Refugee children
[6] Although many communities around the world have welcomed them, forcibly displaced children and their families often face discrimination, poverty, and social marginalization in their home, transit, and destination countries.
[103] Refugee children often have to handle discrimination, low socioeconomic status, have no family, or come to a setting that clashes with their cultural beliefs leading to behavioral issues teachers are not always prepared for.
For instance, the African Union has agreed on a definition at the 1969 Refugee Convention, that also accommodates people affected by external aggression, occupation, foreign domination, and events seriously disturbing public order.
[15] Other international legal tools for the protection refugee children include two of the Protocols supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime which reference child migration: Additionally the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families covers the rights of the children of migrant workers in both regular and irregular situations during the entire migration process.
[1] The experience of traveling from one country to another is much more difficult for women and children, because they are more vulnerable to assaults and exploitation by people they encounter at the border and in refugee camps.
[34] Many unaccompanied children fleeing from conflict zones in Moldova, Romania, Ukraine, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, China, Afghanistan or Sri Lanka are forced into sexual exploitation.
[5] Some refugee camps operate at levels below acceptable standards of environmental health; overcrowding and a lack of wastewater networks and sanitation systems are common.
[48] For instance, the majority of refugees and migrants who arrived in Europe in 2015 through mid-2016 were accommodated in overcrowded transit centers and informal settlements, where privacy and access to education and health services were often limited.
[1] In some accommodation centers in Germany and Sweden, where asylum seekers stayed until their claims were processed, separate living spaces for women, as well as sex-separated latrines and shower facilities, were unavailable.
[59] The United Kingdom also established a new initiative in 2016 to support the resettlement of vulnerable refugee children from the Middle East and North Africa, regardless of family separation status.
[62] Nearly half of a sample of refugee children who arrived to the American state of Washington, the majority of which were from Iraq, Somalia, and Burma, were found to have at least one form of malnutrition.
Community-based health workers are also going around the camps to share information on the risks of acute watery diarrhea, the cholera vaccination campaign, and the importance and necessity of good hygiene practices.
[80] Refugee children are extremely vulnerable during migration and resettlement, and may experience long-term pathological effects, due to "disrupted development time".
Fear of authority and a lack of awareness regarding mental health issues prevent refugee children and their families from seeking medical help.
[90] Since children and adolescents have a greater capacity to adopt their host country's language and cultural practices, they are often used as linguistic intermediaries between service providers and their parents.
[91] Patients may receive a different translator for each of their follow-up appointments with their mental healthcare providers, which means that refugees need to recount their story via multiple interpreters, further compromising confidentiality.
[107] Graham, Minhas, and Paxton (2016) note in their study that parents' misunderstandings about educational styles, teachers' low expectations and stereotyping tendencies, bullying and racial discrimination, pre-migration and post-migration trauma, and forced detention can all be risk factors for learning problems in refugee children.
[113]: p.189 The ability to enroll in school and continue one's studies in developing countries is limited and uneven across regions and settings of displacement, particularly for young girls and at the secondary levels.
[118] Schools are also protection for refugee and immigrant children who are particularly vulnerable to trafficking and other forms of violence and forced labor due to a lack of knowledge of their host societies.
Refugee children who live in large urban centers in North America have a higher rate of success at school, particularly because their families have greater access to additional social services that can help address their specific needs.
[citation needed] Acculturation stress occurs in North America when families expect refugee youth to remain loyal to ethnic values while mastering the host culture in school and social activities.
[122] Increased school involvement and social interaction with other students help refugee children combat depression and/or other underlying mental health concerns that emerge during the post-migration period.
The study analyzing this program demonstrates that this success was achieved by addressing the specific needs of immigrant students, supporting their English language learning through providing them with more personalized instruction, adapting the curriculum to be culturally relevant, and creating an environment of inter-student collaboration.
[141] Studies performed by Koyama and Chang in Arizona show that refugee students benefit from programs which appreciate, rather than seek to eradicate, their cultural and ethnic backgrounds, forging ties between their identities and new experiences.
[148] Another study found that, while teachers supported the prospect of reconciliation, ideological and practical concerns made them uncertain about the effective implementation of a peace education program.
[149] Refugees fall into a unique situation where the nation-state may not adequately address their educational needs, and the international relief system is tasked with the role of a "pseudo-state" in developing a curriculum and pedagogical approach.
As vulnerable populations, marginalized by language, ethnicity, religion and class, refugees can find support in community based organizations as stated by that paper.
[162] One extracurricular program that the study detailed involved bringing in local community members to interact with the refugee children for the purpose of exposing them to the real world.
[163] The study states that the inclusivity of schools can be improved by increasing the cultural basis of recreational support, more diverse cafeteria food, and prayer rooms for Muslim students.
[180] While it was reported in 2013 that 26 percent of all Syrian refugees in Jordan had impaired physical, intellectual, or sensory abilities, such data specifically for children do not exist.
