Continuity of learning for newly arrived refugee children in Europe

This paper aims to provide an overview of the existing approaches of policies and initiatives for ensuring continuity of learning for refugees and asylum seekers, especially in Belgium (Flanders), Finland, Germany, Greece, the Netherlands, Sweden, the United Kingdom (UK), and Italy. The paper starts off with an overview of policies and legal frameworks for refugee education on the international level, the EU level and the level of Member States. The second section elaborates on the processes of arrival and transition from education in reception centres and camps into mainstream education, particularly in regard to school arrangements from reception to mainstream schooling, quality of teaching, additional support, housing arrangements and segregation, information and connections with prior education, and funding. The third section is dedicated to the inclusion of refugees into vocational, higher and adult education, and the fourth section to the cooperation of multiple stakeholders involved in the education of refugees. Each subsection identifies the strategies that function in the countries analysed. The final section provides an overview of the identified obstacles and challenges for the continuity of learning for newly arrived refugee children.