Adult education and migrations: Migrants a mixed bag?

The right to education is a fundamental human right. Nevertheless, there are many children, girls and boys, who do not have the luxury to enjoy this right. And not just children, also adults belonging to various social groups – underprivileged, marginalised – are deprived of possibilities to satisfy their human rights.

The papers in this issue come from two international conferences organised by Policy Studies in Adult Education, a network of the European Society for the Research in the Education of Adults. One was held in Verona in 2017, another in Prague in 2019. The Verona conference focussed on ‘Equity, Social Justice and Adult Education and Learning Policy’ while the Prague one centred on ‘Adult Education and Learning Policy in a World Risk Society’. And, discussing adult education, educational or learning policies and risk society, one cannot but recognise the burning issue of our time – migrations and especially migrants.

In 2017 it was said that the word of the year 2016 was ‘migration’. Years passed but the word remains in the vocabulary and everyday use throughout Europe reminding populations that the issue is not solved and that the problems remain.

Migration of people is not a new occurrence. It can be seen as far back as the Bible reaches or even before that time. People were moving from Africa to Americas and to Europe because of various reasons, either because of climate change, hunger, wars or acquisition of new, fertile lands. Some of these reasons are still valid today. Today’s migrations are arising from economic, political and personal reasons – personal reasons including economic, educational and lifesaving situations (refugees – fleeing from situations detrimental to their lives and the lives of their families). This last group seems to be the one causing a lot of concern in countries they are fleeing to, including European Union. The question is how these countries deal with issues regarding migrants’ education, social and civic rights.

European Statistics sees migration as ‘influenced by a combination of economic, environmental, political and social factors: either in a migrant’s country of origin (push factors) or in the country of destination (pull factors)'. Historically, the ‘relative economic prosperity and political stability of the EU are thought to have exerted a considerable pull effect on immigrants’ (Eurostat Statistics Explained, 2019, p. 1).

UNESCO determines that ‘migration is recognised to be a powerful tool for development when managed by “humane, fair and well governed migration policies,”’ as stressed by the UN Global Migration Group (GMG). ¹ ‘In large part, it is the social, cultural, economic and political context in which the movement of people takes place which largely determines whether migration translates into increased opportunities and well-being or deprivation and vulnerability’. ² Nevertheless, migration is also an issue to be dealt with when it is on a larger scale. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development stresses the need to empower people who are vulnerable which migrants and refugees are and believed to be, and this empowerment can be achieved also by ‘providing inclusive and equitable quality education at all levels … irrespective of sex, age, race, ethnicity, and persons with disabilities, migrants …’ (United Nations, 2015, p. 6).

According to the report on the Migration Flow to Europe, ³ the estimated and registered number of new arrivals to Europe in 2019 has reached 128,536 people while it was higher in 2016 – 175,056 – and in 2018 – 188,732. The diminished number of arrivals in 2019 was probably due to the restrictive policy of the European Union. Statistics from the same office indicate that in the period from January to December 2019 the majority of migrants came from Afghanistan (22%), the Syrian Arab Republic (14%), Morocco (8%), Iraq (6%) and Algeria (5%). It has to be mentioned that not all data are available as yet. When they are, the number of migrants and asylum seekers will probably be higher. Data show that by the end of 2019, more than 211,000 migrants and asylum seekers were accommodated in Albania, Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Cyprus, Greece, Italy, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia and Kosovo. However, the migrants will not remain in these countries. They will be either returned back to their countries of origin or will find ways to proceed to their intended destinations.

Nevertheless, migrants raise different feelings and expectations as well as fears in countries they migrate to, and these might stretch from acceptance to anxiety. In case of anxiety, Papademetriou and Banulescu-Bogdan (2016, p. 1) point out five contextual factors:

Flows that outpace the preparation, and hence ability, of a country or local community to receive them …

Economic concerns that lead to the perception of immigrants as competitors for scarce resources and opportunities …

Shifts in public values or community identity …

Acts of terrorism, crime, and violation of immigration rules that become associated with an immigrant group …

Lost trust in the ability of policymaker to control inflows and deliver successful integration policies …

Further on, the authors draw attention as to what the policy makers should be aware of and should consider in their application of immigration policy. Though not universal, they are, according to Papademetriou and Banulescu-Bogdan (2016, p. 1), the following:

Being mindful of how integration fits into national narratives …

Ensuring that new arrivals, immigrants already present in the country, and their descendants are positioned for success …

Making the public feel its concerns have been heard …

Finding balance between accommodation, adaptation, and restriction in managing integration in a context of anti-immigration sentiment …

Involving a range of stakeholders in the immigration and integration process …

Looking at what has been written and accepted within the European Union policy papers (European Commission, 2017; The Commission to the European Parliament, the European Council and the Council, 2017), one can more or less identify similar issues, though compartmentalised under various items which have to be addressed. One can maybe feel that European Union issues are much more geared towards the economic outcomes of immigration though one can nevertheless recognise that economic success of the migrants ⁴ is a sure pathway to economic and social integration, as observed by Papademetriou and Banulescu-Bogdan (2016).

Turning back to the data gathered by the Human Rights Watch for March 2017, more than 55% of migrants originate from countries where wars, repressive regimes and violence reign. Among those coming to the shores of Greece, Italy, to Germany and other European countries were teachers, doctors, professionals, students, children to name but a few. Their lives are changed by their experiences. Coming to another place, another culture puts them in a different, often unequal, position. And it is expected from the country they migrated to put up such policy that would ensure their social, political and economic equality.

Papers in this Special Issue present research and analysis dealing with implications of migration and migrants on policy studies in adult education and lifelong learning in the European countries. The seven contributors come from different European countries, and their research unveils some of the possible answers to the questions concerning integration of migrants. As papers reveal, the issue of migrants is a long-term one and in answering it one has to tackle education and learning, their living conditions, security, the issue of multiculturalism taking into account there are events which help them to find their or their children’s ways in the new countries and societies.

In her paper Migration, pluralism and ‘Earth consciousness’: Some reflections starting from Ettore Gelpi’s thought, Veronica Riccardi explores the concept of Gelpi’s intercultural education. The well-known expert on lifelong learning was able to go beyond the local and national boundaries of the individual issues thus showing how people can proceed in an ever-changing world.

At the same time, there is an attempt to elicit the thematic connections that show how adult education is being advanced in different locales; to explore how adult education is configuring the migrant, whether analyses are contributing to the perspective of stasis or movement. The paper argues that when stasis conceptions of adult education predominate, these may contribute to the multiple aspects of refugees and asylum seeker settlement difficulties in re-establishing their lives in the new host country.

In their essay Adult education and migration in Cyprus: A critical policy analysis, Maria Gravani, Christina Chinas and Pavlos Chatzopoulos argue that migration as a political process and migrants as political subjects or as active participants in the educational process are largely absent from the adult education system in the Cypriot context. The paper attempts to inquire on this absence by offering a critical analysis of key policy texts and proposals as well as prominent programmes and initiatives that have shaped the transformations of adult education in Cyprus. They feel it is important to reflect on the gaps, mishaps and silences of Cypriot educational policies in relation to the challenges posed by migration in the era of globalised mobility as well as it is also critical to highlight the connections between adult education policies and the formulation of the state’s policy towards migration in general and its concrete initiatives towards fostering a politics of integration.

However, the lack of a national policy on the education of adult migrants in Cyprus does not mean that migrants are totally excluded from the educational process. They are still eligible to attend educational programmes offered to adults by the Cypriot state, and are particularly encouraged, through a system of incentives, to enrol in courses teaching Modern Greek as a second language. Nevertheless, the paper argues that this confines adult migrants to a position where they cannot play a significant role in co-shaping how adult learning is organised, structured and implemented.

Integration is more than work and school: It consists of socio-political participation as well, argue Anke Grotlüschen, Svetlana Chachasvili-Bolotin, Lisanne Heilmann and Gregor Dutz, in the paper Beyond literacy and language provision: Socio-political participation of migrants and language minorities in five countries from PIAAC R1/R2. Although migrants do not usually have citizen’s rights, they do have an opinion on whether they ‘have a say’ in the host or dominant society. This expression, often used in surveys, was also used in the Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC), which is the starting point of the research for the authors. They chose Austria, Canada, Germany, Israel and the USA to analyse variables on political efficacy and volunteering as indicators for socio-political participation. By using post-colonial and multiple literacy approaches, the authors examined whether migrants and language minorities felt heard and established that first-generation migrants in the researched countries feel low political efficacy and are excluded from volunteering. But with literacy proficiency, many effects for political efficacy disappear.

In the paper Second generation youth in Italy and their path to adulthood. Who is supporting them? Paola Dusi and Inmaculada González-Falcón reveal a situation which leads to disadvantage. Data analysed on second-generation Italian migrant youth aggregate around certain issues: the denial of recognition; belonging and identity; isolation. In addition to decrying the isolation that ‘differentness’ brings, the data highlight the importance of family and school as primary and secondary agents of socialisation. Parents represent a constant adult presence, but they do not always possess adequate resources and strategies to support their children effectively through the affiliation process. School, meanwhile, is the place where children of migrants discover they are ‘different’, and represents something of a ‘mixed bag’.

For many migrants, Nordic countries are their target as has, for many decades, been Sweden which is the focus of Milena Öbrink Hobzová’s paper on Language Courses as a Tool of Integration of Immigrants in Sweden – their history and current development. Her research shows that one of the important tools for the integration of newcomers are the language classes called ‘Svenska för invandrare’ (Swedish for Immigrants (SFI)). The paper looks at how SFI has developed to respond to changes in attitudes to integration and to migration patterns since the 1960s and analyses the challenges the system is currently facing. The author outlines the development of language courses, explores the criticism against the current model and discusses the current state of affairs. Based on the official documents and statistics in order to draw a picture of the system itself, analysing the contemporary situation with the help of up-to-date sources, reports and newspaper articles the author shows that Sweden, often used as a model state for its integration policy, has limitations concerning this type of education.

In their paper Adult Education and migration in Scotland: Policies and practices for inclusion, Bonnie L Slade and Nicola Dickson argue that there are not enough data on participation of migrants and refugees in adult learning and education. New empirical research and analysis on the broad adult learning and education policy framework for refugees and asylum seekers in Scotland gives new insights on the matter. The authors show that Scotland has responded to the migration ‘crisis’ in Europe through various coordinated policies that explicitly promote inclusion for refugees and asylum seekers. Drawing on Schweisfurth’s Learner-Centred Education framework, they present qualitative data on four aspects of community-based ‘English for Speakers of Other Languages’: motivation, fluid nature of knowledge in the classroom, flexible delivery of provision and friendly classroom relations. Findings revealed evidence of good practice, skilled provision of community-based English for Speakers of Other Languages and underfunding which in the future might undermine its promise.

Another concrete initiative to foster the policy of integration is the one shown in Adult education for a change: Advocacy, learning festivals, migration, and the pursuit of equity and social justice contributed by Alan Tuckett who explores the use of learning festivals and Adult Learners’ Weeks as tools of advocacy in seeking policy change on behalf of under-represented groups, and considers their impact on public policy affecting adult learners. The paper includes an analysis of the relationship between the development of festivals and policy change affecting adult learners through Adult Learners’ Weeks in the United Kingdom after 1992, exploring in particular the role of the Week in affecting policy, participation and inter-communal understanding arising from increased migration.

The contributions in the Special Issue invite to consider the approaches to adult education through the prism of equity and social justice accessible to first and second generation of migrants as well as to refugees. They also give an insight into how the issue of migration and migrants as well as their education is tackled in some European countries. They might induce researchers to undertake similar research in their respective countries or help policy makers to understand their role in shaping adequate policies according to the research results.

Papers presented here remind the reader that the world is becoming smaller and smaller, issues in one part of the world are shared in the other part and that communication, sharing and understanding these issues is a path towards a better migration, education and learning policy not to mention better understanding of contradictions in the globalized world and among different nations and cultures.