school when compared to non-immigrant children; what is the highest educational level that they achieve; how well do their educational achievements transfer into acquisition of jobs. In the context of the current wave of immigration, four issues seem particularly pertinent.

First, how should host societies deal with the challenge of educating the children of refugees and immigrants who have suddenly been exposed to a new culture and language much more dramatically than this is the case in regular migration where both immigrant families and host country education systems can prepare? One solution would be to organize education for groups of children of similar background, but this carries an inherent danger of permanent segregation.
Does early tracking provide an alternative solution?

Second, concentration of high numbers of newly arrived immigrant children in certain schools is likely to trigger ‘native flight’ by middle class parents who fear a lowering of educational standards, reinforcing a vicious circle of segregation and unequal educational outcomes. What are the policy tools and options to counter this trend?

Third, considering the fact that host societies have less ability to control for the types of immigrants that are coming – in terms of the needs of their labor market – how can education, especially skills training, be made to work in favor of creating qualification profiles that allow for successful labor market integration?

Fourth, educational success of immigrant background children is increasingly seen to depend on early enrollment in pre-school education. What can be done to improve the participation of migrant and refugee children both in pre-school and in post-compulsory education?