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Research on refugees’ pathways to higher education since 2010: A systematic review

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Review of Education
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Khalid Arar at Texas State University
Khalid Arar
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Abstract and Figures

The scholarship discussing educational responses for refugees and other displaced persons focuses mainly on compulsory education, whereas research about displaced persons’ interrupted pathways to higher education is limited. This article presents a systematic review of recent international evidence on pathways to higher education for refugees and other displaced populations published in peer‐refereed journals between 2010 and 2020. The review aimed to answer the following three questions: (1) What are the main government reception policies that have enabled refugees to access higher education? (2) Which barriers hinder refugees’ access pathways to higher education institutions? (3) What are the main challenges facing refugee students in higher education institutions in different countries? The bulk of the article presents evidence from 44 studies organised around the following three identified central main topical areas (a) reception policies, both national and institutional, (b) access pathways to higher education, and (c) refugee students’ challenges. The paper concludes with theoretical and methodological conclusions concerning current research features and recommendations for the opening of access pathways to widen refugees’ inclusion in higher education, providing outlines for future research, policy and interventions that can better address refugees’ needs. Context and implication Rationale for the study In the last decade, political crises and civil and international wars have forced an unprecedented number of persons to flee from their homelands in fear for their lives and livelihoods in search for sanctuary and a better life (Arar, Kondakci, & Streitwieser, 2020; Arar, Kondakci, Kasikci, et al., 2020; Baker et al., 2019; Banks, 2017; Sullivan & Simonson, 2016). Today, more than 79.5 million people are classified as displaced persons throughout the world (UNHCR, 2020a, 2020b). The scholarship discussing educational responses for refugees and other displaced persons focuses mainly on compulsory education, whereas research about displaced persons’ interrupted pathways to higher education is limited. Therefore, this article presents a systematic review of recent international evidence on pathways to higher education for refugees and other displaced populations. Why the new findings matter? This study fills the gap in knowledge by emphasising the exploration of the challenges involved in examining policies and intervention programmes for refugees' pathways into higher education institutions, and suggesting possible theoretical and empirical lenses that can broaden and deepen the research in this field. Therefore, this article will be an important tool for policy makers, while at the same time opening the horizons for researchers, for new fields of research, in the field of broader immigration policy. Implications for educational researchers and policy makers The findings provide insights to scholars, policy makers and decision makers, who are interested in conducting systematic reviews. These include: Through the systematic review of the current scholarship, the points that need special attention both in terms of policy and practice for the effective implementation of the refugee support policies for widening access to higher education are fully explored. Reception policies for refugees and displaced both in the national and institutional levels are identified and can form the basis for policy making to expand access and success in higher education for refugees. Theoretical and methodological conclusions concerning current research features and outlines for future research agenda and interventions programmes that can better address refugees’ needs are fully discussed.
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Review of Educ ation. 2021;9:e3303.
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1 of 30
https://doi.org/10.1002/rev3.3303
wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/roe
Received: 23 March 2021
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Accepte d: 6 August 2021
DOI: 10 .1002/r ev3.3303
RESEARCH SYNTHESIS
Research on refugees’ pathways to higher
education since 2010: A systematic review
Khalid H. Arar
© 2021 British Educational Research Association
Texas State University, San Marc os, Texas,
USA
Correspondence
Khalid H. Arar, Texas State University, 601
Universi ty Drive, S an Marcos, TX 78666,
USA.
Emails: khalidarr@gmail.com; k_a425@
txstate.edu
Funding information
No fundin g provided for this rese arch
Abstract
The scholarship discussing educational responses for
refugees and other displaced persons focuses mainly
on compulsory education, whereas research about
displaced persons’ interrupted pathways to higher ed-
ucation is limited. This article presents a systematic
review of recent international evidence on pathways
to higher education for refugees and other displaced
populations published in peer- refereed journals be-
tween 2010 and 2020. The review aimed to answer
the following three questions: (1) What are the main
government reception policies that have enabled ref-
ugees to access higher education? (2) Which barriers
hinder refugees’ access pathways to higher education
institutions? (3) What are the main challenges facing
refugee students in higher education institutions in
different countries? The bulk of the article presents
evidence from 44 studies organised around the fol-
lowing three identified central main topical areas (a)
reception policies, both national and institutional, (b)
access pathways to higher education, and (c) refugee
students’ challenges. The paper concludes with theo-
retical and methodological conclusions concerning
current research features and recommendations for
the opening of access pathways to widen refugees’
inclusion in higher education, providing outlines for
future research, policy and interventions that can bet-
ter address refugees’ needs.
... Hence, methods become prescribed and prescriptive…. Both the terms are defined, and the characteristics of defining any research topic follow a colonial lens of framing what is researchable, and what are the effective methodologies in researching any of these research topics, which includes the framing of voice (Arar, 2021). Theories in different Anglophonic spaces, produced mainly in the Global North, have been dominant in understanding education across different cultures, and contexts in the Global South and developed societies, and have been guided mainly by oriental approaches (Said, 1980) and colonialism in manifesting scholarly agendas (Elliot, 2023). ...
... Scholars from the Global North have blindly adopted these theories and methodologies in trying to publish through established gatekeepers (e.g., editors, publishing houses, and conferences) that set the standards for what is publishable. Consequently, the research on vulnerable people, among them refugees, is dominated by Western-centered scholars, lacking language competencies, and a close relationship with contexts (Arar, 2021;Ramsay & Baker, 2019). ...
Decolonizing Research Methods
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Dear Colleagues, we six authors have come together to share our reflections on research methods. Our composite and cut-up accounts (Bogotch, 2023; Burroughs, 1959; Skerl, 1985) are deliberately meant to challenge current educational research writing and the publishing enterprise which we depict as a set of established, prescriptive, and formulaic rules repeated throughout one’s academic careers. However, in a recent discussion about post-qualitative methodologies, Tesar (2021) argued that we should be slow to reject or set ourselves against certain methodologies in favor of new ones. He notes that we are all caught up in these plenary ways of thinking and being even as we question “[t]he millions of marvelous, wonderful, and very ‘useful’ achievements of our scholarly practice” (p. 4). Advocating plurality, instead, Tesar (2021) encourages us to engage the “ideas lying dormant in the deepest roots of our scholarly work” (pp. 3–4). Furthermore, Stephen Ball (2017) noted the ascendancy of neoliberalism and the effects of neoliberal ideologies on the production of educational research in the academy.
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... In Nordic countries, refugees are commonly seen as colonial subjects and characterised, along with other minoritised groups, as "non-belonging, absent, criminal, and/or barbaric" (Groglopo & Suárez-Krabbe, 2023, p. 1). It is interesting that the video came to light in a context where the voices of refugee scholars who research their own lived experiences to challenge oppressive practices in ostensibly generous education systems are virtually absent from the literature (Arar, 2021). ...
... Even though studies on refugee integration in destination nations have been emerging and gaining attention over the last decades (e.g., Djuve & Kavli, 2019), there is a lacuna in the literature regarding the experiences of refugees from inside the language classrooms. This gap is even significant if we consider research undertaken by refugee scholars about their experiences in education in general (Arar, 2021). In a postcolonial political and educational landscape, which often portrays refugees as "poor, uneducated, or dependent on social welfare" (Bigelow, 2010, p. 120), this gap, although it is not surprising, needs to be bridged. ...
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... Based on data obtained from an international study, the most highly valued definition of intercultural competence is the one that defines it as the ability to interact effectively and appropriately in intercultural situations, drawing on one's intercultural knowledge, skills and attitudes [32]. Teachers' knowledge, skills and attitudes are important factors for the successful inclusion of different groups of pupils in education [33][34][35]. Teaching is a profession in which mastery depends on the interaction of knowledge, skills and attitudes [36]. The intercultural competence of teachers is essential for working well in culturally and linguistically diverse classrooms [37], for creating inclusive settings and for promoting the successful education and development of newcomer children. ...
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With the increasing diversity in society caused by migration processes, the heterogeneity of classrooms in educational institutions is increasing. Teachers face new challenges related to cultural diversity in a multicultural classroom. This is more common in societies with a diverse population and in societies where newcomers regularly enter schools. In order to facilitate the inclusion of newcomer children in the education system, more analysis of teachers’ intercultural competence is needed. Intercultural competence is the teacher’s ability to understand, adapt to and work effectively in different cultural and linguistic contexts in the pupils’ environment. This competence includes the knowledge, skills and attitudes necessary to work successfully in a multicultural and multilingual classroom. The intercultural competence of a teacher is essential to create a positive and effective learning environment in which all pupils can learn and develop better, regardless of their cultural or linguistic background. Experience gained in working with newcomers is an important factor influencing teachers’ self-assessment of their knowledge, skills and attitudes, and the results show that respondents with such experience rate their knowledge, skills and attitudes higher than respondents without such experience, while age, work experience, level of education and workplace do not show statistically significant differences for the parameters analyzed. The aim of this study is to analyze the structure of the intercultural competence of teachers and its pedagogical potential and characteristics for the activities of teachers in a multicultural educational environment in the context of migration processes, and to assess the readiness of teachers for the inclusion of newcomer children in the Latvian education system. Research methods: analysis of scientific literature, survey of teachers, data processing in SPSS 22.0.
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... All these things make it difficult for many refugees to become knowledge producers in many destination countries (Arar, 2021;Olsson et al., 2023). This in turn reproduces and sustains the knowledge production systems characterized by epistemological hegemony and asymmetrical power relationships by further excluding refugees, "silencing unwanted voices and shutting out perspectives that expose the injustice" (Davies et al., 2023, p. 169). ...
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The number of forcibly displaced people, including refugees, has been increasing exponentially over the last few decades. Refugees settled in Western destination countries face several challenges in successfully accessing and participating in higher education and in becoming knowledge producers. This is in sharp contrast to uncritical assumptions that refugees settled in these countries are better off in terms of pursing higher education. To shed more light on this issue, I aim to address the research question ‘How does the integration process in a Western destination country contribute to the exclusion of refugees from knowledge production?’ The article uses an education pipeline analogy and human agency theory as the theoretical framework. I conduct narrative interviews with six refugees who planned to pursue higher education but could not realize their plans in Norway. The findings indicate that the refugee education pipeline is broken and stuffed with various restrictive factors that weaken the refugees’ agency to make informed decisions. These factors included a long waiting time for settlement, withholding relevant information about higher education, demotivating and misplaced advice about higher education and language training programmes for non-academic purposes. The article ends with a conclusion and several implications.
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... Children from refugee backgrounds may come to school with trauma, uncertainty, and feeling isolated; they may arrive with either interrupted or no formal education. Furthermore, once in the United States, they can face discrimination based on their cultural, religious, and linguistic backgrounds or how their race is socially constructed (Arar, 2021;Brion, 2021;Dryden-Peterson, 2015;López et al., 2019). Students may also need help learning English . ...
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... It should be understood that SJ comprises, first, a political discourse; secondly, actions/ interventions that seek to expand people's opportunities to close disparities between oppressed peoples of the world and those who have been advantaged by circumstances alone; and, thirdly, counter-narratives for reimagining the world and our actions within it. Given the current global challenges, there are no blueprints for how to lead in a world that was already deeply inequitable and that has since March 2020 experienced a pandemic, a collective outcry against systemic racism (Pak & Ravitch, 2021), and the global wash of forced migrants throughout the world (Arar, 2021). Therefore, fostering critical SJ leadership is both necessary and contingent given the dire picture of our racialised world and the vacuum of moral and ethical public leadership. ...
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