With direct relevance to the conference theme “The Value of Diversity in Education and Education Research”, this symposium considers the education of asylum-seekers and refugees with particular reference to race.

The UNHCR (2018) estimates that there are now more than 12,500,000 displaced children across the world. Young refugees have an entitlement to an ‘inclusive and equitable quality education’ in their destination countries (United Nations, 2015), which has implications for national education systems (McIntyre and Neuhaus, 2021: 796).

Research has shown that although young refugees have the right to an education, the situation is very different in different European countries. While there has been a recent increase in research on education and asylum seekers and refugees, one of the aspects often overlooked in academic research is the racialised context of refugees and the raced nature of national education systems. Equally, when this context is mentioned, then only briefly rather than fully theorised (Chadderton and Edmonds, 2015; Wischmann, 2022). This is perhaps because refugees are often not explicitly recognised as a racialised group. However, scholars have demonstrated that they are actually constructed as non-white, whether or not they are white by skin tone (Garner, 2013), and should therefore be considered a racialised group.

‘Racialisation must be understood not exclusively in terms of categorising according to appearance and culture, but also as a more abstract process of attributing innate characteristics to all members of a given group. In the case of asylum-seekers in England, it is the group’s social status, rather than shared physical characteristics, that serves as the basis for racialisation’ (Garner, 2013:504).

Research has shown that European education systems are racially unequal, and reproduce disadvantage. There has been a focus on the outcomes and experiences of racialised minorities, the racialising function of education policy, the operation of white privilege, the Eurocentric nature of the curricula, the impact of colour-blind practices. However, barely any attention has been paid to the implications of this racialised educational context for asylum-seekers and refugees.

This symposium then, aims to fill a gap in research by offering a series of papers on education, refugees and race in three European countries: Germany, England and Austria. The papers collectively consider the arrangements for education for refugees in relation to the racialised context.  We ask, how does this racialised context impact on education policy, practice, or the experiences of refugees themselves in education in these different national settings? How do the different national histories shape educational provision for refugees and asylum seekers? How do Eurocentric curricula shape the experiences of refugees? How does teacher education and professional development prepare teachers to work with refugees and asylum seekers?

Chadderton, C. and Edmonds, C. (2015) Refugees and access to vocational education and training across Europe: a case of protection of white privilege? Journal of Vocational Education and Training 67:2, pp. 136-152. Garner Steve (2013) The racialisation of asylum in provincial England: class, place and whiteness, Identities, 20:5, 503-521 McIntyre, J. and Neuhaus, S. (2021) Theorising policy and practice in refugee education: Conceptualising ‘safety’, ‘belonging’, ‘success’ and ‘participatory parity’ in England and Sweden. British Educational Research Journal Vol. 47, No. 4, August 2021, pp. 796–816 UNHCR 2015: Statistical Yearbook 2015. https://www.unhcr.org/statistics/country/59b294387/unhcr-statistical-yearbook-2015-15th-edition.html?query=2015 UNHCR 2018: Global Report 2018. https://www.unhcr.org/publications/fundraising/5e4ff98f7/unhcr-global-report-2018.html?query=2018 Wischmann, A. (2022). Whiteness and Racism in Education. Implications for Young Refugees in Germany. In: Delić, A., Kourtis, I., Kytidou, O., Sarkodie-Gyan, S., Wagner, U., Zölch, J. (eds) Globale Zusammenhänge, lokale Deutungen. Springer VS, Wiesbaden. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-37356-6_7