Refugee Children Research Articles

PROBLEMS OF SOCIALIZATION OF DISPLACED CHILDREN WITH DISABILITIES

The REACH project at Kh. Dosmukhamedov Atyrau University is a unique experience that has created a model of educational space and programs for displaced children with disabilities. The children’s parents, school teachers, school psychologists, and volunteers took part in the project and provided methodological support. The purpose of the article is to identify the problems of socialization of refugee children with special educational needs on the basis of the research conducted in the framework of the research project. In the framework of an international partnership project for 2021-2024, scientists from Simon Fraser University (Canada), Yarmouk University (Jordan), and Canakkale University (Turkey) carried out significant work with displaced children from the war zone for their successful socialization, education, and provision of necessary educational resources. Project participants from Atyrau University (RK) conducted a series of research activities with special children from several refugee families who returned from Syria. On the base of Kids University (Kh. Dosmukhamedov Atyrau University) student volunteers demonstrated the effectiveness of introducing elements of fine art into the learning process for displaced children with disabilities. In addition, the use of musical and dramatic elements enhances interest in learning and motivates the expression of immediate emotions, contributing to the overall therapy of students. This article emphasizes the importance of advisory and methodological support for refugee children, and the results of the scientific research will become valuable material for scientists in this field.

Peran United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) dalam Menangani Pemenuhan Hak Anak-Anak Pengungsi Rohingya di Bangladesh Tahun 2017-2023

The refugee crisis experienced by Bangladesh due to the mass exodus of Rohingya refugees fleeing ethnic conflict in Myanmar is one of the largest refugee issues in the world. This crisis needs to be addressed immediately as it can threaten the lives of both the local population and the refugees themselves. Overcrowded shelters, housing nearly 1 million refugees with half of the population being children, increase the risk of disease transmission and violence, which can be a deadly combination for children. Therefore, to tackle the refugee problem, especially in fulfilling the rights of Rohingya children in Bangladesh, international actors' assistance is urgently needed. One of the organizations involved is UNICEF. UNICEF strives to provide aid in line with its capabilities and functions as an international organization focused on children and women. The aid provided by UNICEF is in the form of foreign aid or humanitarian assistance, divided into two types: material assistance and technical assistance. Material assistance includes the provision of clean water, food, hygiene supplies, education, and shelter. Technical assistance is provided through protection, training, and counseling. In its efforts to meet the needs of Rohingya refugee children, UNICEF has established the "UNICEF’s Humanitarian Action for Children in Bangladesh: Rohingya Influx" program, covering several sectors, including Child Protection, Health, Education, Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH), and Nutrition. The humanitarian assistance provided aligns with the stipulations of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) regarding the fulfillment of the rights of refugee children.

Rohingya Refugee Education in Malaysia: An Analysis of Current Standards and Challenges

The Rohingyas, the longest-standing stateless refugees in Malaysia, are continuously denied access to formal education. The UN Refugee Agency and local non-government organizations run learning centers that offer non-formal education to Rohingya children. Existing literature highlights that, in the absence of formal openings, alternative educational programmes remain the main provider of refugee education in Malaysia. This study, using the Inter-Agency Network for Education in Emergencies' five-domain framework, examines the educational standards provided to Rohingya refugees in Malaysia. The findings suggest that most learning centers lack financial, human, and infrastructural resources. Lack of opportunity for secondary schooling makes primary education less worth it. Moreover, prevailing cultural and religious norms make it challenging for Rohingya children (especially girls) to access educational opportunities outside the community. National examinations and academic accreditation for learning are inaccessible to refugees, including Rohingyas. This paper deliberates on some immediate and long-term measures that can potentially address these issues. However, all actors, including UNHCR and the Malaysian government, must collaborate towards formulating a sustainable solution to this critical problem.

Refugee youth’s perspective on the role that food insecurity plays in a healthy community: a photovoice project

PurposeFood insecurity is a major public health concern, especially for refugee families. Despite the growing population of refugee families in the USA and the harmful effects on youth’s health and well-being, there are limited qualitative studies exploring food insecurity among US refugee adolescents. The use of community-based participatory research and photovoice can highlight the strength of gathering and sharing underrepresented and disadvantaged group experiences. The purpose of this study was to understand adolescent refugee's food insecurity perspectives and experiences, with a nutrition and food access focus. Three main themes and nine subthemes emerged around the role that food security plays in a healthy, thriving community. The main themes included food must be more accessible in school; importance of food access in one’s community; and food access and creating a vibrant community. Implications regarding how to apply these results with community and school-based food programs are discussed.Design/methodology/approachThis study followed a phenomenological research approach to understand the experiences of refugee youth and what constitutes healthy food access in a community. Data analysis was conducted using Braun and Clarke’s (2006) thematic analysis to ensure that data saturation was met (Guest et al., 2006).FindingsThe thematic analysis of the photovoice methodological approach revealed three main themes and nine subthemes around the role that food security plays in a healthy and thriving community. These themes are as follows: food must be more accessible in school; importance of food access in one’s community; and food access and creating a vibrant community.Research limitations/implicationsFunding resources limited the duration of meeting in which we could meet and discuss the photo’s students were taking. Second, consistent with phenomenological studies, the sample size was small. However, common sample size for studies using a phenomenological approach ranged from 5 to 25 (Creswell et al., 2007), which is in alignment with this study. Next, while participants did receive training in the SHOWeD method, the photography training was limited to only one hour. Despite the limited training, participants felt they had sufficient knowledge and skills to take the necessary pictures.Practical implicationsThis study provides important policy implications for school-based food programs, such as food pantries and free or reduced school meals, and how it plays an important role in refugee youth’s well-being and education. Based on feedback from the study participants, many school-based food programs were considered not available or easily accessible, and that youth and their families were often unaware of programs available to them. This study revealed the important role schools can play in ensuring food security among refugee youth and their families as well as for refugee youth to reach their full potential equitably.Originality/valueThis study used a creative research approach that integrates photovoice as a means to elevate the voices of a marginalized populations. This approach has been identified as one of the most culturally appropriate method when working with refugee children and youth (Pieloch et al., 2016). Second, the study included having multiple meetings, that recruited from previously established partnerships. This form of community building and activism elevates participants voices (Catalani and Minkler, 2009). Finally, this study used a cycle of photography and discussion and held a final public photo exhibition for both the participant’s community and its influential leaders (Catalani and Minkler, 2009; Evans-Agnew and Rosemberg, 2016). The results of this study have important policy implications for schools and communities.

Varied Prevalence of Antimalarial Drug Resistance Markers in Different Populations of Newly Arrived Refugees in Uganda.

Newly arrived refugees offer insights into malaria epidemiology in their countries of origin. We evaluated asymptomatic refugee children within 7 days of arrival in Uganda from South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in 2022 for parasitemia, parasite species, and Plasmodium falciparum drug resistance markers. Asymptomatic P. falciparum infections were common in both populations. Coinfection with P. malariae was more common in DRC refugees. Prevalences of markers of aminoquinoline resistance (PfCRT K76T, PfMDR1 N86Y) were much higher in South Sudan refugees, of antifolate resistance (PfDHFR C59R and I164L, PfDHPS A437G, K540E, and A581G) much higher in DRC refugees, and of artemisinin partial resistance (ART-R; PfK13 C469Y and A675V) moderate in both populations. Prevalences of most mutations differed from those seen in Ugandans attending health centers near the refugee centers. Refugee evaluations yielded insights into varied malaria epidemiology and identified markers of ART-R in 2 previously little-studied countries.

Coloniality and Refugee Education in the United States

In this paper, we demonstrate the ways in which the schooling of refugee youth in the United States reflects ongoing coloniality in education. Drawing on data collected in a case study, conducted between 2013 and 2016, as part of a larger ongoing ethnography of a Southwest United States District school’s response to refugee students, we show how the enactment of policies, pedagogies, and practices within schools reinforce the government’s control over refugee students and their families. In schools, the students are kept out of certain school spaces, marginalized in remedial courses, and denied academic opportunities and integrated support services. Using empirical data, we demonstrate how the restriction of the students’ movement in and around schools is embedded within the larger limitations embedded in coloniality and assimilation. We situate our analysis within the tensions and interactions between coloniality, assimilation, and neoliberalism as articulated in studies within anthropology and sociology, migration studies, critical refugee studies, and cultural studies. We conclude with a call for the decolonization of education and offer a practical starting point in refugee education.

Hopeful futures for refugees in higher education: cultivation, activation, and technology

This paper discusses hopeful futures for higher education and the use of technology in realising those futures through the lens of refugee education in Uganda. Through an analysis of qualitative research done with refugee students and teachers participating in a blended bridging programme designed to prepare students for entry and success in higher education, this paper explores the interplay between contingency and positions of hope for refugee students in relation to higher education and further assimilation into civic society. Two themes emerged from the analysis that suggested a prioritarian orientation for higher education to realise a more hopeful future. First, hope renders as an act of cultivation as refugee students become exposed to new concepts and develop confidence in relation to them. Second, digital technologies broaden the cultivation of hope towards greater civic participation, even if access to higher education is not achieved. Third, hope correlates to action not necessarily as a linear progressive trajectory but as a diligent watchfulness for positive possibility. The implications for higher education are that taking a prioritarian lens for refugees in educational design engages with the contingencies that impact all, placing the sector deliberately in search of positive possibility in its orientation and design.

Alternative Augmentative Communication in paediatric dentistry: a mighty tool to amplify mother tongue's power.

The role of a child's mother tongue in shaping his/her identity and emotional development is crucial. In the context of paediatric dentistry, this principle should always be reminded. The child's right to effective communication, even when a language barrier exists, is a fundamental principle, as recently stated in the 'Rights from the Start' rights fact sheet. Preserving a child's native language in the dental setting, especially in the context of an increasingly diverse society with a significant number of refugee children, is essential. Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) strategies can assist in bridging language gaps and improving treatment outcomes, blending with the traditional approaches used in paediatric dentistry. The article promotes flexibility, innovation, and empathy in paediatric dentistry to provide optimal care and ensure that every child's rights are respected. • The relationship with one's mother language plays a central role in children's growth and in the relationship they can develop with the world, "motherised" by the words of the caregiver. • The interaction between immigrant children from different linguistic and cultural backgrounds and dentists providing their care requires the integration of traditional paediatric dental techniques with AAC strategies that can compensate for deficient oral communication. • Dentists treating immigrant children should follow the suggestions proposed in this article to establish the best and most tailored paediatric setting for the child's specific needs.

Reclaiming the Border Narrative: Refugee Children as Victim, Witness, and Agent in Valeria Luiselli’s Lost Children Archive

Valeria Luiselli’s 2019 novel Lost Children Archive records and reimagines visa-less migrant children’s encounters with hostile borders, while also challenging the logic and legality of border policy, a set of neocolonial practices that allows former colonial powers to continue their control over the mobility of bodies and epistemologies from the Global South. In an interview with The New Yorker about her novel, Luiselli commented on the role of narrative in conceptualizing and achieving justice when the law fails to deliver or denies justice: “Perhaps the only way to grant any justice—were that even possible—is by hearing and recording those stories over and over again so that they come back, always, to haunt and shame us.” 1 Luiselli thus highlights not only the power of storytelling in delivering justice otherwise denied, but also its ability to generate a moral, emotional, and intellectual response in its audience. This paper analyzes how Luiselli employs “factional” 2 narrative to “haunt and shame us,” question existing border policies, and grant authorial and narrative justice in the absence of institutional or legal justice through the extended metaphor of children on the move. I introduce the concept of “tripartite subjectivity” in analyzing how Luiselli’s factional children are, on the one hand, victims of and witnesses to the violence perpetrated by border laws, and, on the other hand, agents who challenge and reinterpret hostile borders, transforming the static border into a site of epistemic rupture. The tripartite subjectivity of Luiselli’s lost children provide a model via which characters who have been deprived of what Thomas Nail calls “socially determined status” (and thereby are rejected border access due to their inability to contribute to the state’s kinopolitical expansion) reclaim both fictional and epistemological borders through a reverse kinopolitics of what I term “bordered expansion by archive.”

Optimizing Early Diagnosis of Infectious Diseases in Migrant and Refugee Children: An Overview of Best Practices and Strategies.

Optimizing Early Diagnosis of Infectious Diseases in Migrant and Refugee Children: An Overview of Best Practices and Strategies.

Supporting the educational integration of young people seeking asylum and refuge: examining good practices from Germany, Sweden and England

ABSTRACT The educational integration of Newly Arrived Migrant and Refugee (NAMR) children and youth in a host country is complex. It requires educational systems responding to their diverse needs. Some of these needs are exacerbated by NAMR young people and their families’ limited understanding of the host country’s policies, structures, and procedures. Amidst these complexities, policy makers, practitioners, and other stakeholders strive for guidance in developing effective interventions that are transferable across different settings. This paper builds on the good practices that were identified and exchanged between seven partnering countries from Europe and the UK in 2017–18 as part of SIRIUS network’s RefuEdu project. Researchers, policymakers, and practitioners shared good practices that were grounded in their knowledge, experience, and examples. A set of core principles and individual sets of good practices are highlighted with action steps from the contexts of Germany, Sweden and England (UK). This may assist policy makers and practitioners in comprehending the challenges and opportunities within the educational integration of NAMR children and youth. The implications are for strengthening their holistic integration alongside positive educational experiences and advancing further research.

Integrative strategies for social inclusion and equity: Enhancing refugee access to higher education in Jordan

Incorporating sustainability principles into refugee education, an often overlooked yet crucial domain is pivotal for future societal development. Focusing on UNHCR's directive in Jordan, this research delves into the nuances of elevating refugee enrollment in higher education to 15 % by 2030. The study identifies significant challenges through empirical and theoretical lenses, such as financial impediments, infrastructural deficits, and socio-cultural deterrents. A multi-layered solution is proposed: instituting targeted scholarship programs, bolstering institutional capacities for diverse learners, leveraging digital education platforms, and fostering global educational partnerships. By strategically enhancing higher education opportunities for refugees, nations harness a richer tapestry of skilled human capital and underscore a commitment to holistic sustainability, inclusivity, and equity.

Environmental Justice in the Context of Access to Urban Green Spaces for Refugee Children

Accessible and high-quality urban green space (UGS) can provide significant benefits to refugee children for their development, health, and well-being. However, few studies have examined the actual accessibility of UGS from refugee children’s perspectives (i.e., with restricted walking radius, particular vulnerability towards barriers such as traffic infrastructures and disconnected road forms) and related them with other environmental or social burdens under the context of environmental justice. It is necessary to explore related evidence and investigate the underlying causes since refugee facilities are primarily located in areas with restricted social and environmental resources strongly related to attributes of environmental justice. This paper investigated (1) availability, accessibility, and attractiveness of UGS in 30 refugee accommodation locations in Berlin using GIS and Space Syntax, (2) environmental burdens using the Berlin Atlas of Environmental Justice, and (3) neighbourhood characteristics. Findings indicate that 63% of refugee accommodations have availability of green space that is above average official standards, but from refugee children’s perspectives, 60% of the locations have limited access to UGS, lower attractive green spaces, and most locations face multi-environmental burdens. Currently, little guidance focuses on ensuring equal access to and the usability of UGS for specific socioeconomic and demographic groups, such as refugee children. Therefore, this paper has contributed empirical materials to begin such research and develop inclusive decision-making strategies in environmental and health policy to ensure the provision and high quality of UGS for refugee children who need it.

Resilience and Positive Wellbeing Experienced by 5-12-Year-Old Children with Refugee Backgrounds in Australia: The Childhood Resilience Study.

Refugee research tends to be deficit based and focused on the risks threatening positive adaptation and wellbeing. High rates of mental (and physical) health issues have been reported for refugee adults and children, including intergenerational trauma. This study uses the new Child Resilience Questionnaire (CRQ), co-designed with refugee background communities, to describe resilience and positive wellbeing experienced by children of refugee-background. The Childhood Resilience Study (CRS) recruited 1132 families with children aged 5-12 years in Victoria and South Australia, Australia. This included the recruitment of 109 families from 4 refugee background communities: Assyrian Chaldean (Iraq, Syria), Hazara (Afghanistan), Karen (Burma, Thailand) and Sierra Leonean families. CRQ-parent/caregiver report (CRQ-P/C) scores were categorised into 'low', 'moderate' and 'high'. The child's emotional and behavioural wellbeing was assessed with the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire, with positive wellbeing defined as <17 on the total difficulties score. Tobit regression models adjusted for a child's age. The CRQ-P/C scores were not different for boys and girls of refugee background. Children of refugee-background (n = 109) had higher average CRQ-P/C scores than other CRS children (n = 1023) in the personal, school and community domains, but were lower in the family domain. Most children with 'high' resilience scores had positive wellbeing for both children of refugee-background (94.6%) and other CRS children (96.5%). Contrary to common stereotypes, children of refugee-background show specific individual, family, school and cultural strengths that can help them navigate cumulative and complex risks to sustain or develop their positive wellbeing. A better understanding as to how to build strengths at personal, family, peer, school and community levels where children are vulnerable is an important next step. Working in close collaboration with refugee communities, schools, policy makers and key service providers will ensure the optimal translation of these findings into sustainable practice and impactful public policy.

A Screening Instrument for Trauma-Related Behavior Among Young Primary School Students: Development and Validation of the RaPTOSS

This article reports on the development and psychometric evaluation of a new teacher observation instrument to systematically assess young primary school students’ well-being and detect potential indicators of psychological trauma, the RaPTOSS: Risk and Protective factors Trauma Observation School Situations. The RaPTOSS is developed specifically for preschool and early primary school teachers, because of the limited abilities their young students have to verbally reflect and report on their well-being and stressful experiences. We examined the factor structure, internal consistency, convergent validity and criterion validity of the RaPTOSS in a sample of 406 4- to 8-year-old regular education students. Exploratory factor analyses yielded a four-factor structure for the risk items with the following factors: Withdrawn, Dysphoria, Destructive and Inattentive. The protective factor items revealed a four-factor structure closely aligning the theoretical factor structure: Safety and Relations, Self-Image, Everyday Life and Self-Regulation. All factors exhibited good to excellent internal consistency. Correlations between the RaPTOSS and existing measures of psychosocial well-being without a specific focus on trauma-related behavior demonstrated good convergent validity. Criterion validity was supported, as indicated by moderate to large positive correlations between teacher worries about a student and RaPTOSS risk factors, and moderate to large negative correlations between teacher worries and RAPTOSS protective factors. We conclude that the RaPTOSS is a promising measure for trauma-informed teaching and research, although future research is needed to establish its psychometric qualities in specific samples such as children diagnosed with PTSD and refugee children.

Cognitive, social, and mental health functions of refugee children – screening and supportive actions at school: a study protocol

BackgroundDespite a world-leading educational system, an achievement gap in educational outcomes exists between children of refugee background and native-born peers in Finland. To offer targeted support for children at schools, we need to be able to reliably assess and understand the interplay of the aspects of children’s cognitive, social, and mental health functions that may explain the underachievement of refugee children.This study tests a novel research-based, universally applicable screening battery for evaluating cognitive, social, and mental health functioning of children at schools and planning supportive actions. It aims to answer research questions about a) the cognitive, social, and mental health functioning of refugee children compared with non-refugee immigrant and native-born children, b) the interplay of these different functions among refugee and other children, c) whether implementing a screening battery can inform schools in planning supportive actions for (refugee) children, and d) whether such supportive actions result in improvements in cognitive, social, and mental health functioning.MethodsFour hundred fifty children aged 10–12 will be recruited from primary schools, including 150 children of refugee background, 150 of non-refugee immigrant background, and 150 native-born Finnish children. A screening battery including tasks and questionnaires on different aspects of cognitive, social, and mental health functioning will be used to assess the children in their classrooms at the start and end of a school year. Supporting information will also be collected from parents and teachers. The information gathered will be collated into class-level feedback reports for teachers and, with parental permission, individualized reports for multiprofessional student welfare bodies, for informing supportive actions. Correlational and latent profile analyses, ANOVAs, and linear regression will be used to answer the research questions.DiscussionThis study will help clarify how the interplay of cognitive, social, and mental health factors may explain underachievement at school among refugee children. It will provide evidence about the extent to which a standardized screening battery could be helpful in informing and planning supportive actions for children at schools, and whether such supportive actions can lead to positive cognitive, social, or mental health outcomes.Trial registrationThe study will be preregistered on the Open Science Framework.

Design and Development Research: Kounin Refugee Classroom Management Module for Limbongan Refugee Learning Centre

The purpose of this study is to design and develop a classroom management module based on the six strategies of Kounin Model for Limbongan Refugee Learning Centre (LRLC) Melaka. The study employs three-phased Design and Development Research (DDR), a multi- method design. In the first phase, a review of literature on refugee education and Needs Analysis was conducted at LRLC to explore their lacks, wants and needs through focus group discussion. The data was collected and analysed utilizing deductive Thematic Analysis manually. Thus, the finding was that the novice teachers do require material and training in to effectively manage refugee classrooms since they lack the necessary abilities. This therefore led to the second phase of DDR, in which a module was created namely, Kounin Refugee Classroom Management Module (KRCMM) by incorporating the six strategies of the Kounin Classroom Management Model (KCMM). During the designing and development of the Kounin Classroom Management Module (KRCMM), ten experts were engaged to conduct preliminary content validation of the draft. To get to experts’ consensus, KRCMM had to go through three rounds of fuzzy Delphi. According to the findings, every item had an expert agreement percentage of 90% or higher, that item defuzzification values were more than α - cut = 0.8, and that all items had Threshold (d) &lt; 0.2 values. This indicates that every item has been maintained and has garnered expert consensus. While in the third stage, the perceived usefulness and ease of use of KRCMM were examined from the perspectives of six LRLC participants. Thematic Analysis was used to gather and analyze data inductively utilizing QDA Miner, an analytical tool. According to usability test result, KRCMM was deemed useful and easy to use by five out of six participants

The Human Side of Digital Technology: Supporting the Inclusion of Refugees in Higher Education Through Blockchain-backed EQPR

The spectrum of digital technologies that impact Higher Education (HE) is broad. This study explores the potential of Blockchain (BC) technology in the personalized learning path creation and data exchange in the learning processes. The flexibilization of education and digitizing student data through Blockchain may contribute to a more inclusive and sustainable HE system. According to the EU, the Blockchain supports sustainability in four main aspects: cybersecurity, accountability, transparency, and traceability. These aspects are also a driver of social impact and a higher capacity to include disadvantaged groups, such as refugees. Therefore, it is essential to start a debate between scholars and professionals about how the actors in the HE system engage in a collective meaning-making effort to sustain the adoption, diffusion, and use of BC for HE. The paper focuses on the experience of CIMEA DiploMe and EQPR for the recognition of refugees' qualifications. Through a collective consensus-making and awareness-raising effort, the blockchain-backed EQPR could be perceived as a critical tool to foster inclusion within the HEIs and enhance their social outreach.

The role of environmental sensitivity in the mental health of Syrian refugee children: a multi-level analysis

Individuals with high environmental sensitivity have nervous systems that are disproportionately receptive to both the protective and imperilling aspects of the environment, suggesting their mental health is strongly context-dependent. However, there have been few consolidated attempts to examine putative markers of sensitivity, across different levels of analysis, within a single cohort of individuals with high-priority mental health needs. Here, we examine psychological (self-report), physiological (hair hormones) and genetic (polygenic scores) markers of sensitivity in a large cohort of 1591 Syrian refugee children across two waves of data. Child-caregiver dyads were recruited from informal tented settlements in Lebanon, and completed a battery of psychological instruments at baseline and follow-up (12 months apart). Univariate and multivariate Bayesian linear mixed models were used to examine a) the interrelationships between markers of sensitivity and b) the ability of sensitivity markers to predict anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and externalising behaviour. Self-reported sensitivity (using the Highly Sensitive Child Scale) significantly predicted a higher burden of all forms of mental illness across both waves, however, there were no significant cross-lagged pathways. Physiological and genetic markers were not stably predictive of self-reported sensitivity, and failed to similarly predict mental health outcomes. The measurement of environmental sensitivity may have significant implications for identifying and treating mental illness, especially amongst vulnerable populations, but clinical utility is currently limited to self-report assessment.

The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic in the Inclusion of Refugee Students in Greek Schools: Pre-Service Teachers’ Views about Distance Learning

Over the last two years, the prolonged massive school closure due to COVID-19 has provoked significant constraints for refugee children. The present study aimed to investigate the perceptions of Greek pre-service teachers on refugee education during the COVID-19 pandemic. A questionnaire was addressed to 32 native university students (n = 32) who attended Education Departments in Western Macedonia in Greece. The results showed that the prevalence of distance education affected pre-service teachers’ perceptions. The access to devices with internet capability as well as the cultural barriers was considered to be crucial factors for the school attendance of refugee children. Participants’ perceptions of the level of teacher preparation in a distance learning environment were related to their level of self-efficacy for supporting refugee students. The findings suggest that in the aftermath of COVID-19 pandemic, the international community should make efforts to ensure the school attendance of all refugee students.