Persons with disabilities forcibly displaced form a particularly vulnerable group facing intersectional discriminatory practices. Exiled from their country of origin, they need to live without the protection stemming from citizenship or permanent residency. They may have experienced persecution in the country of origin and/or trauma during the flight. They face discriminatory practices targeted generally against people with disabilities and refugees, but they also experience specific oppression stemming from the interplay of these two characteristics. They may be thus left behind during flight or they may not survive the journey, they often lack access to mainstream assistance programmes and are in danger of being exposed to further protection risks, such as sexual and physical violence and harassment (Reilly, 2010, p. 18). For refugees with disabilities, their journeys often take much longer putting them at greater risk of attack and insecurity along the journey (Kett & Trani, 2010, p. 12).  Persons with disabilities remain largely forgotten in situations of acute crisis of human displacement (Crock et al., 2013, p. 736), and so is often their right to inclusive education enshrined in Article 24 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) (Bacakova, 2023, p. 35).

The proposed paper aims at shedding light on this partly invisible intersection of vulnerabilities experienced by refugee children and youth with disabilities when accessing their right to inclusive education by reporting on the preliminary results of a qualitative research study investigating the lived educational experiences of newly arrived Ukrainian refugee children and youth with disabilities in Germany. In order to do so, the paper takes advantage of the notion of intersectionality (Crenshaw, 1989, p. 150) together with the concepts of the right to inclusive education stipulated in Article 24 of the CRPD and vulnerability as a human rights concept (Beduschi, 2018; Coleman, 2009; Fineman, 2010; Morawa, 2006; Peroni & Timmer, 2013; Bacakova, 2023). By embracing the intersectional perspective, the paper intends to contribute to addressing not only the possible experiences of disrespect, exclusion and the lack of support in education, but also to highlighting the individual aspirations and examples of their active fulfilment.

The research study focuses therefore on the following research questions:

1. To what extent is the enjoyment of the right to inclusive education enshrined in Article 24 of the CRPD ensured for the newly arrived Ukrainian refugee children with disabilities in Germany?
2. Which obstacles face the participants when accessing their right to inclusive education in Germany?
3. Which factors influence these challenges and which are the possible protective factors, which lead to positive experiences?
4. What educational dreams and aspirations do refugee children with disabilities and their families bring with them to their new home in Germany?

Very little is known about the educational trajectories of refugees with disabilities in urban settings and in Europe and North America in general, creating thus a research gap, which needs to be filled (Bacakova, 2023, p. 42). Furthermore, the intersectional point of view is likely to promote the concept of inclusive education by emphasizing the importance of education for all where no groups and individuals are left behind, and the forgotten ones are given a voice.

Empirical research design is currently being implemented in order to answer the above stipulated research questions. Semi-structured interviews with approximately 25 Ukrainian refugee children (3-18 yrs) with disabilities and their family members, who arrived in Germany in 2022, are conducted. These interviews are conducted in Russian or Ukrainian, possibly implementing various means of alternative communication, such as pictograms or “Leichte Sprache”, or alternatively in sign language in accordance with the communi-cations needs and preferences of the interview partners. The concept of disability is not further defined when selecting the interview partners, leaving the category intentionally open in order to enable participation in the research project to all persons who identify themselves as persons with disabilities. The age range of the participating children is set between 3 and 18 years in order to be able to capture the educational experi-ences at pre-primary, primary and secondary levels. The interviews are conducted by bilingual social workers affiliated to the cooperation partners experienced in the work with refugee families and trained in conducting interviews with children with disabilities. All interviews are audio-recorded, transcribed and subsequently translated into German and/or English. The collected data will be analysed using the Grounded Theory (Strauss & Corbin, 1991) in order to develop an inductively derived grounded theory of the above described phenomenon.

The paper will report on the preliminary results from the data obtained until July 2023. It is expected that at least 15 interviews with refugee children with disabilities and their families or carers will have been conducted by that time. The paper will focus mainly on the area of agency and educational aspirations and provide the first insights into these topics.

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