Education, Immigration and Migration: Policy, Leadership and Praxis for a Changing World

Problematizing the Social in Social Justice Education

“…The unprecedented movement of people across borders and boundaries in recent years is the result of historical global changes, including the attraction of migrants from less developed states to more developed ones, but also the movement of refugees and migrants escaping wars, natural disastersmany wrought by climate changeand discriminatory and oppressive regimes and unimaginable hardships in their native lands (Arar et al, 2019;Waite, 2016).…”

“…One benefit of this is that each has an opportunity to learn from their other, a newcomer or stranger (Simmel, 1950). Yet there are those in some host states who project migrants, refugees, and displaced persons as a threat to the integrity and cohesion of their racialized national identity and resist the integration of the other, sometimes violently, and who build walls or other barriers to keep people out and put sanctions in place to fend off those people they construe as the enemy and as a pestilence (Arar et al, 2019;Waite & Swisher, 2019).…”

The imposition of government education policy initiatives and school enactment: uncovering the responses of school principals

“…Recent global developments such as the crises in the Arab world and their impact on the refugee crisis; the Brexit crisis; and the introduction of Mercantile law by the US impacting China and the movement of goods around the world are some of the major political developments causing turbulence. The impact of crises and the chaos they create have direct and indirect repercussions for education (Arar, Brooks, and Bogotch 2019). Although these political, economic and social disruptions may be regionally based, the growing interconnectedness of the world means these developments have rapid repercussions internationally.…”

“…Government imposed changes are accompanied by several pitfalls, which impede their implementation and, consequently, their success. First, governments have adjusted education policies by attempting to realign educational priorities to meet what they perceive to be the imperatives of national needs and/or globalisation, imposing never-ending reforms on education systems, and engendering turbulent changes (Arar, Brooks, and Bogotch 2019;Darling-Hammond and Rothman 2013). At the same time, the hierarchical control of education by governments has not impacted social mobility in any discernible way for groups marginalised by poverty, their race or ethnicity, their gender, if students are recognised as having special needs, or any protected characteristics identified in the Declaration of Human Rights (Taysum and Arar 2018;UNICEF 1948).…”

Understanding leadership for refugee education: introduction to the special issue

“…As educational researchers, we cannot remain indifferent to this state of global crisis regarding the immigration patterns and the growing adverse political and social frictions. Our fellow human beings are suffering prejudice, racism and alienation (Arar, Brooks, & Bogotch, 2019;Brooks & Watson, 2019). What is to be our response?…”