Exchange of knowledge and good practice to enhance the education of refugee and asylum seeking youth (RefuEdu)

The SIRIUS network project Exchange of knowledge and good practice to enhance the education of refugee and asylum seeking youth (RefuEdu) is a partnership between eight countries to address inadequate access to quality education for asylum-seeking and refugee youth throughout the European Union. The recent drastic rise in asylum applicants has placed increased pressure on Member States to develop strategies for effectively integrating new arrivals into society. Research has shown that education is one of the most important paths to the structural integration of young asylum seekers and refugees because they have particular social and emotional needs that quality education can help them overcome.

Despite this need, there is currently insufficient understanding of the challenges that these youth face and inadequate transnational sharing of knowledge regarding potential solutions. The project will contribute to filling these three gaps in the participating countries.

In doing so, the project is based on the project Multi-country Partnership to Enhance the Education of Refugee and Asylum-seeking Youth in Europe (PERAE) which analyses the challenges that refugee and asylum seeking youth face in accessing and succeeding in education from an empirical point of view. The findings compiled within national and a transnational comparative report will inform project RefuEdu will contribute to the initiation of transnational sharing of experience and good practice and to the development of policy and practice tools.

This will be implemented through:

• 3 transnational mutual learning activities in Germany, Netherlands and Bulgaria where stakeholders will learn and exchange about good practices in refugee education,
• A policy and practice Handbook on refugee and asylum seeker youth’ education with indicators to track the adoption and implementation of the recommendations, and
• An international dissemination conference in Brussels.

Time frame: September 2016 – April 2018
Partners: Fryshuset – leading partner, (Sweden), european forum for migration studies (Germany), Centre for Migration and Intercultural Studies at the University of Antwerp (Belgium), Leeds Beckett University (United Kingdom), Verikom (Germany), Risbo at Erasmus University Rotterdam (the Netherlands), University of Western Macedonia (Greece), Multi Kulti Collective (Bulgaria)
Funding: European Commission, DG Education and Culture, Erasmus+