Disabled forced migrants, Pisani and Grech (2015) argue, live in a shadow: they are rarely considered in humanitarian intervention, hardly theorised in forced migration studies and are mostly left out of Global North-centric disability studies. As this analysis found, this intersection of their marginalised identities – being both a forced migrant and living with a disability – is also concerningly rarely considered in educational contexts in Europe. We searched the 1,007 resources currently held in the Hub for Education for Refugees in Europe (HERE) Knowledge Base, and found that just 17 studies discuss the needs, outcomes and/or experiences of this multiply marginalised population.

In this paper, we look at the research which is available and what we can learn from it, before offering some recommendations for research, policy and practice. In exploring this topic, we respond to calls from Critical Disability Studies scholars to undertake intersectional analyses of disability: to recognise that “the politics of disability are intertwined with many other politics including those associated with racism, sexism, transphobia, occidentalism, colonialism, classism, developmentalism and heterosexism” (Goodley et al., 2019, p. 989). At the same time, we build on Critical Race Studies and the forced migration and education literature, in developing our understanding of such intersectional experiences.

In line with the Critical Disability Studies approach, here we follow the social model of disability (rather than moral, medical or rehabilitative) which recognises that “(1) disability is a social construct, not the inevitable consequence of impairment, (2) disability is best characterised as a complex interrelationship between impairment, individual response to impairment, and the social environment, and (3) the social disadvantage experienced by disabled people is caused by the physical, institutional and attitudinal (together, the ‘social’) environment which fails to meet the needs of people who do not match the social expectation of ‘normalcy’” (Hosking, 2008, p. 5). To try to capture this diversity of experience and understanding across Europe, we therefore used the terms ‘disability/ies’, ‘special education’, ‘special need/s’, ‘learning difficulty/ies’ and ‘additional needs’ to search the HERE Knowledge Base for empirical studies on refugee learners with disabilities.

The scoping review identified a worryingly substantial gap in the literature on this topic. Only 17 resources in the Knowledge Base published over almost the last decade provide empirical data on refugee learners with physical and/or learning disabilities. Even then, few focus on education for disabled refugee learners exclusively - instead, they often treat refugees and learners with disabilities as separate ‘vulnerable’ or ‘high risk’ groups who are subject to inclusion measures. This means that attention is not paid to the specific needs of those who fall into both categories, or how such aspects of an individual’s identity can intersect and multiply their challenges. 

Scoping review of resources in the Hub for Education for Refugees in Europe (HERE) Knowledge Base

The resources which exist provide information on the limitations of current ‘inclusive education’ practices and definitions; broader inclusion challenges, such as administrative procedures and the attitudes of teachers and the public towards disabled refugee learners; and the relationship between refugees and the Special Educational Needs category. They also offer suggestions for overhauling inclusive education, such as underpinning these practices with a radical and intersectional approach to inclusion which considers how learners may be multiply marginalised. This would take into account not only how refugees with disabilities experience education as a refugee or as a learner with a disability; but also how racialisation, language background and psychosocial needs, for example, are accounted for during diagnostic procedures and when providing special educational support.

Goodley, D., Lawthom, R., Liddiard, K., & Runswick-Cole, K. (2019). Provocations for Critical Disability Studies. Disability & Society, 34(6), 972–997. https://doi.org/10.1080/09687599.2019.1566889 Hosking, D. L. (2008). ‘Critical Disability Theory’. Paper presented at the 4th Biennial Disability Studies Conference at Lancaster University, UK, Sept. 2-4, 2008. https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/fass/events/disabilityconference_archive/2008/papers/hosking2008.pdf Pisani, M., & Grech, S. (2015). Disability and forced migration: Critical intersectionalities. Disability and the Global South, 2(1), 421–441.