Students from Refugee and Asylum Seeker Backgrounds and Meaningful Participation in Higher Education: From Peripheral to Fundamental Concern

Abstract

For people who have experienced forced migration, the sense of agency, control, and forward momentum that can accompany engagement in higher education can become a vital driving force. In this special edition on educational engagement of students from refugee and asylum seeker backgrounds, we highlight how attention to higher education is crucial to understanding and improving their lives. We focus on the factors that support and constrain access and meaningful participation in higher education. Here, we describe the social context for discussions in the papers that follow. We outline current issues of concern in humanitarian and resettlement settings and how these contribute to an imbalance in the production of knowledge, which we seek to address in this special edition.