Migrants and Comparative Education – Scope and Major Debates: International Perspectives

The aim of this book is to bring together new research and conceptualizations on education’s complex and evolving role in the immigration process in different contexts around the world, at different levels of education, and from different theoretical perspectives. It is hoped that by so doing a better understanding will emerge of the issues and challenges associated with immigration that can assist policy makers and practitioners.

The phenomenon of human migration is nothing new. Scientific research shows that humankind emanated in Africa and gradually migrated to other parts of the world. In recent centuries, Europeans migrated as settlers in the Americas and other parts of the world, causing internal population displacements in their new locations and leading to forced migration of other populations (Abel & Sander, 2014). Of particular significance are Africans in the Transatlantic Enslavement in the Americas and the Caribbean. The nineteenth century European colonial rule in Africa and part of Asia was associated with massive European re-settlement and local population displacements. In the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, migrations have been due to ongoing wars, genocide, persecution and natural disasters. Today, there are more than 60 million displaced people (refugees and internally displaced) in the world, among whom 1 out of 2 refugees is a minor and 75% of those that are in age to be in school are unable to do so.

There are immense challenges in international migration, especially when families migrating include women, children and seniors. The level of uncertainty is huge (Akay, Constant, Giulietti, & Guzi, 2017) in getting uprooted from one’s homeland and moving to an entirely new environment with different cultures, traditions, languages, food, dressing styles, and education systems, with limited or no source of living, at times with a totally different climate that may require substantial adjustments. During their journeys and at their new destinations, migrants carry their complex, intersectional social identifiers that affect their migration experiences (Brunello & Rocco, 2013). One of the most vulnerable groups in this transition is composed of children, who face an uncertain future without any responsibility in causes and decision to migrate, especially when their chances for access to education as a basic human right and an investment in the future are limited (Dustmann, Schönberg, & Stuhler, 2016).

This book will therefore provide a suitable platform for researchers in the field of comparative education to share their insights in dealing with this global challenge of both “involuntary” migration in terms of forced migration relating to fleeing for the preservation of basic physical security and “voluntary” migration in search of a decent or better life.