Urban Refugee Education: Strengthening Policies and Practices for Access, Quality, and Inclusion 
Funded by the U.S. State Department Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration

I served as the Project Director and Co-Primary Investigator (in collaboration with S. Garnett Russell) on the first-ever global study of urban refugee education. Through this study we uncovered a gap between policy and practice when it comes to ensuring access of displaced children to educational and support services in urban settings.
 
After surveying 190 professionals involved in the delivery of educational services to refugees in 16 countries, and doing in-depth studies of refugee education in three cities—Beirut, Lebanon; Nairobi, Kenya; and Quito, Ecuador—we found the following:

1. In many countries, national laws and policies support urban refugees’ right to education and have helped secure a more welcoming policy environment in which to uphold urban refugees’ right to education. Nevertheless, we find a lack of policies or unclear or contradictory policies across government offices, as well as shifting and volatile geopolitical landscapes and security issues, which can prevent refugee children from attending school.
2. Urban refugees who are living outside of camps must be self-reliant in providing for their basic needs and livelihoods, as well as seeking out educational services. Many urban refugees face the same challenges as native urban poor do, with minors often needing to work and earn money rather than attend school. As outsiders, they are often more vulnerable to xenophobia and discrimination by the host community.
3. Support programs for refugees provide supplementary services to address specific needs (such as psychological and social needs, language issues, disabilities, disrupted schooling) through non-formal educational programs. These organizations face the additional challenges of identifying, finding and providing services to urban refugees who are scattered across large urban areas.
4. Organizations serving urban refugees face numerous operational challenges, including the difficulty of coordinating diverse actors, lack of support from the host government, invisibility and lack of data on the refugee population, resistance from the host community, xenophobia, and funding constraints. 

Based on our findings we recommend that refugee students be fully integrated and included in national schools, and that civil organizations support non-formal education programs to address the distinct needs of refugee students not met by government schools. 
 
Faculty collaborators: S. Garnett Russell (Co-PI), Elizabeth Buckner
 
Student team members: Peter Bjorklund (Ed.M., 2016), Jihae Cha, Danni Falk, Sarah Horsch, Diana Rodriguez-Gomez (Ed.D., 2016), and Dominique Spencer (M.A., 2017).