Urban Refugees: an education

Did you guess the correct answer to this post? 

The approximate 7 million people I was referring to are urban refugees. Whilst the UN's Refugee Agency UNHCR estimates a total number of 10.5 million refugees worldwide, you might be surprised to learn that roughly two-thirds of these are in fact urban refugees.

Urban Refugees
What then is an urban refugee? An urban refugee is someone who like a refugee has fled their country due to reasons outlined in the UN Convention relating to the Status of Refugees - see here for an exact definition. How an urban refugee differs however is where the urban refugee lives - the clue is in the name. Rather than staying in a refugee camp, urban refugees instead live amongst the local community in the cities of the host country and attempt to - in some cases successfully - integrate and forge a new life in this way.

I've talked about education in refugee camp situations in previous posts, however how much do we actually know about the educational situation of urban refugees? Are they better off than those in refugee camps? 

As might be expected, keeping tabs on the numbers of urban refugees can be problematic, which in turn makes providing them with humanitarian assistance equally problematic. A refugee camp allows for categorisation and sorting of numbers, masses of people in various locations obviously does not.
Syria
The current crisis in Syria provides a relevant example, with Syrians fleeing the country into Jordan (said to be 40,000) and Turkey. Many of these refugees are urban refugees.  In terms of language, little differs between Jordan and Syria (apart from regional differences in Arabic). In Turkey this is not the case. Whilst Syria is a middle income country, given the nature of a refugee situation, it needs to be remembered that jobs remain elusive in the host country.

In terms of education, Jordan provides an interesting example. It currently plays host to Palestinian refugees as well as those from Syria. UNRWA (the UN agency for Palestinian refugees) provides education in camps for Palestinian refugees, however many of the refugees have access to government schools as well. If students are back in schooling however then the education is likely not to be catered to refugee needs. Curricula remain much the same, and refugees must integrate themselves into local school life.

One of the problems it seems is the lack of focus on education even in camp situations - these tend to be better documented in comparison with urban situations, thus highlighting the general little focus upon education in these circumstances. Although UNHCR's mandate now stretches to those outside of camps, it seems focus on education overall remains low. Regular readers of the blog know this is something I mention frequently. Of course if basic provisions cannot be met, then education cannot be given priority, however given that the Syrian situation shows no sign of improving in the near future, it seems Syrian youth would benefit from returning to a sense of 'normality'. 

So what can be done? 
From a distance the action we can take seems limited, however it is important to keep Syria at the forefront of our minds, not only as individuals but as the international community as a whole. The situation has been going on for far too long with the world seemingly standing by to watch it unfold. 

In light of the Syrian example, where does the responsibility lie? Who should ensure refugees - in particular those fleeing to urban centres - have the assistance they require, including education? Is it a risky business to start providing education? Does this simply prolong a refugee situation? How should the assistance provided to those in urban centres differ to that provided to encamped refugees?

Share your thoughts with other readers in the box below. 

Have a guess...

Something a little different today. Take a guess about what I am talking about: there are approximately 7 million of them worldwide, yet they remain relatively under-represented by the international community...

The answer is coming up in the next post - keep your eyes peeled for the correct answer, and find out more about who I am talking about, and how this is related to education in the global context.

Think you know who I am talking about? Share your guesses with other readers!

P.S. Did you know you can follow the blog on Twitter? @GEDBlog

An Overview: UNHCR Global Trends 2011

Today is World Refugee Day 2012 and it is also Refugee Week (18-24 June) in the UK. In light of this, and to continue to raise awareness of the importance of quality education in refugee situations, below are some key points from UNHCR's recently released Global Trends Report 2011. 

• In 2011, 700, 000 more people than in 2010 were receiving assistance from UNHCR (either as refugees or Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs)). 
• The total of those forcibly displaced worldwide was 42.5 million.  
• 7.1 million people were in protracted refugee situations (defined as 'one in which 25,000 or more refugees of the same nationality have been in exile for five years or longer in any given asylum country') by the end of 2011. This amounted to three quarters of the refugee population under UNHCR's protection (yet in some cases, education - particularly above primary level - is considered incompatible with refugee situations).
• Pakistan was host to the largest number of refugees worldwide (1.7 million) at the end of 2011.
• A concerning fact is that four-fifths of the world's refugees were hosted by developing countries - countries that often cannot achieve their own educational goals, therefore putting into perspective the educational struggles in refugee situations. However, it is perhaps important to note that in some cases refugees can be better off than the host community due to 'hand-outs' they get. 
• Importantly in terms of education, 46% of the world's refugees were under 18 at the end of 2011.
• The top five major source countries of refugees were Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, Sudan, and DRC.
• Voluntary repatriation remains the durable solution which has benefited the most refugees. The question needs to be asked if all of these repatriations have truly been voluntary however, or whether these refugees have had little choice e.g. because of camp closures. Also, in terms of education, the focus on repatriation can result in the reproduction of poor educational practice due to the focus upon using the home country curriculum.
  
  

Unless I've missed it, I couldn't see much mention of education in the report. To read the report in full, you can get it here.

P.S. If you're on Twitter, you can follow the blog @GEDBlog

Review of UNHCR's Education Strategy 2012-2016

UNHCR recently released its Education Strategy for 2012-2016 and promises a greater focus upon education in its areas of work. Below are the main points of the strategy, along with discussion of the positives and drawbacks of its approach.

Key points

Action 1: More children will learn better in primary school - linked to objective 1: Improve learning achievement for refugee children in primary school

Action 2: Schools will protect children and young people - to achieve objective 2: Ensure that schools are safe learning environments for refugee children and youth

Action 3: More young people will go to secondary school - to achieve objective 3: Improve access to formal secondary opportunities for refugee youth

Action 4: More youth will follow HE courses - linked to objective 4: Improve access to HE opportunities for refugee youth

Action 5: Education will be available at every age - to achieve objective 5: Ensure opportunities for education are lifelong and available to all according to need

Action 6: Education will be part of all emergency responses - linked to objective 6: Provide education as early as possible during an emergency

Priority countries from 2012-2013: Bangladesh, Chad, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Kenya, Malaysia, Pakistan, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, Uganda, Yemen

Positives and negatives

+ Focus upon post-primary education including HE

+ Recognising the importance of education in all emergency responses

+ Proposed capacity development of UNHCR staff to manage education programmes (UNHCR staff at present are not trained in this area)

- Objective 6 reproduces the discourse of implementing education programmes according to their current state as opposed to improving/adapting them

- All of the actions are dependent upon receiving adequate funding

- Rationale for priority countries is not publicly available (apart from the brief description in the strategy itself, which is not context-specific)

- The use of partnerships for implementing the proposed actions is not something new (at present, UNHCR rely upon education development organisations to implement education programmes)

- Although promising, none of the proposed measures are new - they have all been heard before with seemingly little impact

The development of this strategy is undoubtedly welcome. In fact some might argue it's long overdue. It seems time will tell if it is mere rhetoric or is likely to bring about significant positive impact upon the quality of education received by refugees in different contexts. I for one am going to be keeping a close eye on the outcomes - I'll do my best to keep you all posted. 

Read the complete Education Strategy 2012-2016.

Would be great to hear your initial reactions/comments/thoughts on the strategy - you can post your comments in the box below.   

Dadaab - 20 years on

Not all of the people living in the Dadaab camps arrived there as refugees. The compound is also home to some 10,000 third-generation refugees whose parents were also born in the camps.

Twenty years on from when it was first set up, the Dadaab refugee complex in northern Kenya houses close to half a million people. It was designed to host 90,000.

Twenty years on, and three generations later, the international community still defines a refugee situation as 'temporary'. Whilst we're dealing with semantics, I'll also mention that all funding is labelled aid; development - and therefore what is termed development assistance - is viewed as incompatible with such a sprawling complex. I talked of the progress required in refugee education in a previous post, and in the case of Dadaab, security issues remain the biggest challenge to providing sufficient assistance.

Twenty years on, repatriation remains the 'durable solution' advocated by UNHCR.

(Quote source: http://www.devex.com/en/news/dadaab-turns-20/77563)

Refugee camp schooling - should we be doing more?

Some highlights from UNHCR's (2011) Refugee Education Review: 

• Educating urban refugees requires different strategies to encamped refugees; 
• Access to post-primary schooling remains limited in camps; 
• Quality teachers are in short supply in camps; 
• Specialised educational knowledge amongst UNHCR staff and its partners is lacking;
• The quality of education - when it is received - leaves a lot to be desired, and is not an adequate precursor to the world of work.

In some cases, refugees are better off than their hosting nationals - see page 25 of the report for country examples. In many cases however, camp secondary school fees are a huge barrier to access (UNHCR's Review suggests Gross Enrolment Rate in camps is 37%).

Whilst limited scholarships are available to post-primary education in camps, this does not appear to be a sustainable option, or in fact one that builds local capacity. It is also important to note that UNHCR does not have its own education specialists and therefore relies on partnerships to fulfil this role.

17 years is the average length of a protracted refugee situation according to UNHCR, yet refugee circumstances are still categorised as 'temporary'. I'm left wondering how reconstruction of the home country is expected to take place upon repatriation (as the rhetoric goes), if education is the first provision to be cut when funds are low.

Full report available here.