The provision of high quality supports for refugees in Europe remains one of the most pressing humanitarian and political challenges of our time. Successive displacements due to conflicts, wars, persecution, and environmental crises have exposed the limitations and contradictions of the European asylum regime (see Kleist 2018 on refugee regimes). Rather than an inevitable burden, the pressures on pan-European and national systems stem from restrictive policies, bureaucratic inefficiencies, and political unwillingness to establish sustainable and rights-based frameworks. If current projections of climate-induced displacement hold true, the inadequacies of the existing asylum and migration governance will be further exposed—potentially surpassing the failures witnessed in 2015 and following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Recent research highlights critical systemic gaps in refugee support (Ringrose et al., 2023; Morrice & Salem, 2023), particularly in education where challenges in providing "decent opportunities in education for refugees" have intensified (Koehler, 2025:3). Multiple barriers persist, from overcrowded schools to language barriers and discrimination (UNESCO, 2017), yet education remains crucial for successful refugee integration (McIntyre and Abrams, 2021; ECRE, 2023). As McIntyre and Neuhaus (2021) emphasize, school attendance marks a vital transition for refugee children toward rebuilding meaningful lives.

Examining forced migration through an intersectional lens within ECER 2025 is not only timely but essential. As education grapples with uncertainties marked by ideological tensions, technological disruptions, and climate instability, understanding how forced migration intersects with these forces is critical. Social categories such as gender, ethnicity, socio-economic status, sexual orientation, and migration status shape how individuals experience exclusion or access to protection and opportunities. This symposium explores refugee inclusion through educational and social justice (Morrice & Salem, 2023), encompassing lifelong learning, social participation, and citizenship rights across diverse age groups. Educational institutions can serve as spaces of inclusion and social cohesion, yet they risk reproducing systemic exclusions. By exploring education's role in supporting displaced individuals of all ages and backgrounds, fostering intercultural dialogue, and promoting inclusive citizenship, we contribute to strengthening democratic, pluralistic societies that advance social justice and embrace diversity in all its forms - including gender identity, sexual orientation, cultural background, and life experiences. 

The symposium includes nine papers examining these themes through frameworks of social justice, critical pedagogy, intercultural education and intersectionality across three interconnected sessions. The first session focuses on personal journeys and community and educational integration, featuring research from Iceland, Ireland, and Portugal that investigates trust-building in small communities with resettled refugees, asylum-seeking minors' educational experiences, and refugee women's integration journeys. The second session explores innovative educational approaches, presenting studies from Iceland, Denmark, and Portugal that analyse language learning and plurilingual development among Syrian and Iraqi youth, reception education for Ukrainian children, and sport's educational inclusion for young forced migrants. The third session examines institutional perspectives and educational pathways, combining insights from Iceland, Germany, and Portugal through studies of educators' experiences with refugee students, social mentoring practices in asylum contexts, and Syrian students' experiences in Portuguese higher education. Together, these papers provide rich insights into refugee integration across Northern, Central, and Southern Europe, highlighting both common challenges and context-specific approaches to fostering inclusive educational environments.

European Council on Refugees and Exiles (ECRE) (2023).The Right to Education for Asylum Seekers in the EU. Policy Note #44 – 2023. Koehler, C. (2025). Revisiting refugee education findings of the multi-country partnership to enhance the education of refugee and asylum-seeking youth in Europe - PERAE. Intercultural Education, 1–19. UNESCO 2017 Protecting the right to education for refugees, UNESCO McIntyre, J. & Abrams, F. (2021) Refugee Education: Theorising practice in schools. Routledge. McIntyre, J. & Neuhaus, S. (2021) Theorising policy and practice in refugee education: Conceptualising ‘safety’, ‘belonging’, ‘success’ and ‘participatory parity’ in England and Sweden BERJ 47: 4 796-816 Morrice, L., & Salem, H. (2023). Quality and social justice in refugee education: Syrian refugee students’ experiences of integration into national education systems in Jordan. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 49(15), 3856–3876. Priscilla Ringrose, Guro Korsnes Kristensen & Irmelin Kjelaas (2024) ‘Not integrated at all. Whatsoever’: teachers’ narratives on the integration of newly arrived refugee students in Norway, International Journal of Inclusive Education, 28:13, 3158-3175 Kleist, Olaf (2018): The Refugee Regime: Belonging, Sovereignty, and the Political of Forced Migration. In: Pott, Andreas; Rass, Christoph; Wolff, Frank (Hg.): Was ist ein Migrationsregime? What is a Migration Regime? Migrationsgesellschaften. Wiesbaden: Springer VS, 167-185.