Book Review: Adult Learning in a Migration Society

Part 1

Chapters 2–4, showcase migrant stories, challenging countries to offer adequate programs and resources during migration. Finnegan’s counter-publics help migrants overcome inequality and alienation, developing new educational strategies through cautious use of social media. Beck and Gelardi challenge the Bavarian Integration Law, explaining migrantization could lead to an academic postcolonial approach. West continues with collaborative learning and migrant impactful sharing, bringing awareness of educational inequalities for migrants.

Part 2

Chapters 5–8 assert migrants need to master languages in a new country through impactful transformation (Freire, Schugurensky). Barkoglou and Gravani further demonstrate that adapting migrants require language learning and accurate information. Rawinski later focuses on senior Polish refugees’ sense of belonging through his biographical approach. Jogi and Umarik include culture shock narratives in Estonia like Elias decreasing xenophobia while language learner, Fatima, fails to start her business. Cyprus and Malta are compared in their effective comprehensive migrant educational provisions while using language programs to mediate democratic and active citizenship during migration.

Part 3

Continuing, migrants’ sense of belonging encourages volunteers to advocate and acknowledge migrants’ memories in community transformation. In Chapters 9–10, foreign education programs should support learners’ individual agency more and acknowledge that sensobiographic walks’ can create connection, healing, and continue to change social and cultural systems. Additionally, volunteer transformative learning is presented at migrant relief organizations. Finally, through Holocaust education, Beck confronts contradictions between Israel and Poland in the collaboration or complicity in Nazi crimes, questioning whether a Polish national narrative can be legally protected, even if hiding historical realities.

Part 4

The last chapters present informal dialogue and narratives, enabling individuals to cope during migration. Clough and Fraser claim fictionalization illuminates immigrant complexity, nuance, and trauma. Alexa and West use autobiographical narratives to alleviate migrants’ inner turmoil. Luraschi and Finnegan use reflective dialogue during movement, displaying that in-depth accounts of personal experience are rich sources of knowledge and history as complex forms of economic and symbolic domination. Finnegan’s Irish family repeats anti-Irish slurs while Silvia recounts contradicting memories between welcoming migrants versus migrants feeling lonely and unsupported by locals.

Overview

Many approaches in the text have no clear procedure that improves the migration process. Although transformative education continually changes, leaders, staff, volunteers, and participants should utilize an immigrant’s skills effectively. For example, using reflective dialogue during movement and recognizing that materialism and consumerism are hindrances for migrants locating impactful employment. These examples were well-developed and allowed readers to incorporate ideas in their professional communities. It would be intriguing to use these approaches for migration education in and around border towns between Mexico and America.

Also, expanding on volunteers’ contradicting perceptions of a well-functioning constitutional state during migration could be beneficial. Which constitutional standards are realistic across all nations, especially when the constitutional standard concerning migration is unrefined in America? Also, there were differences in volunteer learning between those willing versus those required to volunteer at migrant organizations. It would have been interesting to record a migrant’s learning through their intrinsic and extrinsic motivation during migration.

Contributors could include thoughts on singularity from Mark Losonez as many considered the Holocaust shameful, eliminating discourse on Jews, historical happenings, and denying the Holocaust even existed (Losoncz, 2016). Including spaces of reflective dialogue through movement and steps to allow the experiences and memories of migrants to shape history were very helpful and could easily include reflection using John A. Henschke’s mention of agape love (Henschke, 2021). Immigrant programs can create safe spaces for migrants to flourish in their new communities using his approach.

This edited book is written for practitioners, student researchers, natives, and refugees. The style of the book is optimistic and unconventional. Many approaches are an informal, open space for reflective dialogue that suits the audience. Authors created awareness of migration efforts while preventing bias and negativity. Readers will understand how to collaborate with migrants, adapt to changes surrounding migration, as well as use methods for integration.