The purpose of this paper is to shed light on the pre-migration challenges experienced by Somali refugee students in refugee camp before resettling in Canada. The findings were drawn from a qualitative research that was designed to investigate the pre-migration and post-migration experiences of Somali refugee students attending English public schools in a southwestern city in Ontario, Canada. The method of data collection in the study was semi-structured one-on-one interviews. A total of six Somali refugee students were interviewed. The exploration into the participants’ experiences revealed that they faced many pre-migration challenges in refugee camps. Members of the school community, including educators, administrators, and students, have a major role to play in supporting Somali newcomers with their integration.
This paper reports on the postmigration experiences of a group of Somali refugee students attending public schools in a southwestern city in Ontario, Canada. The findings were drawn from a qualitative study conducted to investigate the participants’ postmigration experiences. Data were collected through semi-structured, one-on-one interviews with six participants. Study participants faced many postmigration learning difficulties and socio-cultural challenges. The findings show the strengths of the participants related to resiliency and perseverance. Educators, administrators, peer students, and members of the school community could play a central role in supporting Somali refugee students after resettlement. This paper proposes strategies and approaches to support educators and the school community in their work with refugee students of Somali background and other cultural backgrounds.
The purpose of this paper is to share and discuss our research findings on the experiences of Syrian refugee students in elementary public schools in a southwestern region of Ontario, Canada. We used Article 12 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child as a frame to guide this study. Data collection involved an anonymous questionnaire completed by the students. The majority of the students experienced interruptions to their education prior to resettlement in Canada. The students reported positive resettlement and socio-cultural experiences in Canada, however, some of them faced difficulties with their learning.
Key words: Syrian refugee students; resettlement; school experiences in Canada
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