Visibilizing Hierarchies: The Coloniality of Refugee and Asylum Seekers and Access to Education as an Epistemic Good in the Global North

• In Event: Sunday Roundtable Session 1:15 pm
  In Roundtable Session: Coloniality, Geopolitics of Knowledge and Subjectivities (Table 3)

Abstract

This paper seeks to problematize the privileging of whiteness encapsulating the preferential
treatment of Ukrainians over refugees from the Global South through a comparative analysis
of Europe’s response to two significant movements of asylum seekers across Europe: the
2015-2016 ‘migrant crises and the ongoing Russian aggression in Ukraine. The consequences of such differential treatment of asylum seekers have resulted in vastly inequitable access to education; as Ukrainian refugees are permitted to bypass the
asylum-seeking process altogether and are thus provided full access to primary, secondary
and higher education.

Author

• Zuhra Abawi, Niagara University - Ontario