Teachers with a Background of Forced Migration

Meredith Bannon
SOC 523: Immigration
Final Paper Presentation
April 18, 2019
 Outline for Literature Review
• Research Questions
• European Context
• Themes from Literature (and SOC 523)
• Theoretical Frame
• Deskilling of Migrants
• Consequences for Destination Countries
• Research Gaps
 Research Questions
1. What are the lived experiences of teachers with a background of forced migration
as they navigate their professional integration in destination countries?
2. How are these experiences different than teachers with a background of voluntary
migration?
3. What policies are necessary to ensure the successful integration of teachers with a
background of forced migration?
 European Context

• An increase in the number of forced immigrants arriving in Europe

• “The European humanitarian crisis, or as it is commonly termed ‘refugee crisis’ (a label which clearly
identifies the refugees as the source of the problem), intensified in 2015 with a dramatic increase in the
number of migrant-refugees seeking asylum in the European Union…following the conflicts in Syria and
Iraq” (Dvir, Morris, and Yemini, 2018, p. 1)
• “It must be acknowledged that education systems around the world increasingly struggle to respond to
forced migration flows… Destination countries…struggle to respond to an influx of students and teachers.
Displaced teachers in these difficult circumstances often face obstacles to staying in the profession.”
(Caravatti, Lederer, Lupico, A Meter, 2014, p. 9)
• European Teacher Shortage?
• Varies across Europe with the majority of countries facing a shortage due to an increase in pupils, an aging
workforce, and a lack of attraction to the profession (Stevenson, Milner, and Winchip, 2018)
 Theoretical Framework

Social (Cultural) Capital Theory (Bourdieu)

Migrant Network Theory (Massey)
World Systems Theory (Wallerstein)
Refugee Theory?
• Castles, S. (2003). Towards a Sociology of Forced Migration. Sociology, 37(1),
13–24.
• Ager, A., & Strang, A. (2008). Understanding integration: A conceptual
framework. Journal of Refugee Studies, 21(2), 166–191.
 Deskilling of Teachers
Refugee Teachers Program, University of Potsdam (2015- present)
Refugee teachers are confronted with the fundamental problem that they can not use their skills to the same
extent as teachers with German vocational qualifications. The path to the teaching profession for teachers with a
foreign professional qualification, especially if it was acquired in countries outside the European Union, is long.
 Deskilling of Teachers

• “One-third of deterioration in earnings among recent immigrants is due to failure to recognize foreign
labour market experience, a situation that appears ‘almost exclusively in non-traditional source countries.’
These practices of deskilling result in downward social mobility for highly skilled immigrants…. Deskilling
occurs when immigrants ‘whose foreign education and credentials are not recognized…lose access to the
occupations they previously held’” (Creese, Wiebe, 2012, p. 58)
 Deskilling of Teachers

• “Receiving governments rarely plan to incorporate forced migrant teachers into the labour market. New
influxes of forced migrants represent a potential drain to the nation’s finances and the local or receiving
population may resent or resist new arrivals, all of which may discourage receiving countries from
recognising credentials. When displaced teachers cannot find work in education, or struggle with financially
untenable situations, they often leave the profession, resulting in deskilling and the loss of a valuable pool
of qualified labour.” (Caravatti et al., 2014, p. 78)
• “Forced migrant teachers face sudden, drastic, unexpected and uncontrollable changes in their
circumstances. The removal of options and agency is disempowering, disorienting and disheartening.
Teachers’ power to negotiate is reduced, their access to information curtailed, their entry into the labour
market may be barred – at least to the formal market – and they may not be at all prepared for the sudden
change in their situation…. their professional qualifications may be lost or not recognized.” (Penson and
Yonemura, 2011, p. 157)
Consequences for Destination Countries
 Consequences for Destination Countries
These programs come with a tax burden (Hanson, 2009)
• Irish program is funded by the Department of Justice and Equality
• German programs (both Potsdam and Cologne) are funded by the Ministry of
Science, Research, and Culture and the German Academic Exchange Service

Alleviate Teacher Shortage (Hollifield, 2004, Massey). What assets do they bring?
• “Apart from filling positions during acute labour shortages, in what other ways do migrant
teachers contribute to the education system of receiving countries? In particular, a better
understanding of the role of migrant teachers in relation to migrant students and their parents
is important.” (Bense, 2016, p. 53)
 Gaps in the Literature
1. What are the lived experiences of teachers with a background of forced migration
as they navigate their professional integration in destination countries?
2. How are these experiences different than teachers with a background of voluntary
migration?
3. What policies are necessary to ensure the successful integration of teachers with a
background of forced migration?

Refugee Policies that

Labor Factors
Involved in Successfully
Market Limited
Integration Deskilling
Deskilling
(Theory?)
 References
Ager, A., & Strang, A. (2008). Understanding integration: A conceptual framework. Journal of Refugee Studies, 21(2), 166–191.
Bense, K. (2016). International teacher mobility and migration : The exploration of a global phenomenon. The University of
Western Australia.
Caravatti, M.-L., Lederer, S. M., Lupico, A., & Meter, N. Van. (2014). Getting Teacher Migration & Mobility Right. Education
International.
Castles, S. (2003). Towards a Sociology of Forced Migration. Sociology, 37(1), 13–24)
Creese, G., & Wiebe, B. (2012). “Survival employment”: Gender and deskilling among African immigrants in Canada. International
Migration, 50(5), 56–76. doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2435.2009.00531.x
Dvir, Y., Morris, P., & Yemini, M. (2018). What kind of citizenship for whom? The ‘refugee crisis’ and the European Union’s
conceptions of citizenship. Globalisation, Societies and Education, 1–12. doi.org/10.1080/14767724.2018.1525284
Erel, U. (2010). Migrating cultural capital: Bourdieu in migration studies. Sociology, 44(4), 642–660.
doi.org/10.1177/0038038510369363
Hanson, G. H. (2011). The Economic Consequences of the International Migration of Labor. Ssrn, 1(2009), 179–207.
doi.org/10.1146/annurev.economics.050708.143247
Hollifield, J. F. (2004). The Emerging Migration State. International Migration Review, 38(3), 885–912.
Kubicka, D., Wojciechowicz, A. A., & Vock, M. (2018). Zwischenbericht – Dokumentation zum Projekt „Refugee Teacher s
Program“.
Massey, D. S., Arango, J., Hugo, G., Kouaouci, A., Pellegrino, A., & Taylor, J. E. (1998). Worlds in Motion. Oxford University Press.
Penson, J., & Yonemura, A. (2011). Next Steps in Managing Teacher Migration. In Sixth Commonwealth Research Symposium on
Teacher Mobility, Recruitment and Migration. https://doi.org/10.14217/9781848591318-en