Higher Education Challenges for Migrant and Refugee Students in a Global World

Abstract

For the last decade, various aspects of migration have occupied public and political debate throughout the world. This isgroups compete for employment. Higher education provides the learning required for skilled professions and can therefore enable these young people to earn their living and contribute to the host states, to overcome prejudices and resistance and climb the ladder of social mobility. Higher education also enables these young refugees and immigrants to develop their personal and professional identity as part of the process of their integration in their new home. Additionally, the influx of refugees and migrants can enrich and transform higher education systems as they adapt their services to meet the needs of the new students and learn about their cultures. Higher education has become a major topic of discussion, debate and controversy around the world, as a range of political, economic, social and technological pressures result in a myriad of changes in the quantity and quality of higher

education systems. Nevertheless, policy and praxis facilitating equitable access to

higher education for migrant and refugees remains limited. This is a global concern

as it can affect educational opportunities and integration ability for those who have

been forced to leave their countries.

especially so with regard to the issues of

immigration and refugees. Migration has accelerated to dramatic proportions due

to several factors: increased mobility; the widening wealth gap between prosperous

industrialized and developing countries, attracting many people from poorer states

to leave their country of origin in the hope of being absorbed in countries that

appear to offer a better life; local and regional conflicts; and political, religious, and

ideological persecution and genocide, displacing hundreds of thousands of refugees.

Despite international accords defining policies regarding the treatment of refugees

and migrants, wealthier countries alarmed by the number of penniless migrants

reaching their borders have begun to forge policies and take sometimes radical

steps to stem the flow of migration into their states. While some states have tried to

absorb these desperate newcomers and to exploit their potential for the workforce,

other countries have erected fences and walls, and employ detention centers and

armed ships to keep refugees, asylum seekers and those seeking work from entering

their space. The phenomenon of immigration is often met with resistance, usually

bottom- up because the effects are felt by the individual citizen with whom the

immigrants compete for employment and resources. For young refugees and immigrants, higher education may offer a significant

tool for possible equal integration in a pluralistic world where many different ethnic