What place the politics of compassion in education surrounding non‐citizen children?

Abstract

In this response to the article by Madeleine Arnot, Halleli Pinson, and Mano Candappa the author explores three issues that are key to the current refugee and education regimes in Britain. She addresses the association between the British state and the children living within its dominion, the role of education in contemporary British statecraft and the core values of the education system insofar as it concerns asylum‐seeking and refugee children. Building on the authors’ discussion of the role of compassion in education around non‐citizens, the author problematises this concept and examines some of the political and popular perceptions that are brought to bear in relation to this topic. In particular, she highlights how the interests of the modern state are vested in children and how, in line with this, government attention to instilling public morality in school pupils has centred on a nationalist ideology which excludes forced migrants. She argues that in a context in which a persistent moral and instrumental case is made against asylum‐seekers and refugees, teachers struggle against the odds to achieve the successful integration of these children within British schools.