Resettled refugee youth and education: aspiration and reality

This paper reports on research with 86 young refugees (aged 13–24 years) who were resettled to the UK between 2006 and 2010. Drawing on both quantitative and qualitative data we explore the educational aspirations and experiences of refugee youth, and how they negotiate post-compulsory education pathways. We find that despite the promise of educational opportunity and transformed life chances enshrined in the notion of refugee resettlement, many of the experiences and barriers to education are not dissimilar in kind to those facing refugee youth in countries of first asylum. Support for young refugees to make successful transitions into and through the education system is critical to their future lives and longer-term integration outcomes. The discussion is set within global discourses of refugee education and the literature of refugee education in the global north.