Paradoxes of Sahrawi refugees' educational migration: promoting self-sufficiency or renewing dependency?

A Systematic Review of International Higher Education Scholarships for Students From the Global South

“…In one example, Koda and Yuki (2013) raised the question of whether Japanese aid spent on overseas scholarships—with funding thereby going to universities in the host countries—is as beneficial as funding twinning programs, where students do not move but receive international credentials; they found that Malaysian employers did not seem to discriminate against those who had received an international credential but had remained in Malaysia to earn it. Fiddian-Qasmiyeh (2011) pointed out that one of the goals of educational aid for refugees is to reduce dependency on aid, but that the results of a study on Algerian Sahrawi refugees who studied in Cuba showed that scholarship graduates left the community, sending remittances from abroad, and “ultimately reshaping and reinforcing, rather than reducing, the Sahrawi refugee camps’ dependence upon Western aid providers” (p. 433).…”

“…Well-trained scholarship alumni were also able to find better employment options in a third country—thereby circumventing the goal to build bilateral relations between home and host countries altogether. As an example, Fiddian-Qasmiyeh (2011) pointed to the case of a Cuban scholarship program that provided scholarships to Sahrawi refugees living in camps in Algeria, with Cuba aiming to show solidarity with this group and build self-sufficiency through the development of skills. However, findings from this study show that many of the trained graduates looked for better-paying employment outside of the community, either in Europe or with international organizations.…”

Refugees’ Transnational Livelihoods and Remittances: Syrian Mobilities in the Middle East Before and After 2011

“…Most programmes fail because they do not provide enabling conditions for refugee labour, overlooking weak host economies and, importantly, displaced populations’ lack of rights ( Easton-Calabria and Omata 2018 ). Instead of enhancing refugees’ self-sufficiency, they might create more complicated relationships of economic dependency ( Fiddian-Qasmiyeh 2011 ) and benefit poor locals more than refugees ( Carpi 2017 ). What is more, displaced people’s perspectives and aspirations are so far largely absent from the design of livelihoods programmes ( Barbelet and Wake 2017 ).…”

“What is the Point of School Anyway?”: Refugee Youth, Educational Quality, and Resettlement Tunnel Vision

“…This study contributes to this scholarship by pointing to the limitations of quality learning environments in contexts where the future life chances of refugee students are already predetermined by the structural barriers that texture their home, community, and host country environments (Madziva and Thondhlana 2017). Earlier scholarship suggests that school quality, individual effort, and even academic success amount to little in contexts where students’ chances are circumscribed by the barriers that surround them (Bajaj 2009; Fiddian‐Qasmiyeh 2011; Jeffrey 2010). This study confirms that a quality learning environment is simply not enough to overcome all of the other systemic inequities that texture life in displacement contexts.…”