The last decade has been marked by large flows of newcomers arriving in Europe. These movements came to be known as a ‘refugee crisis' or indeed a 'reception crisis' (RSA, 2018), which arguably peaked in 2015. Ever since, questions of how best to support – or better manage – these flows have been at the forefront of public and policy debates. A common discussion is how educational systems and both formal and non-formal actors can, or have had to, respond (e.g. Koehler & Schneider, 2019); whether in terms of ensuring access in policy, developing preparation programmes, providing language and psychosocial support, establishing targeted funding, or offering non-formal provision to fill state gaps. Seven years after this ‘peak’, the research community has had time to document successes, failures and experiences of such initiatives. 

The Hub for European Refugee Education (HERE) collates, fosters and disseminates research and knowledge for those interested in the question, ‘What do we know about the educational provision for and experiences of people from refugee backgrounds who have arrived in Europe since 2015?’ It has three key elements: (a) the HERE Knowledge Base: a curated database of published resources on refugee education from across Europe from academic and non-academic sources, published since 2015, which forms the basis of a new, online, searchable database; (b) the HERE Network: this aims to bring together key stakeholders with academics and other experts in the field of refugee education through activities aimed at exchanging knowledge and developing research and practice on refugee education across Europe; and (c) the HERE Website: this shall host the HERE database and support networking activity – for example, through the publication of themed blogs and multimedia materials for non-academic audiences such as digital stories, comics and animations, podcasts and more. The project is based at the University of Nottingham, where it is led by Professor Joanna McIntyre. HERE is supported by a Steering Group comprising European experts from stakeholder communities. It is funded by Open Society Foundations and has been further supported via a University of Nottingham ESRC Impact Accelerator grant.

Since April 2021, the HERE team have been working on curating the Knowledge Base. We have completed the initial English-language phase and embarked upon piloting the curation of resources published in other European languages. Now, at the time of writing (January 2022), the Knowledge Base has over 700 resources from a range of academic and non-academic sources. The team has begun exploring trends among these resources, with initial, emerging findings due to be disseminated in the near future in a range of formats for academic and non-academic audiences. Participants in this workshop will be invited to interact in a structured manner with HERE, and to reflect on their experiences and offer suggestions for improvement via a series of small-group discussions and an open plenary. This will serve to introduce interested parties to the HERE Knowledge Base and Network; enable them to begin forming connections with other researchers and practitioners, or to strengthen existing relationships; allow the HERE team to witness how the website is used, in order to make it more useful for stakeholders; and to prompt discussions on the (educational) conditions for new arrivals in participants’ own contexts, and the sharing of their own projects. 

Central to the HERE project is the Knowledge Base. This database is the result of an ongoing, systematic process of searching for, reviewing and compiling texts to answer the question, ‘What do we know about the educational provision for and experiences of people from refugee backgrounds who have arrived in Europe since 2015?’ The literature search for the HERE project involved searching databases (e.g. EBSCOHost, ERIC, Google Scholar) and screening titles, abstracts and full texts. In the first stage of the project (April-December 2021), only English-language resources were included. Further inclusion criteria were: (a) being of an accepted publication type (e.g. journal article, report); (b) being published between 2015 and 2021; (c) referring to ‘refugees’, ‘forced migrants’, ‘displaced’ or ‘asylum seekers’; (d) including at least one section on education or teaching about refugees; and (e) referring to research from Europe (or at least one European context, in the case of comparative studies). Resources were excluded if they (a) only contained statistics; (b) primarily focused on health; (c) referred to ‘migrants’ or ‘immigrants’ only; and/or (d) were of an unaccepted publication type (e.g. news article, book review). The number of included resources have now reached 650, and are searchable via the new HERE Website – the subject of this workshop. In terms of the methods to be used in the workshop itself, the session will adopt a collaborative approach. It will foster co-learning and knowledge exchange through a series of activities to (a) gain feedback from workshop participants on their experience of engaging with the HERE Knowledge Base; (b) discuss key themes and issues arising; and (c) explore future opportunities for networking and collaboration.

In terms of the outcomes of curating the Knowledge Base, the HERE team have already begun analysing trends in European refugee education research since 2015 and preparing both academic and non-academic outputs from these analyses. One such output is an academic paper – which is currently being finalised – on refugees’ and asylum-seekers' multi-level, gendered challenges and supports with accessing, progressing through and achieving valued outcomes from education. In terms of the outcomes of the project overall, the overarching goal is for HERE to become a sustainable, Europe-wide base for policy makers, researchers, practitioners, agencies and other relevant parties. The proposed workshop provides an opportunity to work towards this goal with engaged members from the academic community and those interested in refugee education.

Koehler, C., & Schneider, J. (2019). Young refugees in education: The particular challenges of school systems in Europe. Comparative Migration Studies, 7, Article 28. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40878-019-0129-3 Refugee Support Aegean (RSA) (2018). ‘Reception crisis in Greece: The malignancy of Attica’s refugee camps’. Retrieved from: https://rsaegean.org/en/reception-crisis-in-greece/