Highlighted Session: Reflection on the Field of Migration and Education - Part 1

Group Submission Type: Highlighted Paper Session

Proposal

Since the beginning of the 21st century we see a constant increase of global migration. Human mobility has also become more diverse in terms of its makeup, reasons for migration, the directions and migration statuses. 3.6% of the world’s population - some 281 million – are classified as migrants, around 50 million of them are children.

This poses both immediate and long-term challenges to how education systems plan, implement change and evolve. Education systems today need to shape their policies and practices also in the context of global migration.
However global migration should not only be seen as a disruptive force for education systems, but also as transformative and productive power. Global migration also means young people traversing different systems in search of global identities and knowledge, and economic opportunities. All in all, global human movement has shaped and is still reshaping education systems, our schools and other education institutions. In that respect it demands our scholarly attention.

However, despite the magnitude of global migration as a social phenomenon, and the impact it has for the future of millions of children and youth, and also on education systems and schools, the inter-disciplinary field of education and migration is still emerging. For instance, while the volume of research in the area is undoubtedly growing, there is still no research journal that focuses on education and migration, and only recently we saw the emergence of special interest groups (SIGs) on migration in international educational associations including the Global Migration SIG in CIES. There is still a need to identify key issues for research and to establish it as a distinct field of research.

This double session is divided into two parts: Symposium and Roundtables discussion.

Part I: Symposium
The first part, is a symposium which brings into conversation 5 scholars in the field of education and migration, with different theoretical perspectives and research experiences in order to generate meaningful and critical conversation with the audience on the state of the field of migration and education and how to move forward. It explores and reflects on the following themes:
a) What is the state of the art of the field of migration and education? What are the dominant theoretical and empirical perspectives?

b) What are the strengths and limitations in the field?

c) What are the solutions; what are the next steps we need to take?

The five participants: Manya Kagan, Jamie Lew, Cathryn Magno, Halleli Pinson, and Susan Thomas, will explore some of these questions from various theoretical, empirical, and methodological positions, suggesting the following directions for the field:
• How can make sure we take into account in our scholarship the complexity, intersections, and multidimensional levels of the migration processes and experiences on the ground. In advancing the field of global migration and education, how can we challenge the more traditional modes of studying migration, by grappling with interdisciplinary theories and methods, centering multifaceted and fluid dimensions of migration, and situating education as an integral part of the larger global systems of migration.

• How should we take into account the temporariness of todays’ migration and the non-linear nature of the migratory experiences. What sort of challenges this temporariness poses for the education of migration children? In that respect how we can develop a more spatial-temporal approach to the study of education and migration, bringing theories such as new mobility theories and concepts such as liminal legality into the field.

• How do we go beyond linear concepts such as assimilation and integration and economic models of human capital and social mobility? How do we challenge linear assimilative process, driven by economic models of social mobility and polarized by black and white racial paradigm?

• What does it mean to adopt an intersectional approach studying education and migration? In particular we need to pay attention to the role of migration statuses on their temporariness and the uncertainty they produce, for the education of migration children and for understanding their experiences.

• Despite the majority of migration movement takes place in the Global South, the field of education and migration tends to focus on the Global North and often tends to suffer from western biases. Moreover, there is a significant gap between Global North studies which often employ child-centered ethnographic approaches that highlight the classroom experiences of well-being and belonging, and the Global South, which often focuses on quantitative measurements of literacy and attendance. We need to ask how we avoid western biases in our scholarship, how do we ensure more we focus more on the experiences in the Global South and how we integrate voices Global South perspectives both empirically and theoretically, into our scholarship

• How the context of reception impact migrant children’s education and how we should account for it in our research

• What sort of methodologies we need to employ in order to move beyond ethnographic and phenomenological approaches and how can we bring to the field methodologies inspired by radical ecology, decolonial archeology or other future-oriented concepts.

• How do we attend more intentionally to the place of criticality as an intellectual framework? My remarks will reflect on the necessity of critical orientations within the field, the ways in which they have been deployed thus far, and what possibilities more political and social justice-centered approaches.

Sub Unit

• Global Migration SIG

Organizer

• Halleli Pinson, Ben-Gurion University

Chair

• Jamie Lew, Rutgers University-Newark

Discussants

• Manya Oriel Kagan, IIASA

• Cathryn Magno, University of Fribourg

• Susan Thomas, Syracuse University